Community Acupuncture: Bringing accessible healthcare to us all!
“We don’t heal in isolation, but in community.”
~S. Kelley Harrell
When you walk into the treatment room at Stillpoint Community Acupuncture, you will see people sleeping in recliners under blankets with their heads and feet exposed. Looking around the room you will experience a sense of comfort and tranquility. We like to call this experience “Aculand”.
There are many wonderful aspects of the Community Acupuncture model that expand upon our current medical model:
Collective Healing
The community setting provides a space for people to come together in healing. If you have received community acupuncture before, you know that it is very common to drift off among strangers and neighbours for an hour or two. This is similar to how acupuncture is practiced in Asia, with multiple patients being treated every hour with very little discussion. Many Community Acupuncture practitioners understand there is a collective energy field that is generated when several people receive treatment simultaneously. It is this collective energy that enhances individual treatments, yet allows us to heal together.
When we heal together, it interrupts the isolation that is so common with illness, depression, and chronic pain. This may be a silent experience, but it is a profound model of nonverbal community building, and collective healing.
Connecting with Oneself
By providing a time and space to be with ourselves, Community Acupuncture empowers us to have a relationship with our well-being. This can be as valuable as receiving treatment itself. Our modern lifestyles offer nearly endless sources of distraction and this constant input can have unfavorable impacts on our well-being. Having a space to unplug, reconnect, and ground is necessary. The Community Acupuncture model also focuses on engaging the patient and inviting collaboration within the healing process. At Stillpoint, we encourage you to stay as long as you need. This is a new thing for most folks, but we believe that your body knows what it needs and we give space for that conversation to develop in the time that you need.
Accessibility
The model of Community Acupuncture empowers the community to challenge the idea of value being attached to price. To receive an acupuncture treatment in Canada, most practitioners charge anywhere from $65 to $175 an hour. These rates make it inaccessible for most people to receive acupuncture. However, the growing number of Community Acupuncture clinics are working to shift this reality by offering treatments on a sliding scale where patients decide for themselves what they can realistically afford and how they choose to value the care they receive. This is a subjective conversation that includes financial means, frequency of care needed, and personal choice.
At Stillpoint Community Acupuncture we are open 5 days a week treating hundreds of people during that time. We believe that acupuncture need not be expensive to those with limited means. Acupuncture provided with this kind of structure breaks down class barriers, allowing people to come together in healing, regardless of financial status. It also challenges the idea that health is something that you consume privately, if you can afford it.
Be the Change
The Community Acupuncture model reflects our belief that health is something we share with our community, that we need the space and time to cultivate a relationship with our health, and that this opportunity is a right that needs to be accessible to everyone, despite any form of marginalization one may be affected by.
Haven’t tried acupuncture before, know someone who needs care, or haven’t been in for treatment for a while? Bring your friend, family, co-worker, partner in crime, or anyone else you think could benefit from acupuncture! While supporting a model that is working to create positive social change, you are actively contributing to this movement and allowing others to have access to effective and affordable health care.
