Welcome to Haven Community Acupuncture
What is Acupuncture and how does it work?
Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used systems of healing in the world. Originating in China some 4,000 years ago, only in the last three decades has it become popular in the United States.
Traditional Chinese medicine holds that there are as many as 2,000 acupuncture points on the human body, which are connected by 20 pathways called meridians. These meridians conduct energy, or qi (pronounced "chee"), between the surface of the body and its internal organs. Each point has a different effect on the qi that passes through it. Qi is believed to help regulate balance in the body. It is influenced by the opposing forces of yin and yang, which represent positive and negative energy and forces in the universe and human body. Acupuncture is believed to keep the balance between yin and yang, thus allowing for the normal flow of qi throughout the body and restoring health to the mind and body.
Recent technology has allowed us to look at what happens with the brain while getting acupuncture. Click here to read more.
What is Community Acupuncture?
Community Acupuncture is acupuncture in a group setting. Patients relax in reclining chairs, and distal points (primarily elbow to hand, knee to foot, and head) are used for treatment. We feel this is the ideal treatment setting for several reasons: by treating multiple patients at a time, the cost of the practitioner’s time can be shared, making acupuncture more affordable; the relaxing group environment allows for shared healing to occur. We like to think of it as a group nap.
Acupuncture treatments can provide: a deeply relaxing experience, alleviate pain, balance the digestive, immune, respiratory, reproductive and nervous systems, and activate the body’s innate healing mechanism. Chinese medicine is also preventative medicine. The Community Acupuncture clinic, where regular or frequent treatments are affordable for most incomes, presents an opportunity to benefit from regular treatment. People who come for routine “maintenance” treatments (once per month) report fewer illnesses, better sleep and digestion.
What does it cost?
We believe that access to healthcare should be a basic human right. Lack of access puts a strain on the individual, which leads to an eventual strain on the family, which in turn leads to a strain on our community as a whole.
The purpose of our sliding scale is to separate the issues of money and treatment; we want you to come in often enough to really get better and stay better! We understand that everyone’s situation is different, and our primary goal is to make acupuncture available to you as often as you need it.
As mentioned, we know that everyone has different financial circumstances, and we feel that your finances are your own business. That is why our scale is 'suggested'. You decide what you can afford.
Keep in mind that we also have families and financial obligations, so please pay what you can. This way you get the treatment that you need as often as you need it, and we get to keep providing it for you. We hope this will be a sustaining arrangement from which everyone benefits.
Support us and we can support you!
What is Acupuncture good for?
In an article from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2003, it states:
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment:
- Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
- Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
- Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
- Dysmenorrhoea (menstrual cramps)
- Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
- Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
- Headache
- Hypertension, essential
- Hypotension, primary
- Knee pain
- Low back pain
- Morning sickness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Neck pain
- Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
- Periarthritis of shoulder
- Postoperative pain
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sciatica
- Sprain
- Tennis elbow
Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials
(WHO; 2003; 87 pages)
For more about this article, click here!
