What To Expect

Before your appointment

Before your first appointment with us, you will be emailed a consent form. You will need to fill in some personal details as well as sign that you consent to treatment. All appointments booked include a consultation and an acupuncture treatment.

When booking online, initial consultations are scheduled as 40 minutes and follow ups as 20 minutes. It’s important to note that this is not the length of your appointment, but the length of your time with your practitioner. For initial consultations, please allow up to 75 minutes. For follow up appointments, please allow up to 60 minutes.

Arriving at your appointment

Please arrive on time or ideally a few minutes early for your scheduled appointment time. You will find us in the Garden Room of the Telegraph Hill Community Centre. This is the room straight in front of you when you enter the building, past reception, and down the ramp/small flight of stairs. Come straight into the clinic and take a seat if one is available. If you are early, or the clinic is particularly busy, we may ask you to wait outside for a few minutes.

We are able to offer low cost acupuncture due to the way we schedule appointments. This means that you attending on time for appointments is really important for the clinic and the quality of your treatment. You may find that being late will directly impact the appointment we are able to offer you, either by limited the time for chat, or having to rearrange the appointment. Occasionally, you will have a short wait for your appointment time. Our practitioners work hard to run on time, but in order to provide safe and compassionate care to all, they may sometimes run late. Please bear with them, the practitioners are doing an amazing job of providing accessible acupuncture.

If possible, wear loose fitting clothing to your appointments and have eaten something that day, ideally something light an hour before. It also helps to arrive well hydrated.

The Consultation

When you arrive at Hilltop Community Acupuncture, you take a seat in our consultation area. This is a shared space, however you are able to have your one to one consultation. Despite being a shared space, patients often comment on how private and personal this time can feel. They will also use two diagnostic tools, looking at the tongue and feeling the pulse. In an Initial Consultation, your practitioner will have anywhere from 20-30 minutes to discuss what has bought you to treatment, learn about your health history and current concerns. In a follow up appointment, your practitioner will have 7-10 minutes to ask how you’ve been feeling since your last treatment, check in on progress and discuss your concerns.

The Treatment

After taking a lie down, your practitioner will explain their plans for treatment and what to expect from the needling. Acupuncture points will be used across the body and your practitioner may need to move your clothing to reach your legs, abdomen, back or arms.

You will rest with the needles in for between 20 and 40 minutes. In this time, your practitioner is treating someone else. However, because this is a shared space, your practitioner is always on hand should you need any support during your treatment. Many patients fall asleep, or move into a deep state of relaxation. When your treatment time is up, your practitioner will remove your needles and you’ll be free to get up and get ready.

After your session

At the end of your acupuncture appointment, someone will be on hand to take payment and book in your next appointment. We have a sliding scale payment policy at Hilltop Community Acupuncture. That means that you pay the prices that suits your budget from our range. This is not means tested, you get to choose what is affordable for you. You will be asked at the end of your appointment what you feel comfortable paying between £25-£50. If this is your initial consultation, you will have already paid a £10 booking fee, making our initial appointments £35-£50, accounting for the longer appointment time.

We also have a Loyalty Card. This means if you get 8 treatments the 9th is free! This will be given and signed when you pay for you appointment. Just to note: we don’t backdate loyalty cards, we can also sign for the appointment being paid for that day.

A member of the team can book your next appointment now too, or you can book your own appointments using our online booking system.

Accessibility Needs

You are really proud to offer an accessible space at Hilltop Community Acupuncture. The space is wheelchair friendly, we have a disabled toilet, we use soft lighting and all our practitioners are confident in supporting a wide array of accessibility needs. If you have any accessibility needs that you would like to discuss, or let us know about prior to your appointment, please email us at info@hilltopacupuncture.co.uk

Inclusive Spaces

We are also proud to offer inclusive, trauma-informed healthcare at Hilltop Community Acupuncture. We see that our patients are very representative of the community we live in. We are driven by the belief that everyone should have access to healthcare and acupuncture. We are working together, striving to make acupuncture accessible and affordable for a wider community, in order to allow individuals from all backgrounds to access this amazing medicine. Whoever you are, we cannot wait to welcome you.

Cancellation Policy

Please note that we have a 48 hour cancellation policy – appointments missed or cancelled within a 48 hour period will be charged £25. In order to continue to offer low cost acupuncture, we have to uphold this policy strictly.