Community Clinic
After many years of treating, Aaron and Mimi have recognised the importance of making acupuncture and qigong as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. The paradigm of high cost treatments for only very few people just doesn’t make sense.
On Saturdays Aaron and Mimi run a community multi-bed clinic for £25 a treatment, or £10 for NADA ear acupuncture. These treatments are held in a larger treatment room, where there may be up to three other people receiving treatment. Sessions are carried out in low voices or in silence, offering an especially relaxed atmosphere.
This way of receiving treatment in quiet small groups is very common in China, and is becoming more and more popular in the UK. The community model offers an affordable way for many people to get the acupuncture they need, regardless of their financial situation.
Five Element acupuncture (in the Worsley school of acupuncture) focuses quite heavily on the talking side of treatment. Therefor early on, having the one-on-one private clinic during the week can be useful. But as treatments continue, it is very helpful to continue with the regularity of sessions, and so having the multi-bed clinic is perfect for keeping that consistency without spending too much money.
Also, some ailments may not need any private one-on-one sessions, and some people just prefer the community multi-bed style. Either way, the multi-bed approach to acupuncture is a great option for more people to receive more affordable treatment, in a safe and supported clinic environment.
To get a sense of what may work for what you are going through, it’s best to have a phone call, or email with Aaron to discuss. No one way works best for everyone. Understanding that everyone needs something slightly different, the first step to talk through the different options.
How does traditional Five Elements work in a community multi-bed clinic?
Since Five Element acupuncture in the Worsley tradition, focuses quite heavily on the talking side of treatment, when possible Aaron encourages patients to start off in the one-on-one private clinic for the first few treatments. This is not essential, and should be discussed before treatment, but when possible it is encouraged, as it offers more privacy to go deeper into ailments and life situations that may be connected to or related to why you are coming for treatment.
After the first few treatments, especially if they were held in the private mid-week clinic, Aaron often encourages patients to start coming to the community multi-bed clinic on Saturdays. This offers more opportunity for treatment, and especially early on, the more acupuncture sessions you can have, the quicker and better the results will be.
When possible it is still good to occasionally check back in to the private one-on-one clinic to talk more deeply through what may be going on in your treatment.
The weekend community multi-bed clinic works extremely well alongside the mid-week private clinic. The two together offer this amazing system of medicine in ways that are most effective and most affordable.
Mimi will also be present in the community sessions, using qigong as another layer of support and treatment. Qigong sequences are typically given as ‘prescriptions’ to practice in between acupuncture sessions to increase the potency of treatment.