Acupuncture Practice Management for New Acupuncturists

In this video, I’m answering questions on acupuncture practice management! This is a replay from an Instagram LIVE where I share how to communicate your TCM diagnosis to your patients. And what to say to acupuncture patients who ask these questions:

– How does acupuncture work?
– How many acupuncture sessions will I need?
– Does acupuncture hurt?

Let me know what you think and keep rocking it with TCM!
Clara
TCM Geek

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Acupuncture Practice Management for New Acupuncturists

How to translate TCM Diagnosis to Patients

When we want to communicate the TCM diagnosis to our patient, The first thing that I’m going to say is, do not say to a patient, “you have liver Qi stagnation, you have kidney Yin deficiency, or you have Liver Yang rising, or you have Spleen Qi deficiency.”

And the reason is, that you have been to school to learn the TCM jargon, the TCM ways of explaining and understanding TCM diagnosis. The patients on the other hand, have never been there.

So unless your patient is maybe, you know, I’m a yoga teacher and they’re very well-versed in TCM language. Then you can do that with them because they might have a knowledge, but most patients have no idea what Spleen Qi deficiency means.

And if you say the kidney is deficient, they’re going to think that their physical kidney is deficient, and that’s going to give them false impression of what’s going on with their body so it’s super important to communicate the right diagnosis.

Think about this:

When we went to school in TCM and we learned all the language, the first three months of learning TCM, most of us were like, “What does that mean?! I don’t get this!” And eventually it all falls into place. So we want to communicate to our patients in a term that they really relate to and understand.

So when we talk to patients, the best way to communicate our diagnosis, is to explain to patients that root cause. Everyone can understand the root cause. What I love about TCM is there always a root cause. The Western conventional medicine may say: unknown cause. I have patients coming for fertility and it’s unknown infertility because all the levels of are perfect and everything looks great.

But we all know as TCM practitioners that the emotional aspect is huge, right? There is a lot of stress, longstanding anxiety that can actually really bring the body into a fight or flight state all the time. And it’s very hard to conceive or have the body be in a rest and recovery–or parasympathetic state–if you’re constantly on the fight or flight.

How to explain diagnosis to patients

It’s important that we tell the patients what we think the cause or the causes are. So let’s say, I’ll give you an example, just so you see how I do this.

When I explain to patients the diagnosis, I will never say you have liver Qi stagnation, and stomach heat. I will say all the stress that you’ve been experiencing lately is causing tension in your body.

And that tension also creates acidity in your stomach, which creates the heartburn and the acid reflux. So you don’t have to say Liver Qi stagnation and stomach heat. You just can explain that stress creates the physical symptoms.

I’ll give you another example. If someone is fatigued all the time, they’re exhausted. Maybe they have chronic fatigue syndrome and they don’t know why, we can explain to them that it could come from diet. Maybe they don’t have the right nutrients, which chronic fatigue could be a SP Qi deficiency.

Instead, you say something like your diet is not nourishing your body. That’s why there’s no gas in the tank. And you’re always tired, or it could be that you worry and overthink so much that it’s draining your body of energy.

The causes are worry and overthinking, right? Tell them the cause. When patients understand, they start to trust your ability to help them.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is because we can always help patients, but we have to explain and educate patients on how we’re going to do a treatment.

So, the first block that new practitioners have is to communicate the diagnosis to patients.

How to explain your Treatment Plan to patients

The second thing is the treatment plan. So we need to explain to patients how many times they need to come. Right? If you’ve been in practice for a while, you know that one of the questions patients will ask is: how many treatments do I need?

This is what I say: it’s is going to depend on how compliant you are with all the education that we’ve talked about today and lifestyle tips that I gave you and recommend for you to do. But what I will say is give me three sessions. In three sessions, if you don’t see any improvement in your health at all, then this is probably not the right avenue.

And it might take ten sessions or three months. It might take six sessions. It might take two. I don’t know exactly because every body responds differently, but give me three acupuncture sessions.

If you say that to patients, they have a number in their mind. They will at least come in for three sessions. and it’s consistency that is going to help.

And the reason is because acupuncture does not cure or treat anything.

Let me repeat this: acupuncture doesn’t treat or or cure anything.

And I tell that to all my patients, because it’s true.

And this is how I answered that question: how does acupuncture work? Because that’s a question you and I both get. I always say it doesn’t cure or treat anything. What acupuncture does is when we insert a needle to an area that is concentrated with minute nerves, it triggers that nerve to send a signal to the brain, to self-regulate, to reset, to decrease inflammation, to bring blood flow to certain areas.

What we’re trying to do with acupuncture is trigger your brain to self heal. It is a self-healing tool. Outside forces are going to make a difference. This is why compliancy is going to make a difference. It doesn’t cure or treat anything.

Use everything I say in this video. Watch it again. I hope you’re taking notes. Write it down because you want to start having a really good relationships with your patients. Then they’ll trust your ability to help them and they will be your best advocate! 😍

Video Transcript of Acupuncture Practice Management

How do we communicate Diagnosis?

When we want to communicate the diagnosis to our patients. The first thing that I’m going to say is, do not say this a patient, “You have liver Qi stagnation, you have kidney Yin deficiency, or you have liver Yang rising, or you have Spleen Qi deficiency.”

The reason is you have been to school to learn the TCM jargon, the TCM ways of explaining and understanding TCM diagnosis. The patients on the other hand, have never been there. So unless your patient is maybe, you know, a yoga teacher and they’re very, very well-versed in TCM language. Then you can do that with them because they might have knowledge, but most patients have no idea what Spleen Qi deficiency means.

If you say the Kidney is deficient, they’re going to think that their physical kidney is deficient, and that’s going to give them false impression of what’s going on with their body. So it’s super important to communicate the right diagnosis.

Think of it this way:

When we went to school in TCM and we learned all the language, the first three months of learning TCM, most of us were like, “What does that mean?! I don’t get this!” And eventually it all falls into place and it all makes sense.

We want to communicate to our patients in a term that they really relate to and understand.

The Root Cause

When we talk to patients the best way to communicate our diagnosis, is to explain to patients the root cause. Everyone can understand the root cause. What I love about TCM is there always a root cause.

The Western conventional medicine may say ‘unknown cause’. I have patients coming for fertility and it’s ‘unknown infertility’ because all the levels of everybody is perfect and everything looks great.

But we all know as TCM practitioners that the emotional aspect is huge, right? There is a lot of stress, longstanding anxiety that can actually really bring the body into a fight or flight state all the time. It’s very hard to conceive or have the body be in a rest and recovery–or parasympathetic state–if you’re constantly on the fight or flight.

It’s important that we tell the patients what we think the cause or the causes are. That’s how I start. So let’s say, I’ll give you an example, just so you see how I do this. Once we do a full consultation with the patients and I’m going to go through this.

We’re going to talk about this in a minute, after I explain to patients the diagnosis, I will never say you have Liver Qi stagnation, and Stomach heat.

How to explain Root Causes

I will say all the stress that you’ve been experiencing lately, due to whatever is happening in their life is causing tension in your body. And that tension also goes and creates acidity in your stomach, which creates the heartburn and the acid reflex. So the stress is creating all this acidity to react and that’s creating the physical space.

So you don’t have to say Liver Qi stagnation and Stomach heat. You just can explain that stress creates the physical symptoms.

I’ll give you another example. If someone is fatigued all the time, they’re exhausted. Maybe they have chronic fatigue syndrome and they don’t know why, we can explain to them that it could come from diet. Maybe they don’t have the right nutrients, which we know chronic fatigue let’s say could be Spleen Qi deficiency.

Your diet is not nourishing your body. That’s why there’s no gas in the tank and you’re always tired. Or it could be that you worry and overthink so much that it’s draining your body of energy.

The cause is worry or overthinking, right? Tell them the cause. When patients understand, they start to trust your ability to help them.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is because we can always help patients, but we have to explain and educate patients on how we’re going to do a treatment. And I think the second block, the first blocking or block that new practitioners have is to communicate the diagnosis to patients.

Let’s discuss the Treatment Plan

The second thing is the treatment plan. We need to explain to patients how many times they need to come, right? If you’ve been in practice for a while, you know that one of the questions patients will ask is: “How many treatments do I need?”

This is what I say: “It’s is going to depend on how compliant you are with all the education that we’ve talked about today. All the little tidbits, lifestyle tips that I gave you and recommend for you to do. But, what I will say is: give me three sessions. In three sessions, if you don’t see any improvement in your health at all, then this is probably not the right avenue.”

And it might take 10 sessions or three months. It might take six sessions. It might take two. I don’t know exactly because every body responds differently, but give me three sessions. If you say that to patients, they have a number in their mind. Three is what they’re going to do.

It’s consistency that is going to help.

The reason is because acupuncture does not cure or treat anything. Let me repeat this: acupuncture doesn’t treat or or cure anything. And I tell that to all my patients. You can tell them that too, because it’s true.

This is how I answered that question: “How does acupuncture work?” This is a question you and I both get. I always say it doesn’t cure or treat anything.

What does acupuncture do?

When I insert a needle to an area that is concentrated with minute nerves, it triggers that nerve to send a signal to the brain. To self-regulate, to reset, to decrease inflammation, to bring blood flow to certain areas. What we’re trying to do with acupuncture is trigger your brain to self heal. It is a self-healing tool. Outside forces are going to make a difference. This is why compliancy is going to make a difference. Why it doesn’t cure or treat anything.

Use everything I say in this video. Watch it again. I hope you’re taking notes. Write it down because you want to start having a really good relationships with your patients. Because they’ll trust your ability to help them and they will be your best advocate.

Part of your help is education.

You’re going to give them help.  The patient doesn’t know they need to come back. They don’t know how many times they need to come back that don’t they don’t know how acupuncture works. They don’t know how anything works around TCM. You do, you have the tools and see if you don’t share that with your patient, you’re not serving them.

They came to ask you for help and you’re not helping them. So don’t think that you’re pushing them. I’ve never forced patients to come back. I give the education. This is what we’re trying to do.

They came for, let’s say for insomnia. So you’ve had insomnia for over 10 years. It probably will take a while for your body to self regulate because your body has been on this journey of no sleep for so long. We need to reset it and we need to self-regulate and that’s going to take more than one session in order to do this. Those are also the other things you can do to help.

Educate your patients

What else they can do at home? Having a cool room, having, white noise, if they’re very sensitive to waking up easily. Give them all the education pieces. That’s really important. And then tell them, we’re going to need a few sessions because of course you’ve had this for so long.

So give me about three sessions. And then at the end you can tell them, I will see you probably, you know–depending on what you want. Let’s say you want to see them weekly. “Why don’t we book you weekly for the next three weeks? So you get the right appointment at the right time for you. So you don’t have to worry about which time to make your appointment.”

The patient has the ability to say, you know what? No, I don’t want to do that and walk away, but you give them all the information. This is how you can help them. Then they can make the decision. But if you don’t tell them, this is what the treatment plan is, then they don’t know they need to come back next week or in three weeks or tomorrow, or in two days. They have no clue.

All you’re doing is educating your patients.

This is super important. Once they have all the tools and education, then they can decide if they want to come back and see you or not. And of course, if they can do ask you for help them want your help. So it should always feel like you’re here to help and educate your patients.

If you don’t explain to them that they need to come back and they need to book a few appointments, then you’re not giving them a service. Does that make sense? And then making a treatment plan and educating the patients on what’s the best treatment plan for them so they can get better; because otherwise, if they can go one time and don’t come back.

They’ll say, “Well, acupuncture didn’t work for me.” That’s not good for our whole community, right? As TCM rock stars, you want to make sure that you do provide the best education. So patients know how acupuncture can help them.

Let Patients ask YOU questions too

We want to make sure we give more than what the patient expected. Okay, it’s all about building relationships. Once the patient has answered all your questions and answers. What I do at the end of the consultation, I ask patients, “I’ve asked you a lot of questions. It’s your turn. Do you have questions?”

So the questions are, “How does acupuncture work? How many treatments do I need?” We’ve covered this. One of the thing is that is going to be for patient is also:

“Does it hurt?” (if it’s their first time, right?)

So this is another thing that you could use in your practice. Believe you me. It works. I’ve done it for 18 years and it works every single time. So again, take note. When patients said, “does it hurt?” And I asked him, “Are you really nervous and anxious?” “Well, I’m really scared about needles. You know, I’m the one that has to lay down to take blood. I have fainted.”

Some people are very, very anxious about needles and it is fair to feel that way.

I always tell them, “This is what we’re going to do. I’m going to put one needle in–just one. And then you tell me how you feel. If you think, you know what, I can’t handle this. This is horrible. I can’t do it. We stop. That’s it. You don’t have to stay. I’m not going to force you. I don’t want to force you to be here. One needle. If you think it’s impossible, it’s just awful. Then you get up and you go.”

18 years of practice, you guys. I have never ever had someone walking. Ever ever. So you put the first needle, you pick whatever needles you’re going to do, because of course you’re going to pick your treatment and what points you’re gonna do.

You do your first needle, and then you ask the patient, “How do you feel?” Every single time the reply is, “Oh, oh, it’s fine. Okay.” And then you continue. Okay. So that’s how you handle, does it hurt, right?

Go Above and Beyond

You want to make sure that the experience of your patient is above and beyond what they were expecting.

Okay, so make sure they’re warm enough especially, if you have coldies, right? Heat lamps are super important. Make sure the music, the environment is suitable for relaxation so the patient can go in a parasympathetic state.

Make sure they have pillows–this is little detail–but if a woman is facing down, so she’s prone facing down, she’s heavy breasted and her shoulders are going to go curve inward. It’s going to press really hard on her. You want to have shoulder pillows to ensure everything is flat. Her spine is flat.

It’s really important to make sure that all the curvature of the body is supported. So people can relax. Right? This is really important.

Dim the lights. Make sure that if there are windows, there’s a curtain or something. So it’s not just right in your face. People that have headaches, don’t want bright lights in their face. I can tell you that. So that’s super important.

It’s all in the details.

Make sense? Okay. Make sure that if they have questions, that’s another thing too.

After you come back into the room and you take all your needles out, you want to ask the patients, “How do you feel?” They might say, “Oh, I slept. It was really relaxing.” Or, they might say., “I was very antsy, I couldn’t relax.”

If people say I couldn’t relax. I always say to them, “Okay, we’re going to do big, deep breathing exercise next time, a little bit to relax.”It takes time to get into a parasympathetic state because you’re so stressed out. .

And then we are going to ask them, “Do you have any questions?” And they might say, “Nope.”

Then we’re going to escort them to the front and make an appointment at the front with reception. Or you could be making your appointment. Doesn’t matter how your practice goes.

You’re going to make the appointment or your assistant will do that, make the appointment for you. And then that person is leaving. You always make sure that person has an extreme above and beyond experience. So make sure you give them homework. Things that they can do themselves, that they can take action on.

Could be nutrition, could be lifestyle tips that you ask them to do. Okay.

After the patient leaves your job is not finished

Give them a call within 48 hours after the first treatment with you. And I’m not talking about email. I’m not talking about texts, I’m talking actually voice, voice is super important. So call them either you leave a message if they’re not there or talk to them depending.

This is what you’re going to do. You’re going to ask them (and this is what I’ve done for years). And it is really, really rewarding because the patients feel valued. Once they pay and have left. Can’t forget about your patients, right? They are important.

So I call the patient and I will say, “This is Clara. I just wanted to see how you felt since the acupuncture treatment and you noticed any change.” And this is also good because patients will notice and go, “Oh, I slept really well that night. Thank you for calling.” I say, “Great. I also wanted to ask you, do you have any questions for me that you forgot to.”

Because it was the first time, we talked about so many things. “Anything you were thinking about after?” and they may ask a question and say, “Yeah, you told me about this supplement. And I can’t remember I, you had the paper, but I lost it and blah, blah, blah.” Then you can advise them and you can recommend.

Patients really appreciate that you took the time.

If they’re not there and you leave a message, this is what I say, “Hey, this is Clara. I just wanted to check how you felt after you acupuncture treatment. Or if you have any questions that we didn’t answer that that day when we saw each other on Tuesday, I’ll see you next week on Monday at five. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me or send me an email. I’m right here, waiting for you.”

Something like that. You know what I mean? You want to make sure your patients are very well taken care of because that’s how you practice is going to build relationship. And this is called The Referral Train.

If you take good care of your patients, they will tell everybody how amazing you are. And if they tell everybody how amazing you are, then everybody benefits from acupuncture because…Acupuncture rocks! You knew I was going to say that, right.

Practice Management in Summary

So this was 35 minutes on practice management recap really quickly.

Communicating your diagnosis to your patient. Do not say Liver Qi stagnation or Kidney Qi deficiency. Tell patients the root cause. Right. Your stress is causing your acidity in your stomach to create the acid reflux. Your diet is creating digestive issues, and that’s why you have loose stools. Don’t tell them they have Spleen Qi deficiency, right.

Then tell them about your treatment plan and why it’s important to educate your patients. So they know, and they have the tools to decide if they want to continue to do treatment with you.

Answer their questions. Tell them how acupuncture works. Does it hurt? We talked about that as well, right?

All this is really important to make sure that you have attention to details and take good care of your patients because they are so advocates for acupuncture. They will be forever because acupuncture rocks.

I have lots on my YouTube channel, lots more on my website. There are resources for everyone. Make sure you take advantage.