Choosing Acupuncture
Finding the right treatment and the right practitioner for you is both a specific and individualised choice that is a key step as you embark on your healing journey.
More and more people are turning to acupuncture for health and wellbeing. It is both a stand alone treatment and an integrative one - meaning it supports and complements other treatment methods whether that is another natural medicine approach - such as naturopathy, homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, or the conventional healthcare and pharmaceutical intervention (often when we have a diagnosed medical condition).
In terms of acupuncture it can be confusing when seeking who or where to go to.
Not all acupuncture is the same. This postis to help you differentiate and choose from an informed position.
Traditional Acupuncture is an entire system of medicine within it's own right. It originates from the East and is a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It pre dates our western system, known as allopathic medicine (western medicine/WM), by hundreds of years.
It is an established, sophisticated and fully integrated system in the Far East today. Health users there get to choose either or both western medicine or traditional Chinese medicine in their hospitals and doctors surgeries. How wonderful if we were to have that provision here in the western world!
In a nutshell. Traditional (TCM) acupuncture is a holistic medicine and can treat the whole spectrum of health conditions whether affecting our physical, mental-emotional or our overall spirit and vitality. These may or may not be diagnosed health conditions.
Vibrant health is something which we cultivate (like a garden) not prescribe or order. It is a process and not an event.
Traditional Acupuncture treats the individual and recognises their imbalances as 'patterns of disharmony' unique to them. It addresses the root and not the symptoms.
For those on a conscious path of good health and wellbeing, TCM acupuncture is also an approach which keeps the body in balance, helping to maintain the equilibrium we all need for our highest and best.
Whilst traditional acupuncturists (note the distinction, 'traditional acupuncturist' as opposed to 'acupuncturist') work within the TCM medical model, other health practitioners that use acupuncture, do not.
Clinicians such as osteopaths, physiotherapists, medical doctors use specific acupuncture needle techniques (taken from the traditional Chinese medicine system) within the parameters of their own medical model. This is also known as 'dry needling'.
What that all means is these health practitioners can treat pain conditions with acupuncture techniques but not health conditions affecting the whole body system. It is beyond the scope of their specialised acupuncture training to do so in this way.
Remember, Traditional Acupuncture can treat both pain and other health conditions (involving organ sytems) and mental-emotional patterns because it has a very specific system of medicine underpinning it. It looks at the body in a different way. Neither WM or TCM is better or less than the other. They are both long established systems rooted in scientific medical theory. Our conventional/ western medicine is an evidence based scientific approach. TCM is both an evidence based and an empirical (a method based on observation and experimentation) science .
Depending on whether you are looking for acupuncture to treat pain or a systemic health condition or your general wellbeing then that will help determine the route you take in choosing where to go for acupuncture.
If you are seeking treatment simply for pain (e.g. injury or chronic pain) then take your pick with dry needling - osteopathy, chiro, physio. Alternatively, TCM acupuncture treats just pain holistically. Make your own informed decision/prefence here.
If you are seeking treatment for more than just pain i.e. a diagnosed health condition, mental-emotional pattern or a preventative measure or you are consciously taking care in maintaining your vibrant health - then it is a traditional acupuncturist that you would need to see.
Appointments are available weekly at Honey Rooms. Find out more here
You can contact Teresa directly
t: 07726 512868
Feel free to reach out to Teresa with any Acupuncture questions, to schedule a consultation or drop by to have a chat with her.
