Frequently Asked Questions

I receive cash, checks, all credit cards, health savings account cards.

The time we schedule for your appointment is reserved just for you. If you do not show up or cancel with 24 hours or less notice, you are responsible for the full price of the missed appointment.

If this is your first appointment, please print out the health history and office policy forms below and bring them with you filled out. If you don’t have a printer, arrive at your scheduled time and you can fill them out here.

Wear loose, comfortable clothing. Arrive not too hungry and not too full. Try to avoid caffeine right before your appointment.

To allow the treatment to take hold, try to allow some time to gently integrate afterward. Hydrating and being kind with yourself as your body/being adjusts to the changes helps with this transition—gentle walks, healthy food, journaling, simple things. Avoid alcohol for the first 24 hours as your body is still adjusting.

The number of treatments needed will vary depending upon how long your symptoms have been present, your overall health, lifestyle, diet, and stress level.

Generally, the longer the symptoms have been present, the more treatments it will take to achieve lasting results. That said, people often begin to experience relief and an overall sense of wellbeing early in the treatment.

I often recommend an initial course of 4-8 treatments once a week, at which time we will re-evaluate and space future treatments according to how they are holding between treatments.

For on-going maintenance and prevention, each person will find a rhythm that works for them whether that’s once a week, twice a month, once a month, each seasonal shift, or as needed.

I am not a contracted insurance provider, but if your insurance pays for out-of-network providers for acupuncture, I can send you a super bill to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement.

You will need to contact them ahead of time to find out.

Look for credentials like L.Ac. or EAMP (East Asian Medical Practitioner). You can check your state’s health department website (like Washington State Department of Health) to confirm active licensure. You can also look for credentials like Dipl.Ac. (Diplomate of Acupuncture) which means they are credentialed through the National Certification Board of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (NCBAHN) who hold acupuncturists to the highest standards and require extensive continuing education.

In a relaxed, unrushed setting, I will take a thorough health history. We will discuss your main concerns and your goals for seeking care at this time.

After the initial intake, you will receive a full treatment based on Chinese Medicine diagnosis which includes tongue and pulse diagnosis, observation, and palpation.

Your treatment will include one or a combination of sterile, single use needles, moxibustion, cupping, guasha, essential oils, flower essences, acupressure.

Alchemical Acupuncture supports the healing journey at a deeper level than only the physical. Because it also works with spirit, psyche, and soul it is able to support transformative change for deeper, more chronic issues.

When working alchemically, people often experience a sense of connectedness to a larger identity beyond the personal. Places of deep wounding are tended, integrated, and honored for the wisdom they carry. Alchemical Acupuncture offers tools to care for the nervous system, ways to connect with the inner world, better understand the language of the body, and be able to respond to its wisdom with intention and care. Over time, by working alchemically, stuck states are able to transform into a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

Yes. Acupuncture can help reduce the intensity and duration of pain by reducing inflammation, stimulating circulation of blood and body fluids, releasing endorphins, modulating neurotransmitters, and calming the nervous system to help conditions such as back pain, neck pain, shingles, headaches, joint pain, post surgical pain, injury pain, fibromyalgia, menstrual pain.

Acupuncture can be used as stand alone treatment for pain, or as a complementary therapy along with other therapies like physical therapy, etc.