Client Education

What do I mean by “Client Education?”

I think that if you have been injured, are suffering from chronic pain or disease, or just are experiencing some persistent symptoms that are impacting your quality of life, part of what will help you is to have a better understanding of what is happening with you, and what you can do about it given the resources you have and some knowledge about what to do for yourself.

I will do my best to explain to you, in language you can understand, what is happening.  I do that by explaining as I go along what I am finding, what it means in terms of Asian Medicine, Western Medicine, and just plain English - my goal is for you to have a personal understanding of what is going on.  Sometimes that could mean teaching you about the anatomy of your injury, or about how your organ functions are affecting your condition. Sometimes it might involve looking at your cultural context, your home life, or looking more closely at your history.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you might need to know something about the process of dealing with insurance, attorneys, other medical practitioners, etc.  I will help you find out what you need to know about that, as well.

My belief is that any of us, when we are suffering, would like to know how to help ourselves.  I believe that there are many ways that we can become empowered to help ourselves, very often with just basic education about the specific issues we are facing.

Have you injured a muscle or joint?  If you understand what that means and specifically what your injury is, you can modify your movement, apply specific stretching or strengthening movements, or external applications to help yourself.  Maybe some herbal treatments might help.  Maybe a specific referral to another practitioner who specializes in your condition would be most helpful to you.

If you have a hormonal imbalance, and it is coming from a specific imbalance that you can understand and help with some basic home treatment, it will help you get better much faster while getting some treatment for it.

If your condition is impacted by medications you are taking, dietary habits that you have,  or environmental exposures from your work or living situation, I will do my best to help you to understand your health concerns and how they might be related to the context that you find yourself in.

If possible, I will suggest or teach you how to do specific movements, external applications, home treatments, or other self-care treatments that will help you.  If necessary, I will refer you to someone else who might better serve your needs, according to your specific situation, to the best of my ability.

To me, this is part of my responsibility as a practitioner of the traditional therapies that I have been trained in.  Any of this is included in the course of services that I provide.

Look around this site as time goes on - I will be posting new informational articles from time to time…

For more information, please give me a call at (206) 632-5640, or email me at ed@hibikimedia.com (Click the envelope icon at the top right of this page)

Ed Antkowiak, L.Ac. - Seattle Acupuncture and Professional Education