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Community Acupuncture Makes Natural Healing More Affordable

Dec 31, 2010 ● By Carrie Jackson

While acupuncture has been offered in a group setting for thousands of years in Asia, the American trend has been to treat patients individually. Interest in community acupuncture has been building and Chicago area practitioners find that by offering group treatments they are able to charge less money and see more patients in a day.

With community acupuncture, the practitioner briefly consults each patient and then lets  him or her rest in reclining chairs in a relaxing room with 2 to 10 other people. Lana Borkhovik, an acupuncturist at DGEA Lee Holistic Center in Mt. Prospect, says that seeing others at ease and healing actually reduces anxiety, allowing patients to respond to treatments more quickly. She says she finds the treatments to be so effective that patients often feel immediate relief.

One attraction of this model is the price. Instead of $60 and up for a typical private session, most community treatments run from $15 to $40, often on a sliding scale. “Four people can afford $15 more often than one person can afford $60,” explains Sarah Zender of Whole Health Acupuncture in Elk Grove Village.

Acupuncture can be used to treat everything from insomnia to Parkinson’s, but the most common ailments include stress, fatigue, pain, headaches, and allergies. Yoga Now North, in Rogers Park, hosts community acupuncture once a month. Studio manager Julia Rae Antonick says the practitioners can often tell what’s going on just by reading a patient’s energy pulses. “It can be profound for treating both acute problems that you know about, or ineffable imbalances that might remain a mystery.”

Anatoliy Pak, owner of Healing Arts Oriental Medicine in Deerfield, offers both one-on-one and group sessions with two patients at a time. With groups, to protect modesty, patients remain fully dressed and Pak uses points above the elbow and below the knee only. Since the treatment works with the natural energy that flows through the body, acupuncture needles need not be in the exact location of distress. For example, a weak gallbladder may be treated with a point in the lower leg. Pak says he has seen co-workers, friends and families get the healing they need at the same time, whatever the diagnosis.

For Yoga Now’s Antonick, community acupuncture is about more than a specific ailment. “The biggest benefit is getting in touch with your body, becoming friends with everything in your skin and loving being in this world while being human.”


DGEA Lee Holistic Center, 1228 N. River Rd, Mt. Prospect 60056; call 847-909-3432 or visit dgea.us

Healing Arts of Oriental Medicine, 405 Lake Cook Road, Suite A21, Deerfield 60015; call 847- 845-4090 or visit OrientalMedicineArts.com. See ad in the Community Resource Guide.

Whole Health Acupuncture, 50 E. Turner Ave, Elk Grove Village, 60007; call 847-357-3929 or visit wholehealthprograms.com. See ad in the Community Resource Guide.

Yoga Now North, 1220 W. Morse, Chicago 60626, hosts CA the 4th Sunday of the month at 6:30p; call 773-561-9642 or visit yoganowchicago.com


Other area resources offering Community Acupuncture:

Acupuncture Access, 915 Elmwood, Evanston 60202. Call 847-312-1797 or visit useacupuncture.com

Lincoln Square Energy, 4720A N. Lincoln, Chicago 60625. Call 773-878-3888 or visit squarenergy.com

Thrive Acupuncture, 5245 N. Clark Street, Chicago 60640. Call 773-331-3553 or visit thriveacupuncture.net

Wild Lavender Acupuncture Center, 2010 Terrace Dr, Mundelein 60060. Call 224-280-6228 or visit wildlavenderclinic.com


Carrie Jackson is an Evanston freelance writer and blogger. Visit her at speakingofcare.blogspot.com.