About Your Visit & FAQ

During Your Appointment

Initial Visit: During your initial visit, we will review your health history as well as your present condition, including a thorough intake consisting of questions regarding your body, diet, and lifestyle. Some questions may at first appear to be irrelevant to your current complaint, but keep in mind that TCM is a holistic medicine, and each answer plays an integral role in helping to determine the proper diagnosis and treatment of your condition. Treatment may include acupuncture as well as other modalities such as cupping, Tui Na or other therapeutic bodywork, and herbal medicine.

Follow-up Visit: Follow-up visits will include a brief intake and update of your condition followed by the appropriate treatment. Treatment may include acupuncture as well as other modalities such as cupping, Tui Na or other therapeutic bodywork, and herbal medicine.

Before & After Your Appointment

8 Things To Remember Before An Acupuncture Appointment ACUTAKE -- Acupuncture isn’t really into hard-and-fast rules. What works for one person may not necessarily work for another. This is the beauty of acupuncture—it meets us wherever we’re at. However, there are some general rules of thumb when it comes to preparing... (read full article...)
How To Take Care Of Yourself After An Acupuncture Treatment ACUTAKE -- When people ask me what they should and should not do after acupuncture, I usually tell them, “Be good to yourself.” Vague advice, but it’s what most recommendations for taking care of yourself after acupuncture come down to... (read full article...)

New To Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine?

How To Know When Acupuncture Is Working ACUTAKE -- Acupuncture is not a one-shot deal. It works cumulatively, meaning one treatment builds on the next. There are certainly instances of acupuncture producing immediate results... (read full article...)
What Does Acupuncture Feel Like? ACUTAKE -- A common assumption about acupuncture is that it hurts. You are, after all, getting stuck with needles. Fear of pain from acupuncture needles is one of the most common reasons people forgo acupuncture. Often to the astonishment of those who take the plunge... (read full article...)
5 Most Common Side Effects Of Acupuncture ACUTAKE -- Forget what you’ve been told. Acupuncture does have side effects. The unintended consequences of acupuncture, while not life-threatening, should not be overlooked. The side effects of acupuncture occur frequently and can seriously impact on your quality of life... (read full article...)

Kristen A. Chew, L.Ac., C.M.T, C.Y.T. . San Francisco, California . 415.692.1191 . info@kristenchew.com