How to Get Started and What Happens
First, be sure to read the information on our website so you realize what to expect from us as a clinic. The articles section has a lot of information about our approach to medicine. We especially recommend that you read “Standard treatment progression for new patients” and “4 Patterns, 8 Steps: A theory of Internal Medicine”.
But if you don’t have the time or desire to read all that, here’s a quick summary of what our office is like and the principles it is founded on:
Second, call the office at (201) 818-1588 and ask to set up an appointment for an initial assessment.
Before giving you an initial appointment, our office manager will need to collect some information from you to see if we can help you. We do not just take anyone who calls. We screen patients first to see if it would be beneficial to come in. We will first need the following info:
After taking the above info, the office manager will give it to the clinician (either Ken or Elly) and it will be reviewed to see if it’s worth it for you to come for an assessment. The office manager will then call you back to let you know if we can help you or not. If we feel we have a good chance of helping you, the office manager will then set up an appointment time for you.
Note: Unless the patient is a child or has a handicap that prevents them from talking on the phone, we ask that the patient call to make the appointment themselves. We do not allow other people (spouses, friends, secretaries, etc.) to make appointments for patients.
Third, on the day of your first appointment we will discuss the nature of your health conditions and what your goals are for treatment. We will do a full physical assessment using various forms of acupuncture meridian analysis, pressure point reflex testing, and other traditional methods. All of our assessment methods are non-invasive, safe and painless.
After the assessment we will tell you the following:
Please note: We do NOT treat people on the first visit. The first visit is for the assessment only. Yes, I realize that other acupuncture clinics treat on the first visit…but that is them and not us. There are two reasons for this. The first is that acupuncture may not be appropriate for them, in which case it would not be good for the patient. The second is that even if acupuncture is appropriate for them, we will often want them to PREPARE for the first acupuncture treatment by doing some lifestyle modifications and taking certain supplements for a few days before their first treatment.
We are not your typical acupuncture clinic and our treatments are very powerful. They affect change in people at a deep level and create a lasting healing effect. Because of this we often want patients to prepare for their first acupuncture session after their initial assessment.
For follow-up visits, we usually see patients once per week. Some severe conditions may require twice per week in the initial stages, but we will let you know what would be best for you.
Office visits range anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on the complexity of the case. We are usually on time and will not keep you sitting in a waiting room.
But if you don’t have the time or desire to read all that, here’s a quick summary of what our office is like and the principles it is founded on:
- We believe the body has the ability to self-repair and self-regulate. Most chronic pain and illness is due to impairment of this self-repair function.
- It then follows that true healing will focus on restoring the ability of the body to heal itself, rather than performing symptomatic, Band-Aid type care. This is the difference between giving the patient the ability to heal themselves (independence) vs. making their symptoms less severe (dependence).
- To restore the body’s self-healing abilities, and thus overcome most chronic pain and illness, we use a tailored combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
Second, call the office at (201) 818-1588 and ask to set up an appointment for an initial assessment.
Before giving you an initial appointment, our office manager will need to collect some information from you to see if we can help you. We do not just take anyone who calls. We screen patients first to see if it would be beneficial to come in. We will first need the following info:
- Who referred you: At this time Ken only takes new patients if they were referred by a current or former patient. If you do not have a referral you may be able to see Elly.
- Your chief health complaint: There are some conditions that we do not have good success with. If your condition is something that we don’t have good success with, we will tell you that up front.
- Current medications and supplements you are taking: Some medications and supplements can interfere with the treatments we offer.
- Current doctors and health care providers you are seeing: Similar to the last point, some treatments can interfere with what we do. We want to know what other treatments you are going through to see if there’s any potential for interference.
- Date of birth: Some health conditions do not respond well to our treatments when a person is past a certain age. This depends on the condition as well as medications you are taking.
After taking the above info, the office manager will give it to the clinician (either Ken or Elly) and it will be reviewed to see if it’s worth it for you to come for an assessment. The office manager will then call you back to let you know if we can help you or not. If we feel we have a good chance of helping you, the office manager will then set up an appointment time for you.
Note: Unless the patient is a child or has a handicap that prevents them from talking on the phone, we ask that the patient call to make the appointment themselves. We do not allow other people (spouses, friends, secretaries, etc.) to make appointments for patients.
Third, on the day of your first appointment we will discuss the nature of your health conditions and what your goals are for treatment. We will do a full physical assessment using various forms of acupuncture meridian analysis, pressure point reflex testing, and other traditional methods. All of our assessment methods are non-invasive, safe and painless.
After the assessment we will tell you the following:
- Whether or not we can help you. Honesty comes first. If we don’t feel that it would be worth your time and money to come to us, we will tell you upfront…and try to recommend a more appropriate place for you to receive care.
- If we do think we can help you, we will tell you how long it will take for you to expect to see improvements in your health. For example a person may come with a chronic illness of 10 years duration, we may tell him (depending on what we find during the assessment) that it will take three months of care to feel 50% better.
- That last point is very important, because it allows us to hold ourselves accountable to the patient and gives a deadline for us to reach a specific result. If that result is achieved, we will continue care until the patient is satisfied, assuming they continue to make steady progress. If the result is not achieved in the specified time frame, care is stopped as we do not want to keep treating the patient if initial results are not seen in a timely manner.
- We will also tell you what we expect you to do as a patient. This will usually involve taking certain herbal/nutritional supplements that we feel will help your recovery, as well as making dietary changes such as reducing grains and sugar.
- After this, you are encouraged to ask questions about your care and to “sleep on it” to decide if NCM is right for you. No high-pressure sales or marketing tactics are used at our clinic…ever.
- Please understand that starting the doctor-patient relationship not only involves you deciding whether or not you want to work with us, it also involves us deciding whether or not we want to work with you.
- If you do decide to be treated at NCM, on your next visit we will begin the acupuncture sessions and move you on the road back to health.
Please note: We do NOT treat people on the first visit. The first visit is for the assessment only. Yes, I realize that other acupuncture clinics treat on the first visit…but that is them and not us. There are two reasons for this. The first is that acupuncture may not be appropriate for them, in which case it would not be good for the patient. The second is that even if acupuncture is appropriate for them, we will often want them to PREPARE for the first acupuncture treatment by doing some lifestyle modifications and taking certain supplements for a few days before their first treatment.
We are not your typical acupuncture clinic and our treatments are very powerful. They affect change in people at a deep level and create a lasting healing effect. Because of this we often want patients to prepare for their first acupuncture session after their initial assessment.
For follow-up visits, we usually see patients once per week. Some severe conditions may require twice per week in the initial stages, but we will let you know what would be best for you.
Office visits range anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on the complexity of the case. We are usually on time and will not keep you sitting in a waiting room.