The best acupuncture style for you can be determined after consultation and/or throughout a treatment plan.
Please do not give up on this great art of healing too early!
Do continue to try & find your right fit if you are not completely satisfied here at More Than Needles - General Acupuncture.
Of course, try to stick to a treatment plan and give it a fair shot. No form of healing is a simple one-and-done.
What | General acupuncture with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at its heart, and a practitioner with a passion for complementary therapies along with needling.
General acupuncture can be performed for most patients and issues, while specialized acupuncture involves a specifically trained approach to particular issues. I am also using the word specialized as a sub-in for styles.
All acupuncturists are trained in general traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture in school curricula, and some who identify with different styles, like Japanese, can add that training as an elective. Further specializations can be acquired after the graduate program.
General acupuncture is still helpful for most conditions, but patients may be referred out to another acupuncture specialist in certain cases. Such as not seeing satisfactory results with general acupuncture alone, or if the practitioner is more comfortable with the patient in specialized care.
There are various styles of acupuncture, in different settings, with practitioners from all backgrounds and experience.
First things first. Dry needlers are not acupuncturists who are based in traditional Chinese medicine.
The public acceptance of acupuncture is growing! This means that now more than ever, Western practitioners are integrating it into their practice. Some go to acupuncture school and become LAc's themselves. Or some take a dry needling course to include it with their specialty of physical therapy, chiropractic, etc., sports therapy, etc.
The bottom line is a patient's health, always, and so is full disclosure. So the following comparison is not to dig at dry needlers and the integration into Western health, but to improve on the lack of public education in the acupuncture field.
Orthopedic:
A specialized form that blends traditional Chinese medicine with modern Western knowledge of anatomy, orthopedics, and sports medicine to treat muscle, joint, and nerve pain.
Pediatric:
Infants as young as 3 weeks old can undergo acupuncture therapy. Each treatment usually takes between 30 and 60 minutes.
Women's:
Acupuncture helps balance estrogen and progesterone levels, regulate menstrual cycles, and address conditions like PMS, PCOS, and irregular periods.
Cosmetic Facial:
A non-surgical cosmetic treatment that inserts ultra-fine needles into the face and body to stimulate collagen, boost circulation, and relax muscles.
Japanese:
Uses thinner needles, shallower insertions, and a heavy focus on touch (palpation) to diagnose and treat, making it ideal for sensitive patients.
Korean:
Focuses on the extremities like the hand or ear. Most of the standard acupuncture layouts in Korea use only four needles. In fact, Korean acupuncture is often called the ‘four-needle’ technique, or Sa-am technique, for this reason.
Master Tung Style:
Originating from Taiwan, this system uses unique distal points (often on the limbs) and uncommon channel combinations to achieve rapid results with fewer needles.
Herbalists
I wish I could be a one-stop shop and be educated and licensed in it to provide them to my patients, but alas, I am not.
Moxa and herbs are just as important as the needling is in TCM.
The American infrastructure does not support accessibility to moxa (modern architecture and ventilation accessibility issues) and herbs (a whole lot to unpack but not here).
There are still acupuncture clinics with herbalists that prescribe herbs though, but are you a good candidate for it?
