Cosmetic acupuncture patients come in with a set of expectations which revolves around one thing: looking better. We have coaching to do with every new patient with regard to how the treatment works, how quickly they will see results, how permanent those results are and how those results are not comparable to medical treatments; it's a subtle technique that brings out your inner radiance, glow and will likely diminish fine lines and lift sagging skin in the process. Some patients respond very well to treatments, they lift instantly, results stick and build from week to week and hold after a series of treatments is complete, for other patients, results don't come as easily. Before we begin treatments we need to help shape the patient's expectations or even delay a cosmetic acupuncture series to do some deep inner work to prepare that patient to receive the best results possible. So what are some things to look for when screening cosmetic acupuncture patients?
Underlying Chronic Diseases & Ignored Stress
Patients with underlying chronic diseases, significant health issues or ignoring, hiding or stuffing their stress and emotions will likely see less than desirable results. When the body is healthy, it has the extra Qi and resources to work in an effective way and produce desirable and significant results, when we're unhealthy that extra Qi isn't available and results will be diminished. As a practitioner we need to gauge the severity of the underlying condition and balance that with the wants and needs of the patient.
Some patients may be candidates for, and committed to truly working on their underlying issues first, in which case stopping cosmetic treatments to focus on increasing health and vitality is ideal. Those managed with medications or stable enough that they aren't concerned with further healing and simply want the treatment, will need extra coaching to understand that their results may not be optimal. For others the self confidence and self esteem boost from doing a beauty treatment is actually a great next step on their healing path. When we feel better we look better and when we look better we feel better, this is part of human nature and as holistic medicine practitioners we need to not overlook the importance of these qualities to the healing process.
Lack of Self Awareness
Patients with a high level of self awareness tend to notice results sooner and more easily than others - the patient notices the results because they can attune to subtle differences. A patient with lacking self awareness may seem to be choosing this treatment out of reaction or they may have tried everything under the sun and saw no results from anything at all. This patient can be fixated on certain aspects of their health and not able or willing to see the bigger picture of it, or they may be completely unsure and unaware of how their body feels and reacts.
The Heart and Shen governs recognition, intuition and receptivity, and its connection in our personal awareness is extremely important.1 The underlying treatment is to anchor the Shen and address the constitutional imbalance which has caused the divergence of the Shen to occur. Their focus for coming in will likely be fixated on the cosmetic aspects of the treatment yet they will be unable to see the subtle changes in the skin. Before and after photos are key to help with maintaining satisfaction in this type of patient, because the photographic evidence of the changes may be the only thing this patient can acknowledge as truth.
A History or Current Use of Medical Aesthetic Treatments
Everyone has something that works for them, no treatment is bad or good, it's all an individual choice and preference. Patients who have had recent medical aesthetic treatments fall into two categories; either the medical procedures will hinder the acupuncture treatment to the point of being practically useless and/or the expectations of results will be too high for the patient to feel satisfied with the results.
Neurorelaxers work against the mechanism of action of acupuncture for lifting the skin or relaxing and engaging the muscles of the face; if the muscle is paralyzed there is no way it will move with acupuncture and results from the treatment will be minimal at best. Patients who have been receiving regular medical treatments require some extra coaching to understand that a cosmetic acupuncture treatment is not going to produce the same dramatic results as the treatments they've been receiving and that our goal is to produce a holistic result which addresses the skin texture, overall wellness and the spirit that shines through the face as well as wrinkles and specific aging concerns. Patients who receive medical treatments may still be great candidates for cosmetic acupuncture if they understand how the treatment works, and what to expect.
Changing The Mindset
Some patients are committed and willing to make major lifestyle changes to achieve results, while others just want the peace and sanctity of your treatment room for an hour before going back into the world to do everything as they've always done. With cosmetic acupuncture it's very important to understand the deeper layers of our patients, their health and mental status in order to not only provide an accurate and effective treatment, but also set up accurate goals and expectations. In the end it's never about the wrinkles or the sagging neck, it's about the patient's perception and attachment to those qualities and what they think it means for them, and this frame of mind is something we do have control over and is something that can be addressed with Chinese medicine, acupuncture, herbs and lifestyle adjustments. As a cosmetic acupuncture practitioner we are the keeper of a different viewpoint on beauty, and the reminder that beauty is not what we look like but who we are being. Through these treatments our patients begin to experience a shift in that frame of consciousness and the inherent beauty within begins to flourish.
Reference
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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