How Long Does it take for Acupuncture to Work?

This is a great question to ask your practitioner, because the answer will very much depend on your particular case. There isn’t a universal rule of thumb for how long things take because there are so many variables involved.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine are highly individualized treatment modalities. Even if two people came in for seemingly the same thing – say, treatment for left shoulder pain – odds are, they would receive very different treatments!

That’s because we are treating the root cause of the issue, rather than the symptoms that are presenting in the moment. 

So, in our left shoulder example, maybe one person was in a car accident ten years ago, and their shoulder just never felt quite right again after that. And maybe the second person is a perimenopausal woman whose shoulder pain has slowly come on over the last few months. Both patients have pain, but the pain comes from two entirely different issues and has been present for different time periods, so our approach to treatment will be quite different.   

All of that is a long tangent to illustrate the fact that every person, every issue is unique – and that means every treatment plan has to be different, too.

It’s an important conversation to have with your provider, and we will work together to identify some ways that you can track your progress over the course of your treatment. This ensures you’ll be able to see where you started and how far you’ve come. 

The goal in acupuncture is always to return you to balance and health.

With most conditions, we usually start by seeing you more frequently while we work to get the issue under control. As things stabilize and you start seeing improvement, we will reduce the frequency of your visits. Ultimately, our goal is to get you to a place where you only need to come in for a seasonal “tune up” to maintain wellness. Whenever possible, we want to resolve the issue – not just manage it.