Your first visit is for a diagnostic consultation and if you have made an appointment for acupuncture, your first treatment will be included.

Your practitioner will find out medically relevant information about your condition and examine your tongue and you pulse. A brief physical examination will be conducted where necessary.

If you are seeking treatment to a physical injury or ailment, please wear something that will allow the problem area to be examined easily. If you take any medication including vitamins and supplements, bring a list of these to your first appointment.

There is no need for special preparation. It is good to arrive early so you can settle down and collect yourself.

If you are taking any medication, including vitamins, minerals and other supplements, you should bring these with you.

It can be good to wear comfortable and loose fitting clothing which can be easily removed, especially if you seek treatment for a physical problem which the practitioner will want to examine.

It is okay to the usual things you do afterwards.

We do recommend that you avoid strenuous exercise or intellectual strain for about 30 minutes after your treatment.

Usually treatments are scheduled weekly, sometimes bi-weekly.

Many patients choose, once the problem has been successfully treated, to attend bi-weekly or monthly treatments in order to ensure they stay healthy.

It is impossible to say how many treatments somebody will need, especially without a proper consultation and diagnostic process.

What can be said is that generally, more recent complaints are easier to treat than chronic, long-standing illnesses.

Acupuncture doesn’t hurt.

Acupuncture needles are extremely fine, almost like a hair, and it is sometimes hard to even feel them being inserted. Often people report a sensation sometime after the insertion of the needle, but this is a pressure-like sensation rather than pain.

In the hands of a professionally trained practitioner, Acupuncture TCM is safe and entirely free of negative side-effects.

Acupuncture needles are pre-sterilised, single use needles. They are safe and painless to use, and safely discarded after the treatment.

The needles used are hair thin and totally unlike the needles used for injections of medicine. Most people don’t even feel the insertion and those who do, describe it as a kind of pressure. There is no need to be afraid of the needles.

If you are worried, however, mention this when you make your appointment, or at your first appointment so your practitioner can take it into account and make things easier for you.

Typically, only between 2-4 needles will be used. In the context of Acupuncture TCM, less IS more.

If you need to cancel or reschedule, please do so at the earliest opportunity – somebody else will be able to use that time slot.

PLEASE CALL  – 0204 548 9842

We need at least 24-HOURS notice so that we can offer your appointment to someone else – Please see the full appointments policy.

TCM and acupuncture does not treat western labelled conditions, but treats individual people. Three individuals attending the clinic with the same western named condition, say ‘migraine’ may receive three different diagnoses, a different treatment, but each make a sound recovery.

TCM has a full diagnostic framework which is capable of diagnosing and treating any known problem, but as with any medical system or treatment it is better for some things and less good for others. It is best you contact your practitioner to ask more about your particular condition.

Acupuncture can, and often is used in conjunction with western medical treatment.

It does not negatively interfere with other forms of medicine.

It is important, however, to tell your practitioner what other forms of treatment you are receiving.

No, that is outside the field of TCM.

If you need advice about medications prescribed to you by your GP or consultant, you need to discuss that with your them.

TCM views the human being very differently from western medicine.

It does not separate the body from the mind, or the inside from the outside, but takes a comprehensively holistic view of the person, the complaint and the context it is happening in.

TCM can often diagnose and treat ‘odd complaints’, problems that western medicine can’t put a label on.

TCM and acupuncture does not treat western labelled conditions, but treats individual people. Three individuals attending the clinic with the same western named condition, say ‘migraine’ may receive three different diagnoses, a different treatment, but each make a sound recovery.

TCM has a full diagnostic framework which is capable of diagnosing and treating any known problem, but as with any medical system or treatment it is better for some things and less good for others. It is best you contact your practitioner to ask more about your particular condition.

No, you can’t treat cancer with acupuncture or Chinese medicine.

Acupuncture can be very helpful in treatment of side-effects of western medical treatment, such as chemotherapy, and for alleviating cancer related pain or other problems, but it cannot treat cancer itself. For this you need to seek western medical treatment.

Yes. Acupuncture TCM can be very helpful for those having trouble conceiving or having the family they would wish.

Your practitioner discuss treatment options with you and suggest Chinese Herbal Medicine, either alongside acupuncture treatment, or on its own.

No, you don’t. Infants can be treated, as can unconscious people. Animals can be, and are, successfully treated with acupuncture.

Many medical practitioners, regardless of their field, tend to agree that it does help if the patient’s mind and psyche are engaged in the process of getting better, but this is an accessory to the medicine, not the medicine.

To go the your GP, you generally need to be ill. Not so with TCM – you can use acupuncture and TCM even when you are not ill, just ‘not feeling 100%’, or you don’t want to wait until you get ill.

TCM has always been used to improve health, to be so well that you don’t get unwell, and be able to live your life to full.

In olden times in China, the patient used to see their practitioner regularly in the understanding that it was the practitioner’s job to help them stay well. If they did fall ill, they wouldn’t pay for the treatment.