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What happens during an appointment?
This depends on what it is you are coming in for. If it is a musculoskeletal problem, Bob Clickner will take a brief history of your various falls, surgeries and other injuries, and then have you get on the treatment table for acupuncture and/or bodywork during the remainder of your one hour appointment. Receiving bodywork is generally a very comfortable, quiet process that feels a lot like taking a nap. Acupuncture is also relaxing, revitalizing and generally not uncomfortable.
Depending on your case, Mr. Clickner may recommend half hour follow up acupuncture treatments or a series of hour-long bodywork treatments.
If your health problem is complicated, deep, or pervasive, Mr. Clickner may want to schedule you for a two hour consultation to start. During this appointment, he will take a detailed health history from you. He may ask about accidents and surgeries, both recent and old. He may ask about diet, sleep patterns, exercise and other health habits. He may ask to see your tongue and feel your pulse as he looks for clues about your particular health complaint. Much of this first visit will be spent taking your history and discussing theories about what is going on. He may also take time during this first appointment to discuss your personal nutritive needs, and possibly recommend dietary changes to address the specific needs of the various organ systems involved in the health condition. He may recommend a few herbs or supplements to help rebuild your health.
Will insurance cover my visits?
We have seen increasingly that patients' insurance plans do cover acupuncture, but every plan is different and you will need to call them to see what your plan covers. Bob gives patients a bill with procedure codes and diagnosis codes which they can submit to their insurance for reimbursement. Some patients have been successful in getting reimbursement for treatment. Also, if you work for a company which provides a medical savings account, you can use that money for treatment. Patients with ALFAC have received reimbursement for treatment. Lastly, if you were injured in a car accident, your auto insurance or that of the responsible party will usually pay for treatment. You may need to do a little homework about your options.
Detoxification? What is that all about?
Sometimes Bob will recommend a detoxification program. Generally that means avoiding certain foods for a certain period of time, and taking certain herbs designed to clean out toxins in the body. The program will be customized to the person's goals, comfort level and current level of health. For instance, a person in very weak health would do a milder version of cleansing than one in better health. Sometimes Bob may have a patient build up their health through diet and supplements before he recommends any sort of detoxification. Detoxification safely cleanses the body of toxins, waste products, parasites -- "gunk" -- that is keeping it from working optimally. A patient may notice that their allergies subside, that they get less colds, that they have greater energy. One patient noticed that her breast fibroids completely disappeared after doing a series of liver "flushes". Imagine a car with dirty oil and a dirty oil filter. The body likewise gets "gunked up" by life and can run better -- and longer -- with periodic cleansing. |
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How many visits will it take?
This is a difficult question to answer as a health condition can have many facets and everyone recovers at different rates. Patients who take an active role in the process (for example communicating about changes/lack of changes in symptoms or following dietary suggestions) will notice faster results. Simple health conditions resolve quickly, in as few as three to five visits, while other, multi-layered conditions may take up to a year. This does not mean weekly visits for a year -- at first Bob may want to see you more often, but after awhile, once you have got some momentum, he would ask to see you only now and then. You would come back in when improvement seems to have "levelled off". At these appointments, he would assess your progress, see what the next layer of the "onion" is, and begin peeling. If at any time he feels he is no longer making progress, he is happy to refer you to another practitioner whose approach might work better.
Offering acupuncture, bodywork, herbology and dietary recommendations in Charlottesville, Virginia. |
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