OMD
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Steve Paine, OMD |
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Albert Place Practice |
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Your initial visit
What happens?You will be listened to carefully and treated with respect and courtesy. Most acupuncture clients find the experience of the consultation and the needling therapy relaxing and rejuvenating. Symptoms are often relieved quickly and your requested music, books on tape, guided mediations or restful silence enhances the pleasant and uplifting experience. Your first visit begins with an in-depth assessment of your condition and your initial treatment. At your request, the treatment may include the appropriate combination of gentle needling therapy, manipulation and massage and therapeutic electro-magnetic heat. During the assessment we may ask you about some things that you might not think are connected to your chief complaint, for example, thoughts and emotions, sleeping patterns, and eating habits. In determining how to be most useful to you, Chinese medicine considers the whole person, not just isolated symptoms. When we put together into a coherent whole the range of symptoms and signs you are experiencing, "patterns of disharmony" are revealed. Although treatment will focus primarily on your chief complaint, the whole of your personality and physicality must be considered in order to develop the most appropriate course of treatment. Chinese medicine is unique in that it appreciates that health conditions may be identical, but the persons suffering from them are individuals. Therefore treatment has to be tailored to you specifically. What do I do?We ask that you arrive at our office at least twenty minutes prior to your scheduled appointment so that you can complete a brief western medicine intake form. This enables us understand your current symptoms and past history. For more complex issues and for internal medical conditions, we ask that you also complete a second slightly longer Chinese medicine intake form. This helps us to more accurately understand your unique situation and to prescribe customized herbal preparations. To save you time and to help you understand your unique signs and symptoms from both a western medicine and Chinese medicine perspective, both the short intake and long intake forms can be completed prior to your visit. Do this by opening the form, placing an "x" next to the appropriate boxes, then saving the intake form with your name as the title, then attaching the saved form to an e-mail addressed to our office. You can download the short intake form and the long intake form. E-mail or contact the office and we will e-mail them to you. We highly recommend your completing both intake forms prior to your first visit . We also recommend the educational advantages of reviewing this website prior to your first visit. What does the practitioner do?We value your time greatly and make every effort to see you punctually at the time which you have booked. After you have completed the intake forms we will greet you and escort you to one of our comfortable treatment rooms. we then review your intake forms with you and listen carefully to your elaboration of any of the issues which you have mentioned. Completing the intake forms and treatment during our first session may take between 60 and 90 minutes; hence the importance of arriving early to complete your intake forms or completing your forms prior to our first session. During our initial session we will discuss your case comprehensively. we will tell you exactly what we believe we can or cannot do for you and how long we think it will take to sort out the issues for which you have sought our advice and treatment. We will also tell you what food suggestions and what herbs or supplements we may prescribe. My rule of thumb is that unless we can demonstrably improve to some degree the issues for which you are seeking relief within three sessions, we will recommend other practitioners or other approaches which may serve you better. We work for you and your satisfaction with the care and treatment we provide is the only measure of our usefulness to you. What examinations take place?As part of your intake examination, viewing your tongue and feeling your pulse can provide a great deal of information about your body to help guide treatment. By looking at your tongue an experienced practitioner can learn a lot about the appropriateness of your diet, your general level of stress, and the relative strength of your immune system. By feeling your pulses at three positions and at a deep and superficial level on both wrists, for example, we can uncover a lot of information about how well the respiratory, circulatory, digestive and elimination systems are coordinated with each other. For muscle, nerve, joint and other orthopedic conditions, we will often do a series of assessments for strength, range of motion, deep tendon reflexes, joint capsule integrity, skin area sensitivity and trigger point reactions. How long does it take?Your initial visit will last for one hour, so that we can spend that entire hour together. Prior to your first visit, please complete our online intake forms. Do this by opening the form, placing an "x" next to the appropriate boxes, then saving the intake form with your name as the title, then attaching the saved form to an e-mail them to our office (Download the short intake form or long intake form) or call or email us at the office and we will e-mail them to you. What are the fees?All hourly session fees in our offices are billed 720 HKD (Hong Kong office), including our first session. Herb formulas or supplements are billed separately. Treatment programs requiring 10 or more sessions may be discounted. We accept checks, cash, EPS, and all major credit cards. How should I prepare for treatment?
We welcome you to an experience we believe you will find useful and enjoyable!
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