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Affordable, community acupuncture in Oakland

Published on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Last updated on 06:12PM, Thursday, February 2, 2012
Photo by Irene Florez

With more people losing their jobs and fewer people spending like they did in the past, community acupuncture has become the new frontier for the alternative health industry.

Across the United States, hundreds of community acupuncture clinics have sprung up in the last few years. According to Karen Grosskreutz, membership coordinator for the newly established POCA COOP, every week, six new clinics register as POCA members.

Today, 170 clinics are registered, although Grosskreutz said she believes that the actual working number is closer to 300. This includes clinics that were part of POCA’s predecessor, the Community Acupuncture Network.

In Oakland, six clinics offer the group setting, sliding scale acupuncture known for it’s reliance on hand, head and feet treatment points. Compare that to 10 clinics in Seattle and five clinics in Portland’s 97213 zip code alone.

The Oakland Acupuncture Project has found a winning formula to meet clients' growing needs: Six clients per hour, each paying $15-35. That’s the business model it has used to move from one clinic with two practitioners to two clinics and five practitioners.

“With a sliding scale we can help people get in a couple times a week if they need to,” Roselle Mc Neilly, acupuncturist at the project - or OAP - said.

Whitney Thorniley, co-founder of the OAP, found out about the community model finishing her acupuncture course work.  
“Finding out about community acupuncture was a huge relief for me in many ways,” she said. “While I was excited about finishing school, I was not sure about how I would rationalize client fees that I myself couldn’t pay. It was a huge, aha moment.”

Not far from the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences - which provides education in Traditional Chinese Medicine - sits Oakland’s latest clinic. Open since last December, Lake Merritt Community Acupuncture stands out with its use of beds instead of reclining chairs.

“Acupuncture in the U.S. become an elite treatment,” Dan Eng, founder of LMCA, said. “In China, where group acupuncture is the norm, you see a practitioner daily for 10 days. Here, many can’t receive as many treatments as their ailments require due to the cost of each visit.”

Many students and patients are eager for added affordable acupuncture clinics according to Grosskreutz. As a result, we are seeing growing trends in more community acupuncture clinics opening in the near future, offering specials that fit individual lifestyles.

 

 


Oakland community acupuncture clinics:

   North Oakland, 5263 Claremont Ave.
   Fruitvale, 2330 35th Ave.


Full disclosure: This reporter is a client of Oakland Community Acupuncture.

About Irene
Irene Florez is a sustainable development enthusiast. She writes on issues related to food and modernity. Read her postings at ireneflorez.wordpress.com and agri-cultura.tumblr.com and follow her on twitter at ireneflorez.
Len Raphael commented at Mon, 30 Jan at 12:38pm

Can't say enough good things about Oakland Acupuncture Project.

I used them intensively for a two month period last year so I got needled by the entire staff by the end of that period.

Their online scheduling system worked fine.

Previously used much more costly professionals who forsure had nice private rooms and could take more time listening and discussing.

But that's not gonna do you a whole lot of good if you need to be able to afford treatments several times a week or even a month.

Greg Bridges commented at Tue, 31 Jan at 4:47pm

While I appreciate this article and finding out a bit more about community acupuncture the title of the article seems to imply that if a hard working, highly knowledgeable, skilled acupuncturist is charging anything more than the community acupuncture centers that you've mentioned then they aren't a friend... or if you are referred to such an acupuncturist who's prices are outside of the community acupuncture price scale then the person who referred you isn't being a friend. 

As your opening sentence states, more people are losing their jobs. With this reality people are looking for affordable ways of living, including affordable health care. The downturn in this economy is affecting everyone including acupuncturists, some who have made price changes for their services in order to adapt to the changing economy. However, for the private practitioner, making these changes doesn't come without some economic sacrafices; the cost of supplies for the acupuncturist hasn't changed just because the economy's changed, the cost of office rent hasn't changed, and the costs of other necessities for the acupuncturist to provide caring and healing care to their patients still remain.  

While the community acupuncture system may benefit some who don't require intensive or extensive care, there are others who are greatly benefited more by just such care and attention, yet it feels as if this article is disregarding their needs and disrespecting the work of many qualified acupuncturists who do provide more extensive treatment and care of those patients but fall outside of the community acupuncture pricing scale. One of the journalists for Oakland Local, Dafina Kuficha of Treasure Your Health, is also an acupuncturist who, for years, provides well needed health care for a multitude of conditions that don't fit the purpose of community acupuncture clinics, and her prices are fair and often times taylored to the needs of her patients. She is one of many acupuncturists who's work gets dissed by the title of this article.   

I must make perfectly clear that I have no issue with the article itself, and it may not be your intent, but the title of this article, plus the full disclosure statement at the end of the article can give the impression that you are actually acting as an advocate or advertiser for community acupuncture against all else. 

Respectfully

Greg

www.reflectionsinrhythm.wordpress.com

nick kurtz commented at Tue, 31 Jan at 10:41pm
Greg, I have to take issue with some of the assumptions you make about community acupuncture (CA). Particularly, the notion that CA is some how incomplete or cannot help those that "require intensive or extensive care". As an acupuncturist that has done both boutique acupuncture (BA) and CA I can tell you that nothing is farther from the truth. It is my experience that CA is actually better equipped to deal with complex, chronic, and serious issues. This is due to the fact that most of these issues will respond best to frequent and regular treatment over several weeks or months. Many BA practitioners actually do very little acupuncture. They do a lot of diet and lifestyle counseling along with other add on modalities (often for an additional charge) and then a short acupuncture treatment. These "acupuncturists" think they need all the extra stuff to make acupuncture work. That is not true. They just need to do acupuncture more often. CA clinics have jettisoned the distractions (and high fees) to bring people acupuncture in its most powerful and effective form: cheap and frequent. Nick
Greg Bridges commented at Wed, 1 Feb at 2:48am

Nick I didn't make any assumptions about community acupuncture. I did not state nor imply that community acupuncture is incomplete, I did not state that it cannot help those that require extensive care. I did not say anything at all against community acupuncture. My comment spoke to the original title of the article, which is now changed, and the implication that can be inferred from that title. My comment also says that I appreciate finding out a bit more about community acupuncture from the article, and that I have no issue with the article, other than the implication of the original title. Even now the current title of the article seems to imply something other that what the article actually is... by that I mean that even though it seems that the article's purpose is to inform readers of affordable community acupuncture the title is Alternatives to affordable community acupuncture, which, to me, looks like it's about something other than, or instead of affordable community acupuncture. 

Naomi Frank commented at Wed, 1 Feb at 9:42am

Greg, quoting your first comment:

"While the community acupuncture system may benefit some who don't require intensive or extensive care, there are others who are greatly benefited more by just such care and attention"

"a multitude of conditions that don't fit the purpose of community acupuncture clinics"

it sounds very much as though you did say that community acupuncture is limited to treating simple' conditions. The experience of those working in CA clinics shows otherwise; as Nick said, repetition and frequency is often the key to helping those complex or chronic problems improve incrementally. If a patient can't afford to keep getting treated, they can't experience the benefits of long term acupuncture.

There's room - and a market for -  for all kinds of clinics and business models. However, the fact is that most people can't afford acupuncture anywhere other than a CA clinic. Especially if they need long term treatment for their complex health issues. Now, how would it feel to receive treatment from a practitioner who is making a special exception from their fees for you? How long do you think you would keep going? Most people feel uncomfortable with this. I too used to offer a sliding scale to patients who were unable to afford full fees, before I did community acupuncture. It rarely worked out.