Working alongside your other care

Alongside your GP and the NHS

Acupuncture isn't a replacement for medical care. Please keep taking anything your doctor has prescribed, and keep your GP in the loop about the treatments you're having. At your first appointment I'll ask about any medication and any treatment you're having from your GP or hospital, so I have the full picture.

If anything you tell me needs a doctor's attention, I'll say so and encourage you to see your GP. That's part of practising safely.

Acupuncture already has a place in parts of the NHS. NICE recommends that a single course of acupuncture can be considered for some people with chronic primary pain, and the British Acupuncture Council's members work within mainstream healthcare in a number of NHS settings.

Alongside other therapies

You might also be seeing a counsellor, an osteopath or a massage therapist, or doing yoga, pilates or tai chi. These can sit together well. Just let me know what else you're doing, so we can plan sessions sensibly around each other.

Different styles, one person

My core training is in Five Element acupuncture, which looks at you as a whole person and the element at the root of your constitution. I also studied wider Chinese medicine at The Acupuncture Academy, and I use other traditional techniques where they suit you:

• cupping, static or moving
• moxa, the warming herb
• gua sha
• massage
• facial acupuncture and micro-needling

Between sessions, I encourage simple self-care: eating with the seasons, qigong, acupressure and slow breathing.

A note on dry needling

You may have had "acupuncture" from a physiotherapist or at a GP surgery. That's usually dry needling or Western medical acupuncture, which is a different approach from traditional acupuncture. It's usually based on Western anatomy rather than the principles of Chinese medicine. Both can sit alongside each other, but they aren't the same thing.