what can i expect?

When you arrive for your first treatment, you will be asked to complete a form with your contact details, medical history, current medications, and a few extra questions especially important for acupuncture treatment, such as whether you are a smoker, if you have high or low blood pressure, and whether you are pregnant.

Next you will consult with your acupuncturist, where you can tell her all about what has brought you in for acupuncture treatment. Your acupuncturist will attempt to get an overall view of your state of health by asking other questions that relate to different systems in the body, then looking at your tongue and feeling your pulse.

Then comes the best part - you lie down on the table and relax! If you are worried about the needles, make sure you tell your acupuncturist, and she will be extra mindful of your fear and help you through it. The style of acupuncture practiced by Juliet is extremely gentle, many patients don't even feel the needles go in.

Depending on your Chinese medical diagnosis, other therapies such as moxibustion (heating of acupuncture points or areas by burning mugwort), cupping, electro-acupuncture or massage may be applied.

The needles will stay in for about 10 - 20 minutes in total, while you rest on the table. Most people feel a sense of relaxation, and perhaps even mild euphoria as they lie back and the needles 'do their thing'. Many report getting up feeling lighter and rested at the end of a treatment.

Treatment time is generally 40 minutes to an hour.

will it hurt?

No.

With training and experience, Juliet has found that gentle technique - where you may not even feel the needles - is just as effective in achieving clinical outcomes as stronger technique, but it provides a much better experience for the recipient.

It is true that acupuncture can be an uncomfortable or even painful experience, but this is largely up to the technique utilised by the practitioner.