10 tricks
By Acupuncture Wu Wei Posted March 7, 2018
In this article I am going to expose 10 very easy measures to apply in your consultation, which in my case have meant a before and after not only in the therapeutic effectiveness, but also in the gratitude and recognition of the patient towards our clinic.
Before starting I would like to make it clear, is that this list is personal. There will be people who will commune with him and people who will not. What is stated here, like everything else, is not an absolute truth, it is simply my truth. It's all I can give you, and that's what I do:
In this first part of the article I am going to explain 5 tricks that have nothing to do with the act of puncturing the patient (that remains for the second part). These first five deal with what surrounds the act of puncturing, the environment, the treatment ... (don't underestimate them!)
Tip 1. Rapport
Rapport is the vision that the patient has of a therapist. The more rapport we believe with a patient, the more trust they will have in us. This aspect is very intangible, and many will question its value. However, we all know the power of the mind in the body. Someone who fervently believes that he is going to be cured, faces his pathology with a much more positive mental pattern, and although this I do not think is enough to heal, it is very important on a therapeutic level. As TCM therapists we know the power of the somatization of emotions and mental patterns in the body.
Ok, the concept seems interesting, but how did we create Rapport?
For me there are basically two great aspects in Rapport
1. Professional “respect”
2. The “Feeling” with the therapist
To explain respect, I will use the typical image of the doctor in private practice. You sit in front of a luxurious desk, with the doctor in front, in an immaculate white coat, and behind him / her a wall absolutely full of diplomas and recognitions.
The entire image is designed to convey a single message to you: You are in the best possible hands. That gives you confidence in the professionalism of the person in front of you. Automatically your rapport towards the professional has grown. Some even start the process in the waiting room, with news and more diplomas hanging everywhere.
Regarding the "Feeling" with the therapist, this section is much more human. It is about the therapist's empathy, about eye contact, about touching the patient on the arm or shoulder during the session, about smiling with the look, about letting the person know that we are 100% with her, even if only during 20 minutes. And it is about our attitude, that he sees that we know what we do and so many other things that I am still learning, and that I think I can always do a little bit better.
Tip 2. Environment
Although it seems very obvious, it is still incredibly important. Entering a consultation with poor, messy and dirty decoration will prevent the patient from feeling comfortable, and that at an energetic level is noticeable, the patient does not feel comfortable and that will keep him more tense than desirable, with the effect that this has in its energetic pattern. The more relaxed a patient is during therapy, the more relaxed the Wei Qi will be. Put plants in the box! They renew the air. Put up beautiful posters or posters with a Chinese theme, put a Buddha, put wooden objects (warmth), there are a thousand things you can do to put your beautiful query. And if, like me, you have no idea of decorating, do an exchange with a patient who has pleasure, I always advocate exchanges, what a beautiful way to help each other!
Tip 3. Heat
The space where the patient lies down and waits between 20 and 60 minutes with the needles in place must not only be well acclimatized, it is convenient that the room temperature is a little higher than usual for several reasons:
-The patient is inactive for a long time, which will naturally cause him to cool down and require a higher temperature to feel comfortable.
-High temperature helps to relax and fall asleep (the best state of a patient on the stretcher is asleep)
- A high temperature raises the Wei Qi to the surface and therefore opens the acupuncture points and facilitates the therapeutic effect of the needles
Tip 4. Bonus
Always give a bonus to the patient. Something that comes as a gift, something that goes a little beyond the visit to the acupuncturist. In this aspect there can be a thousand different things. I am going to give some examples:
1.Offer an infusion (the ideal here is to be a crack diagnosing the person just by looking at them and offer them a hot, cold, invigorating or relaxing infusion depending on how the patient is)
2. Finish your session with a cranial or abdominal massage, even for 5 minutes. Patients are infinitely grateful. Do you know the massage that all hairdressers do now when they wash your hair? Well that
3. Make 5 feeding guides (eye, not diet, simple advice) one for each element and give the patient a copy of the guide for his predominant element or the element that is in imbalance and explain to him that to add some of the advice to his diet will help you feel better
Tip 5. Drift !!!!
Learn to say no!
Yes yes, you heard right. In an article on how to improve your therapies, and therefore, how to have more patients, the guy goes and tells you to refer patients who you think someone else can help more.
I am going to develop this point a little bit because I think it is very important. In fact, I had planned to write an article with just this. However, I'm not going to do it because Juan Pablo Moltó has a video where, as always, he perfectly explains this aspect. I'm going to link it (but hey! Look at it after finishing the article, otherwise you will not press the little heart that there is to indicate that you liked it or share the article ...)
Basically it is about accepting that perhaps we are not the most suitable, as therapists, for absolutely all patients. Do you agree? Are you the best in all aspects? There is a very interesting phrase about this: If you believe that all people can be your patients, surely you will not have patients
Knowing yourself is knowing your own strengths as well as your weaknesses. For example, are you not good at treating pain? (Well sign up for our pain seminar: P) Find another therapist who is very good at it and refer your patients to him.
Basically it is an exercise in humility and love towards patients. Saying: "I'm going to refer you to a therapist who can help you better than I can" is scary at first. But let me illustrate it with an example that happened to me years ago.
I, apart from being an acupuncturist, among other things, I am a musician. I play the electric guitar. And I had a very expensive amplifier but I didn't like its sound anymore. So I took the money that was available at the time and went to buy a new amp. I came to a store that had been recommended to me and said to the man:
I have a Mesa Boogie Road King 2 and I don't like the sound of it, I come to buy a new amp and I bring this money for it.
I basically offered him the easiest sale of his life. However, he asked me:
What kind of music do you do?
I replied that I was doing Rock and I told him my reference groups. To which he replied something that really marked me forever:
Then the amp you have is the best possible for you. From what you tell me, it is possible that there is a bad connection in the Effects Loop, it is quite common. What you have to do is repair it, we don't do it, but here -he went to look for a card! FROM ANOTHER BUSINESS! - they repair it, fast and at a good price, you'll see!
So I grabbed my things and left, money in my pocket. And he didn't win anything….
Won't you win anything? Mistake, he won a customer forever. I repaired the amplifier for € 100 (indeed the Loop was fried). From that day on, every time I want to buy something, or simply every time I don't know if I'm interested in buying something, I go there. Why? because I know their goal is not to keep my money, their goal is to help me. And that is priceless
But there is still more! Since that day, ALWAYS someone asks me where they can go to buy music, I recommend with their eyes closed that they go to that place, that place is the panacea, because for me it is not just a store, it is a trustworthy place. where people work to help you
By the way, their website, in case there are more guitarists out there ...
https://www.fanaticguitars.com/
(Ask for Juanjo and tell him that you come from me!)
Extrapolating the example to your query is very easy, that is why I wanted to extend myself at this point. If you refer your patients, your patients will know that your priority is their health. And even if you refer them this time, the next time they have a problem they will come to you, because they will know that you don't want to sell them anything, you want to help them.
But wait! There's still more!
On the other side of town there will be a therapist who will be wide-eyed, because his competition has just sent him a patient and with nothing in return! Well, this therapist, if he is a little smart and wants to help his patients too, he will start referring patients to you! Imagine if you refer 5 therapists, the number of patients you will have will be much higher, and all your patients will improve even more!
So far the first part of the article, in a couple of weeks I hope to have the second part ready. If you liked it, give a like and share it. If you want me to elaborate on any of the points or if you think something is missing (something is always missing), do not hesitate to put it in the comments and thus we all learn a little more!
Author: Xavier Jordà Díaz, Acupuntuor and Co-founder of Acupuncture Wu Wei
