Once I’ve had an Initial Visit with a patient (see this post for more information about Initial Visits), then we move to Follow-Up visits on an agreed-upon cadence that the patient has autonomy and control over.
What I love about Follow-Up visits is that they allow for deeper exploration and treatment for the chief concern as well as constitutional issues that may need to be addressed. I typically recommend a set-series of Follow-Up visits to address the patient’s initial chief concern and then we adjust as new things come up or we need to move into maintenance mode.
In a typical situation, I recommend anywhere from 4-6 weekly treatments to address the patient’s chief concern with an re-evaluation after the last visit. If the patient’s health goals have been met, I recommend moving to maintenance mode and seeing them anywhere from 2-3x/month. Keep in mind, if a patient wants to continue to come for treatment weekly, that’s totally fine. I encourage bodily autonomy and decision making in my patients. I provide these recommended treatment plans so that folks don’t feel like they’re going to be “stuck” doing acupuncture forever. We have a tangible goal we are working toward and we will check in after the last recommended treatment to see how close we are to that goal and re-evaluate.
Follow-Up visits are also a great opportunity to try different modalities that we may not have been able to get to during an Initial visit. For example, perhaps e-stim (connecting acupoints to a small machine which conducts a very small amount of electricity to activate the muscles in the area — kind of like a TENS machine but for acupuncture needles). Or maybe we focus on a cupping and TuiNa treatment to get blood and fascia moving to open up the back or hips. Sometimes Follow-Up visits are really about just settling down and getting back into the body. During those types of visits, I will place the needles and give my patient ample time to relax and sink into the experience of the channels opening up and the free flow of qi.
As you can see, Follow-Up visits are a great way to continue to explore how Integrative East Asian Medicine works to help you achieve your heath goals. If you have questions about Follow-Up visits or want to learn more, please feel free to schedule a Complimentary 15 minute Consultation so that we can answer your questions and see if working together is a good fit.
I look forward to seeing you soon.
Ilana Harms Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine, Inc 