Acupuncture is a good place for anyone with a chronic health problem to start their road to recovery. There are no invasive medical procedures, no pharmaceuticals with debilitating side effects and there are no forceful manipulations involved. There are repeatable results though. If you go to the right acupuncturist in addition to acupuncture you can learn additional information that will help you resolve your chronic health issue. Information such as how emotions play a role in physical health problems and vice versa, how to eat therapeutically and how to exercise to name a few. There is an issue with seeking the right acupuncture practitioner though. Many are not as dedicated to advancing their practice of medicine to healing their patient as they are to devising strategies to retain you as their patient for as long as they can in a manner similar to chiropractic practice. Locally in this area of Stuart, Florida there are practitioners who will want to impress you with claims or credentials that have nothing to do with their ability to help you find enough resolution to your problem as to not even need their services anymore. This should be the goal of every medical practitioner.
I will point some of these out to you so that you may be aware of them and able to make more informed choices in the future.
First is a claim that a practitioner was Yale trained. There is no acupuncture taught at Yale. This person is referring to their undergraduate degree, not their graduate degree in acupuncture. This is designed to impress people who think that because a person attended an ivy league school they are of a superior mind, but while they may be intelligent they are not superior. It may be more of a case that their parents could afford to put them on a track towards gaining entry into a highly competitive educational institution. It does not say that their education makes then a superior practitioner. You do not know this until they are out of school and practicing.
The second claim I see often is that a practitioner is New York City trained. As if that really means something. The fact that there is even a school of acupuncture in NYC is impressive at all. The center of acupuncture training in the United States is the West Coast of the United States. That is where all the best schools are. That is where most of the best teachers are. NYC is a remote and distant outpost of acupuncture education at most.
Another claim made to try to impress people is that the practitioner has a doctorate in acupuncture. These are bloated more expensive educational programs that schools put together to suck more money out their students. They cannot make a difference in their ability to make a practitioner more clinically effective because they do not increase their time seeing patients. The way a practitioner becomes more effective clinically is to see a ton of patients over years while learning new therapeutic modalities on their own. Many of these doctorate programs are correspondence programs which are basically production line degree programs. You go online and do their coursework and then you get their degree. how can you get a doctorate from a school in Oregon when you lived the whole time in Florida/
Also beware of practitioners who sell Multi-level-marketing products to you such as essential oils or supplements. That is not putting the patient first.
There are also some practitioners who will offer concierge type services. They are a personal experiment by the practitioner and it remains to be seen if this experiment will be successful for either the practitioner or the patient. This is a trendy option for those who have more money than they know what to do with and want to simply buy something that no one else would buy.
Then there is the practitioner who demands a $3000 retainer fee before treatment can start. This in necessary and a real indication of placing the practitioner’s best interests before the patient’s. Acupuncture should be affordable. There should be a fee system that promotes affordability so the patient can get many treatments for their health in order to get the full potential from acupuncture. Getting only a few expensive treatments undercuts the full potential that acupuncture can provide in the treatment of chronic disease.
So what should you look for when seeking acupuncture treatment?
- Look for a fee structure that is designed for you to be able to get acupuncture 1 or even twice a week without draining your disposable income.
- Seek clinicians who treat large number of patients every day. They are the ones who are more highly experienced and skilled. A practitioner who takes 8 hours to see 8 patients is not as adept as one who can see 16 patients in 4 hours. This is the way it is in China and it is the same here.
- Be wary of high priced practitioners. In acupuncture you do not always get what you pay for. A lower priced visit from a more highly skilled practitioner is definitely available in this town.
- In relation to number 3 check the google ratings for each practitioner. They are available by looking up their clinic on GOOGLE.
- Be suspect of any practitioner who presents you with credentials of a doctorate in Acupuncture as a basis for charging more. You are not getting more.
- Also be suspicious of any practitioner who offers Multi-Level-Marketing supplements or essential oils on a subscription basis. Their job is to put your best interests first not theirs.
- Look for a clinic that is open at hours you can come in to reduce the stress of changing your schedule to obtain treatment. Look for one that offers Saturday hours and several evening shifts if you work during the day.
- If you definitely do not have the funds for treatment then ask if there is pro bono treatments available at that clinic. You should not have to deprive yourself of necessary services to get treatment. At Treasure Coast Community Acupuncture we offer pro-bono treatments to those that truly need it, but have no means to pay for it.
- Look for a clinic that puts the patient first.
