The office has a professional, yet relaxed atmosphere where you can be your whole, authentic self. Knowing that stress is a factor in most every condition, this should feel like a visit to a friend’s living room, where you get to take a load off, maybe have a nice nap and leave feeling better.

Your treatment time is an opportunity to relax, rejuvenate and be accepted as you are.  Beneath the casual exterior, Niall is a skilled professional with over 15 years of professional acupuncture experience who seeks to make your life easier, whether it’s managing a chronic illness, pain or easing stress.

Yes, we accept most major insurance plans.

Acupuncture has been used to treat every illness known to humanity for the last 3000 years.  While we cannot promise a cure, we can say that patients feel a sense of peace through treatment.  At the very least, you will be deeply relaxed, it is this relaxation that helps your body heal itself.

Ideally, you will come to see an acupuncturist before you develop an illness.  Acupuncture is a powerful tool for treating disease.  It is even more powerful for maintaining health.  My goal in treatment is to clear any major issues you have, and then maintain your balance through lifestyle changes and occasional acupuncture treatments.

Most patients notice a difference after their first treatment.  Each treatment builds on the last, and extends the effects.  Because of this, it's often best to schedule several treatments close together in the beginning and then space them out as the symptoms alleviate. 

Many people say are that they are afraid of needles.  It is unfortunate that when most people think of needles, they think of traumatic childhood injections.  Acupuncture needles are nothing like that.  They are about as thick as a human hair, and most patients report feeling a bit of pressure or that they are unable to feel them at all.  It is our goal to help you heal with as little discomfort as possible.

The other thing that people wonder about is if there is anything on the needles – there is not.  Acupuncture is a system that unlocks the body's natural healing capacity.  All needles are single use, sterile needles.  This means that needles are packaged sterile and disposed of after a single use.

In addition to needles, we are trained in the use of non-needle techniques, such as cupping, gua-sha, seeds and more. 

Almost every patient reports feeling relaxed and calm after treatment. In some cases, there is some bruising or minor bleeding. Occasionally an old symptom will show up again; this is the result of your body releasing the memory of the illness and usually lasts for no more than a day or two, and generally you will feel great after it is cleared. If such an issue comes up, contact your practitioner for assistance.

The list below is from the World Health Organization.  It is not complete, in my opinion, but it gives you an idea.

1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment:

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhoea, primary
Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Headache
Hypertension, essential
Hypotension, primary
Induction of labour
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction of
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Periarthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Renal colic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow

2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
Acne vulgaris
Alcohol dependence and detoxification
Bell’s palsy
Bronchial asthma
Cancer pain
Cardiac neurosis
Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
Cholelithiasis
Competition stress syndrome
Craniocerebral injury, closed
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
Earache
Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Female infertility
Facial spasm
Female urethral syndrome
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
Gastrokinetic disturbance
Gouty arthritis
Hepatitis B virus carrier status
Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
Hyperlipaemia
Hypo-ovarianism
Insomnia
Labour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Ménière disease
Neuralgia, post-herpetic
Neurodermatitis
Obesity
Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
Postextubation in children
Postoperative convalescence
Premenstrual syndrome
Prostatitis, chronic
Pruritus
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Raynaud syndrome, primary
Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Retention of urine, traumatic
Schizophrenia
Sialism, drug-induced
Sjögren syndrome
Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Spine pain, acute
Stiff neck
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
Tietze syndrome
Tobacco dependence
Tourette syndrome
Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Urolithiasis
Vascular dementia
Whooping cough (pertussis)

3. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:

Chloasma
Choroidopathy, central serous
Colour blindness
Deafness
Hypophrenia
Irritable colon syndrome
Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
Small airway obstruction

Source: World Health Organization: “ACUPUNCTURE: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF REPORTS ON CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIALS”

All practitioners have a Masters degree in Acupuncture with over 2500 hours of training, including over 500 hours of clinical time. They also attend an average of 20 hours of continuing education a year.

Maryland Acupuncture Society
National Institutes of Health:  National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine