I offer both 30 minute and 60 minute appointments. All initial appointments must be 60 minutes.

My base fee is $120 for 1 hour appointments, including initial appointments.

My base fee is $60 for 30 minute appointments.

If you pay immediately at time of service, I offer a significant prompt payment discount. Therefore if you pay at time of service, your fee will be considerably less. Please contact me for details.

If you pay immediately at time of service I offer a significant prompt payment discount, thus your fee will be considerably less. Please contact me for details.

Discounts are expressly allowed in California for prompt payment and for those without health insurance paying cash. This may be a bit confusing but the situation arose because health insurance companies are so powerful they routinely negotiate big discounts with hospitals and other health systems so that people who had to pay for treatment by themselves (i.e. poor, uninsured patients) were paying a lot more for services than those covered by insurance.

Treatments include assessment, acupuncture and myofascial massage work at the end. I listen and ask questions to get an understanding of each person’s condition. I use palpation and traditional pulse diagnosis. Assessments also involve range of motion, manual muscle and orthopedic tests. At the end of treatments, rehab exercises are often prescribed. When appropriate, herbs may be prescribed as well. Most normal appointments are 60 minutes in length. I can do focused 30 minute appointments for follow-up cases that are uncomplicated in nature.

My goal is always to see change and improvement with the first treatment. Sometimes the first treatment can “shake up” a static situation in the body, and clarity and clear improvement do not become evident until the second and third treatments. Beware anyone who makes boastful guarantees in the realm of healing. However, you are paying good money for an experienced practitioner, and I want to see rapid improvement. I do not want my patients dependent on me. Generally speaking, those with an active physical practice that involves some mind-body connection will heal quickly. The body wants to heal, and mostly knows how. It just needs a little help with thoughtfully targeted interventions. The more instilled and multifaceted a dysfunction is, the longer it will take to heal. In terms of injuries to specific tissues, i.e. muscles, tendons and ligaments, I will discuss with you the rough guidelines for expected healing times based upon the scientific literature. Either way, I focus on three things:

The first involves treating the injured tissue itself.

Secondly, we work on improving postural and movement mechanics in order to allow the injured tissue to heal. My sports medicine training enhances this aspect of treatment.

Last, but not least, I take account of the underlying state of each individual. This includes what is going on emotionally for each person, as well as their underlying energetic state. Treatment strategies differ, for example, between someone with lots of qi and blood that is not moving smoothly in the body, in comparison to someone who may have abundant but scattered energy. This is different, still, to someone with an underlying deficit of qi and blood who will require a gradual building up of strength, more gentle treatments and likely a bit longer course of treatment. See the Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) tab to learn more about traditional diagnosis.

I generally like to do weekly treatments at the onset and then space out treatments to twice monthly until resolution of the problem. Sometimes two treatments in a week can be really helpful to speed up healing time. I am flexible. Again, I don’t want my patients’ to be dependent upon me but I want folks to get better as quickly as possible. With that said, I find busy stressed out people benefit from having a regularly scheduled monthly acupuncture appointment as kind of a tune-up to address any issues that arise in a busy life before they become major problems. After many years, this is what I have settled on for myself. Whenever I increase my physical training, and during especially stressful periods, I schedule acupuncture more frequently.

Acupuncture needles are very small diameter 'filiform' needles made of surgical-grade stainless steel. They come in sterile, single-use packets and are always disposed of after each use. Acupuncture works in many distinct ways. Acupuncture points are at sites of increased electrochemical conductivity. Acupuncture needles are a highly conductive material. They are inserted at particular sites in the body to effect change. Tiny connective tissue fibers wrap themselves around the needles and mechanical, chemical and electrical impulses are propagated along nerves, fascial networks, lymphatic immune pathways, and through the blood. Acupuncture is regulatory in nature. On a systemic level, for example, if a person is stressed out, acupuncture can stimulate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system and calm the sympathetic (fight or flight) system. In the case of pain, it can stimulate the release of pain-killing opioid chemicals within the body while also tamping down pain signaling to the brain. At the same time, it strengthens the communication between the brain and the body (proprioception) to facilitate better posture and movement. The bottom line is that it works, and it is very safe. The only side effect one should ever expect from a trained professional is an occasional bruise.