FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
A one hour acupuncture treatment sessions costs $80.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
During the first visit, we’ll dedicate more time at the beginning to better understand what areas to focus on, discuss your health history, and learn how you are doing currently. While having this information written down will help, it is important to me that you are able to express what your priorities are and what outcomes you would like to see happen. Subsequent visits will usually have shorter intakes so that we can devote more time to treatment. Next, we’ll go through several diagnostics which will help guide the diagnosis and treatment. These may include visual inspection of the tongue, feeling the pulse on both wrists, and palpation of the abdomen. These diagnostics provide information on the various “organ-systems” in our medicine. I have extensive training in several “styles” of acupuncture and I’ll use my best judgment to tailor the treatment to your needs. For many people, “Japanese acupuncture” will be effective as it tends towards thinner needles and more shallow insertions, including non-insertive techniques (“touching needle” or Hari-style). For others, they may find “Chinese acupuncture” more effective, and this style tends towards thicker needles and deeper insertions to obtain the “de qi” sensation (often described by patients as an ache, soreness, numbness, tingling, fullness, pressure, or heaviness). Generally speaking, my clinical experience indicates that Japanese acupuncture is more gentle but just as effective as Chinese acupuncture. Depending on how much time we have, we may treat the front, back, or both the front and back of your body. The most convenient and efficient way of accessing acupuncture points is when you are lying on your back or on your belly, but we can certainly accommodate you if you are more comfortable lying on your side (for example, if you have back pain or are pregnant). At the end of the treatment, we’ll strive to come up with some easy way of marking your progress so that we’ll both know whether the treatment is having a positive change.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I am a graduate of Harvard College (BA in Sociology) and the New England School of Acupuncture/MCPHS University, where I graduated with a Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. This is the most comprehensive degree available at NESA, where I studied Chinese and Japanese acupuncture styles and Chinese herbal medicine, providing more than 400 treatments to 150 patients during my clinical internship. I continue to study, practice, and refine Hari-style acupuncture under Sensei T. Koei Kuwahara. I've completed over 350 hours of training under his direct supervision. I also practice tai chi, qigong, and meditation, as taught by Bruce Frantzis. These practices were by far the biggest influence in encouraging me to learn and apply these healing arts. Previously, I was a teacher and Executive Director at Brookline Tai Chi.