Plan to arrive 10 minutes early at your first visit to give you a chance to fill out a medical history and some basic paperwork. The questions you’ll answer help us assess your general health and to understand the details of your main health concerns.

Other methods of diagnosis include taking your pulse at your wrists as well as feeling acupuncture points on the abdomen and back which correspond to various internal organs and energy pathways.

Your actual treatment follows this diagnosis and usually lasts 45 – 50 minutes. It may include moxibustion and shiatsu massage. As traditional acupuncture addresses the whole person, the arms, legs, abdomen, and back are usually all treated during the session, regardless of where your specific health complaint or symptoms are located.

For most conditions, treatment is scheduled once per week. You’ll likely notice positive changes within the first few visits. In more acute cases or severe conditions, more frequent treatments may be advisable.

As the condition improves, treatments can be gradually spaced further apart. Many people choose to come in on a monthly basis to keep up their good health and for general maintenance.

Most extended health insurance policies cover acupuncture. Check with your provider for the individual details of your plan.

Lower income patients may have part of their treatment covered by the BC Medical Services Plan. Please see the MSP page for more information.

Traditional Japanese acupuncture is distinguished by 3 main features:

• 1. The acupuncture techniques are extremely gentle yet effective. Japanese acupuncture is particularly suited for sensitive people, including children.
  2. Japanese acupuncture palpation, or the sense of touch, in both diagnosis and treatment is emphasized. The abdomen and the pulses on the wrists are frequently checked during the treatment to give immediate feedback on how the session is progressing and to provide guidance for further actions.
  3. The emphasis in Japanese acupuncture is on improving a person’s overall constitution. This is perhaps the most important element in the unique approach of Traditional Japanese acupuncture, where all disease is viewed as originating from an energetic deficiency in the body.Regardless of the person’s symptoms, a large portion of treatment is focused on treating this “root” deficiency. By strengthening this “weakest link”, the entire person is brought into a healthier state of balance. People often comment on how other symptoms they forgot to mention have also improved, in addition to the greater sense of well-being they begin to enjoy.

In Japan, acupuncture (along with massage) was a profession mainly reserved for blind people. As a result, many time tested and long standing healthcare techniques which rely on the sense of touch were developed and refined by practitioners of Traditional Japanese Medicine.