What To Expect

Your First Visit: Step by Step

Before Your Appointment

To help you feel comfortable and get the most out of your first acupuncture session, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Eat before your appointment. Please make sure you’ve had breakfast, lunch, or a light snack before your appointment. You don’t want to have a session on an empty stomach—it helps your body respond better to treatment.
Don’t brush your tongue that day. We’ll be analyzing your tongue during the intake process, so it’s important that the natural coating is left undisturbed. Skip brushing or scraping your tongue before your session.
Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothing. You’ll want to wear something that allows easy access to the arms and legs. Great options include palazzo pants, flowy skirts, or pants that roll above the knee. Sleeves should be loose enough to pull up above the elbow. This helps us get to the areas we need without making you change clothes.
Decide on a comfortable place in your home or office for your treatment. We will travel to you and treat you in the comfort of your own space. Treatment is most often done in a reclining chair but can also be done in bed if necessary. If possible, a calm environment, free of visual and auditory distractions, is recommended.

Your Intake: Beginning The Journey to Wellness

Your first appointment will last around an hour and a half. We start with an in-depth intake, which takes about 40 minutes. We'll be asking you a lot of questions—some of which you’ve probably never been asked before! That’s because we look at the whole person, head to toe, and try to understand the full picture of your health. We want to find out which systems or patterns are out of balance so we can treat them effectively.

We'll go through your entire health history and ask detailed questions about how your body is functioning.
We'll check your tongue and pulse, and ask about how you've been feeling lately.

Based on what we find, we’ll come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan tailored to you.

Your First Treatment

After the intake, we’ll begin the acupuncture treatment. Often, the goal of this first session is often just to help you relax and begin opening up your body’s systems so they can start coming into balance.

We usually start with tiny pins in the ears—so small that you could fit 13 of them inside the bevel of a standard medical needle! They’re solid, sterile, single-use, and extremely gentle.
From there, we’ll use body points to get your blood and energy flowing.

Once the body is responding, we’ll treat whatever patterns we observed during your intake.

Most people feel incredibly relaxed by the end of their first or second session—that peaceful, floaty feeling when your body finally gets to let go. Some people have never truly felt relaxed before, and we might have you sit for a few minutes and ground yourself before heading out.

After the First Visit

You may experience a stronger response to the treatment in the day following the session.
Each follow-up visit will build on the last. We’ll check in with how your body has been responding, and we’ll make adjustments as needed.
Follow-up appointments tend to be shorter—about an hour, depending on your needs.
If your concern is acute, we might resolve it within a few sessions.
If it’s a long-standing condition (something you’ve had for years), it may take months of consistent care to bring your body back into balance.

Additional Therapies

During treatment, we may also incorporate other therapies based on your needs, such as:

Herbal medicine, including oral, topical treatments, and liniments or ointments, which we’ll explain in detail if I think it’s a good fit. We’ll go over what the herbs do, how they’re taken, and how they support your healing.
Cupping, a suction-based technique to help with stagnation. You may have seen the circular marks on Olympic swimmers—those aren’t bruises, they’re signs that stagnant energy is being pulled out.
Gua Sha, a gentle scraping method to improve circulation.
Gentle massage, when helpful.
Dietary and lifestyle guidance, which we may suggest depending on your pattern and presentation. Food is an important part of healing, and little changes can make a big difference.

This journey is about working with your body, not against it. Every treatment is personalized, and we’ll go at a pace that feels right for you. Acuheal Clinic is here to help you feel better, one step at a time on your journey to wellness.

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