Frequently Asked Questions
What style of acupuncture do you practice?
Dr. Jen practices a blended style of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Kiiko Matsumoto-Nagano style acupuncture. In treatments she will look at your tongue, feel your pulse, and palpate on the abdomen and other parts of the body as needed.
What is acupuncture?
Thin needles are inserted into specific points on the body to stimulate physical or emotional healing. The number of needles used and location of needles may vary between treatment sessions. Acupuncture does not hurt; however, you may experience De Qi - a feeling of slight heaviness, tingling, or numbness.
What is moxa?
Acupuncture is a safe alternative treatment for physical or emotional ailments: anxiety, depression, autoimmune conditions, infertility, PCOS, endometriosis, irregular menstruation, menopause, withdrawal and addiction, smoking cessation, common cold, flu, morning sickness, arthritis, fibromyalgia, post-stroke, Bell’s Palsy, high blood pressure, lower back and other types of pain, etc.
What is Reiki?
A Japanese healing technique - Rei meaning “higher power” and ki meaning “life force energy”. Reiki promotes physical, mental, and spiritual healing through light touch and the practitioners hands are placed on or above varying locations. Ki or Qi, flows within the human body through the meridians, chakras, and nadis and flows around our aura - our energy field. Health is the result of free flowing and balanced Ki, whereas, illness is the result of disrupted and weakened Ki. Ki flows to the organs and tissues of the physical body to nourish and promote balance. Reiki can work in harmony with other forms of healing therapy, and can also be complimentary to western medicine.
How many treatments will I need?
Everyone and their healing journey is unique and individual. Treatments can be broken down into Relief, Healing, and Maintenance stages. The Relief stage focuses on reducing symptoms; 1 to 4 treatments per week. Once symptoms have reduced, we then focus on Healing. The Healing stage corrects underlying problems; 1 to 2 visits per week. The final stage is Maintenance. This is considered a “tune up”, and helps maintain progress made in previous treatments; 2 to 4 visits per month or as needed.
What training and certifications must a licensed acupuncturist have?
Most states require a level of national certification by trained and licensed Acupuncturists. This governing body is known as NCCAOM, and this credential will often be placed behind a practitioners name. You may see it as NCCAOM Diplomate of Oriental Medicine or Acupuncture depending upon specific state requirements.
A Masters degree in Acupuncture and/or Chinese Medicine is the minimum requirement. This program is usually 4 to 6 years in length, unlike a traditional 2 year masters degree, and can include over 3,500 hours of training in herbal studies, diagnosis and treatment techniques, theory, acupuncture, biomedical clinical science, ethics, nutrition, clinical internship, etc.
Those acupuncturists who chose to advance their studies and earn their Doctorate will usually have DACM, DAc or DAOM following their name. This stands for Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Doctor of Acupuncture, and Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. This depends on the school attended.
Licensed Acupuncturists must also become licensed within their state of practice in addition to national certification. This varies state to state.