Dialogues In the Acupuncture Clinic

Patient Communication

If you are in practice for any length of time, you quickly realize that you are repeating the same messages over and over again. I mean over and over and over again! I call these “dialogues” or “scripts”. Taking some time to analyze and fine tune your dialogues is a very valuable exercise. Try to make them as compact as possible. Search for the exact right words that convey the meaning you want. Choose words that leave as little as possible open to interpretation and watch out for the use of words that have negative or scary connotations.

I prefer to use the term “acupuncture” to “needle”, “sore” and “achey” instead of “pain”, “oxygenated blood” or “weird feelings” instead of “qi”.

Here is a sample dialogue I use before inserting a needle on a new patient:

“Just like when I was pressing on these spots you got a sore achey feeling, you can get a similar feeling when we do the acupuncture. Also, the muscle can twitch when we hit the right spot (I’ll put my hand on them as I say this and simulate a twitch), the twitching doesn’t hurt but it can feel weird. I want to know what you’re feeling. I don’t think anything will be too much but if something was just tell me ‘stop’. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop the treatment. I’ll just move on to something else”

This blog was adapted from an excerpt of my upcoming book “Ashi Acupuncture: Advanced Deep Needling Techniques”

Please comment below or share dialogues you commonly use.