F A Q
- What makes community acupuncture different than other acupuncture?
- Is acupuncture's effectiveness just a placebo effect?
- Education
- Your Practitioners - a mother and daughter team.
- What Does Acupuncture Feel Like?
- I have had acupuncture before. Is it all the same?
- Acupuncture is a PROCESS.
- What makes community acupuncture different than other acupuncture?
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Most US acupuncturists treat patients on tables in individual treatment rooms and charge anywhere from $45-$200 a treatment. This is not traditional in Asia, where acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting. At Healthy Community Acupuncture we use recliners, clustered in groups in an open, quiet and soothing space. This allows you to have a better treatment and allows us to make acupuncture affordable to you. Treating patients in a community setting has many benefits: it’s easy for friends and family members to come in for treatment together; many patients find it comforting; and a collective energetic field becomes established which actually makes individual treatments more powerful.
In some styles of acupuncture, the needles are removed after only a few minutes or after a half hour at most. The style of acupuncture we practice in our clinic allows patients to keep their needles in as long as they want, and the “right” amount of time varies from patient to patient. It’s up to you and your body. Many people fall asleep, and wake feeling refreshed.
Healthy Community Acupuncture is part of a growing nation-wide movement of community supported acupuncture clinics. For more information or to locate a clinic in your area, go to Community Acupuncture Network.
- Is acupuncture's effectiveness just a placebo effect?
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No. Acupuncture has been widely used to treat a variety of domestic animals. In Japan, it is regularly used with success to treat racehorses. These animals are immune to the placebo effect and to the psychosomatic element of therapy. This means that it is the insertion of needles into specific points itself that works. Any form of medicine has a placebo component, including modern medicine.
- Education
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A four year masters with three years clinical concurrent is required which is followed by a state board exam. When these requirements are met acupuncturists are given the designation L.Ac. and are licensed to practice acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine in the state of California.
- Your Practitioners - a mother and daughter team.
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Ida Candelaria MT, HHP, L.Ac. has been practicing for over 13 years. A graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, she also did a 2 yr residency with Dr. Yitan Ni and Misha Cohen L.Ac. Ida holds a certification in Hepatitis C treatment and specializes in women’s medicine and infertility. A few of her patients call her the “baby maker.” But all of her patients know she’s good at treating just about everything.
Michelle Marcotte BA, MT, HHP, L.Ac. has been practicing for over 7 years and in just the last year has seen over 1,300 patients! Also a graduate of Pacific College, Michelle was hired just after graduation to be part of the Pacific College faculty. She left soon after, however, to begin southern California’s first community supported acupuncture clinic. Michelle specializes in psychological and emotional disorders and loves treating kids. Her passion is community acupuncture.
- What Does Acupuncture Feel Like?
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Most often you won’t feel the needles when they’re inserted. Sometimes there is a small pricking or aching sensation. Talk to us about what you are feeling. If you have any questions before or after needle insertion, ask and if something hurts or is uncomfortable tell us and we’ll take the needle out immediately. Once the needles are inserted it’s time to relax and acupuncture itself will assist you with that, so you can heal. If you’re not good at relaxing, don’t worry after just a few treatments you will get quite good at it.
- I have had acupuncture before. Is it all the same?
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No. Our techniques are Japanese and Chinese. Most acupuncturists in North America use Chinese acupuncture techniques only. All acupuncture is different. There are variations in approach even within Japanese acupuncture techniques. If you have tried acupuncture before and a) it didn't achieve the results you were hoping for or b) you didn't like it, we would still recommend you try our treatments.
- Acupuncture is a PROCESS.
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It is very rare for any acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for a chronic condition could be acupuncture every other day for three months! Most of our patients don’t need that much acupuncture. But virtually every patient needs a course of treatment, rather than a single treatment, in order to get what they want from acupuncture. Your acupuncturist will suggest a course of treatment based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions. This can be anything from “we’d like to see you once a week for six weeks” to “we’d really like to see you every day for the next four days.” If you don’t come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won’t work for you. The purpose of our fee scale (link to fee scale) is to help you make that commitment. We need you to commit to the process of treatment in order to get good results.