How I work

There is no fixed script, but a first visit usually unfolds like this.

We start with you

I ask what brings you here, and I listen. Take as long as you need.
Getting to know you

I ask about what brought you in, and about your health in general. Chinese medicine is holistic, so we take every part of your experience into account to understand the underlying issue. That is why some questions may seem unrelated to your symptoms. Often they are not. I am also curious about you as a person: where you grew up, how you live, what your days are like, and what brings you joy. I practise Compassionate Inquiry®, the approach developed by Dr Gabor Maté, and it shapes how I listen.
The treatment

Then I invite you into the treatment room, and you lie down. I may use some of the diagnostic tools of Chinese medicine, which can include reading the face, feeling the abdomen and taking the pulse. I place the needles and leave you to rest for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on how long we have talked.
Where we go from here

Afterwards you get dressed and we sit down again. We talk about what comes next, and whether you would like to continue. Some people come for acupuncture alone. You can say as much or as little as you like.

“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Who can make muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will slowly become clear.”

— Laozi, Tao Te Ching (chapter 15)

Ready when you are.

There is no wrong place to begin.