by Kristen Porter, MAc, LAc

(“Qi,” pronounced chee, is the Chinese word for the energy stimulated during acupuncture)

Since 1989 Pathways has maintained a group acupuncture treatment room. Initially, this was due to our modest beginnings--all we had was one room so we needed to make the most of it!

Years later as we grew and relocated to larger space, I presumed that our new clinic would contain all private treatment rooms--surely now that we were financially stable, patients would want to have individual rooms. To my surprise, the word from our clients came back loud and clear, “No! We want to keep the community room.” We listened and our community room has remained a special unique part of Pathways.

Now in 2008, our community acupuncture space is a beautiful room filled with natural light. And, I’m pleased to report we’ve just added four new comfy recliner chairs! Patients thus far have found that treatment in a recliner is “the most relaxing experience” they have encountered--far from their initial expectation that treatment in a group room would be distracting.

In our community room four to six patients are treated at one time. This helps keep our costs down and enables us to offer treatments starting at just $20.

In addition to low cost the benefits of receiving community style treatments are many:

• Did you ever notice how you often track more miles on the treadmill at the gym than you do at home? There is something energizing about being around other people working out. Well, community acupuncture shares some of that same energetic phenomenon. Many patients experience feeling a powerful group energy in the room.

• Research from China shows that clinical outcomes are improved when treatments are delivered closer together. In the US however, most patients are on a weekly treatment plan because that’s what fits with their budget. But now, at Pathways you can receive 3-4 community style treatments a week for the same price as one individual session. Your improvement in that one week has the potential to be equivalent to a whole month’s worth of weekly sessions.

• Less talk. More Qi. Individual sessions tend to be dialogue heavy in the US, which is not the case in China. Sometimes you may want to pop in and out--get your tennis elbow treated without discussing your other bodily functions. The high volume nature of the group room focuses treatment on pulse diagnosis and your top symptom without a lot of discussion needed. 

• You help put the Qi in Community. Our program fee structure is an open ended $20-40 sliding scale where you decide each time you come in what amount works best for you. And on those occasions that you might be able to pay at the $40 level, you are essentially ‘sharing the care’ and affording Pathways the ability to offer a treatment for $20.

If you haven’t tried community style acupuncture yet, come in and check it out--our recliner chairs are just waiting for you to relax in them!

And, don’t forget, Pathways is dependent on your referrals, please be sure to tell your friends and family about $20 acupuncture.

Thank you for your support of this very exciting new program.