• For Patients

    Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture | The Alternative Clinic

New Patients

New Patient Paperwork

We are a paper-free office, with a hippa compliant, secure electronic medical records system. Please come to the clinic 20 minutes BEFORE the start of your first appointment to complete treatment consent forms.  For your convenience,  forms and policies can be previewed at the following links • Booking Policies • Treatment Consent Form • Privacy Policies

Medical Release Form

If you require copies of your medical or billing records to share with another practitioner or insurance, we are required to receive a signature on the attached medical release form. Please print sign and return to us: Medical Release Form.

Parking

We are located at 119 Coxe Avenue, in downtown Asheville’s south slope.

During busy tourist seasons, please plan ahead to come early and find parking on the top decks of the garages.

There is limited street parking on Coxe Avenue and we do have a very small parking lot. However, if you are able to walk two blocks, we ask you reserve our 7 limited spaces for our most mobility challenged patients. The department of Human Services parking garage at 94 Coxe Avenue has ample space.  All city garages are free for the first hour, with low rates per subsequent hour.

Click for a map of parking downtown Asheville.

Cancellation Policy

We understand that situations arise that necessitate changing or cancelling an appointment. Please understand we do rely on the income from booked appointments to maintain affordable prices and offer pro bono care to those in need.

If you need to reschedule or cancel your appointment, please provide us with 24 hours notice.  We can be reached at 828-424-7415. Late cancellations and no shows will be charged $35

For Current Patients

• Herb Preparation Instructions

• Dao De Jing Translation

• Eight Healing Sounds Link

• Patting Practices Link

• How to Pour Tea

• Pharmacy Herbs List

Frequently Asked Questions

Chinese medicine was the dominant medical modality in Asia for thousands of years until the early 1900’s. Treating a vast population through life and death, peace, famine, war and epidemic, the scope of Chinese medicine is not accurately described by listing symptoms that acupuncture can treat, like saying “acupuncture treats back pain”.

If you have come to this page looking for help and wonder if we can treat you – YES WE CAN!

We treat people, not disease, and would love the opportunity to show you the tangibility and efficacy of Chinese medicine done well.

The following illnesses were successfully treated with Chinese medicine, documented in the Tang Dynasty by Sun Si Miao, famous Daoist & Scholar (581 – 682 CE) in his encylopedic text the Thousand Ducat Formulae《Qian Jin Yao Fang 千金要方》

  • Abdomen Pain, Stomach Fullness, Nausea & Vomitting
  • Back and Spine
  • Benefiting the Qi
  • Blood in Urine
  • Body Itching (scabies)
  • Boils/ Ulcers
  • Brighten the Eyes
  • Build Bone Marrow
  • Carbuncles & Swellings
  • Chest & Rib Fullness
  • Cholera & Twisting Tendons
  • Cough & Asthma
  • Coursing Urine
  • Create Sweat (literally to exit sweat)
  • Diarrhea
  • Difficult Birth, Placenta Not Coming Out
  • Digesting Food
  • Evil (fierce, severe or toxic) Sores
  • Face Flushing
  • Forgetfulness
  • Growing (engendering) Muscle Flesh
  • Hernia, Accumulations, Leaking from Below
  • Intestinal Piles (hemorroids)
  • Itching
  • Mouth Sores
  • Nose Bleeding
  • Parasites (literally invisible worms)
  • Red Painful Eyes
  • Solidify the Teeth
  • Spasms & Tremors
  • Spitting Blood
  • Stomach Pain, Intestine Hardness
  • Stop Sweat
  • Stop Tearing (of the eyes)
  • Stop Urine Flow
  • Tendons and Bones
  • Vomiting Blood
  • Wasting & Thirsting (Diabetes)
  • Weak feet, Pain and Cold
  • Yin Eroding Sores

The following is the list of the most commonly searched diseases on the internet. We treat these conditions as well. If you are searching for more information about any of these illnesses, please take the time to come in and speak with us. There is so much that Chinese medicine (which includes acupuncture, bodywork & herbs) can do to alleviate these complaints.

  • Heart Disease
  • Cancer
  • Stroke
  • Respiratory Disease
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Influenza & Pneumonia
  • Diabetes
  • Physical Injury
  • Septicemia
  • Back Pain

Disclaimer: Many sites provide a list of diseases acupuncture can treat. (Now, our site is the same)  Our marketing team tells us we must do this, otherwise the patients that seek treatment information will not find our clinic’s website in search engines.

As practitioners of medicine, and not internet marketers, we feel it is important to state that providing a list of what we can treat seems to indicate that there are conditions that are not treatable with Chinese medicine. It would be very sad if we forgot to list the symptom you are currently suffering with, and as a result you decided we couldn’t help you. Chinese medicine doesn’t treat symptoms or diseases, it treats people.

Not only are we more experienced, we are more affordable than any other clinic in town, hands down. However you should’t choose us for price alone! Our per treatment prices are transparently listed on our booking software.  As a not for profit clinic, we seek donations and grants to keep prices affordable for every single patient, as we can’t get you better if consistent treatment is cost prohibitive.  We also offer pro-bono care to those in need, and discounts on every treatment for clinic members.  Patients with chronic illness should expect to come at least twice a month at first while taking an herbal formulas daily.  Once a condition is improving, herbs are the main modality of treatment and visits to the clinic become less frequent.  Herbs typically cost a few dollars per day, while treatments are usually less than $100.

We also offer tip-free massage and wellness treatments.  Herbs are not prescribed during wellness sessions, and follow up visits are not expected with any of our massage or wellness services.

For current prices, please view our  online scheduling system.

We accept Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) debit cards.  If acupuncture is covered by your insurance, we can provide an insurance ready superbill for you to submit to your provider. Treatment costs are due in full at time of service.

Our job is to get you better.  We hold ourselves to the doctrine of the Classic of Difficulties, a seminal text of Chinese medicine written over two thousand years ago. The Classic of Difficulties《Nan Jing 難經》states that the lowest level of doctor must get 6/10 patients better.  A mid level doctor achieves success in 7/10 patients, while a high level doctor successfully treats 9/10 patients.  We aim to be at least the lowest level of doctor with a 60% success rate.  This responsibility to be the best we can be and help the Asheville community is something we do not take lightly.  If you are coming to the clinic week after week, month after month, and still not getting better, then we are failing in our job.

For patients with physical injuries, great improvement is often seen right away, but rarely is the problem cured completely with only one treatment. We request that a patient is committed to four treatments before booking a first patient intake. On the fourth treatment, the practitioners have benefitted from enough contact time to see the condition clearly, have already provided three treatments and have seen how the body is responding each time to acupuncture & bodywork. In most situations the patient has also taken an herbal formula.

Thus, by the fourth treatment we can evaluate results, fine tune our treatment plan, and can realistically estimate how long it will take to return a patient to health. By the fourth treatment we are clear if we are seeing progress, or if we need to change tactics. Chronic illness and complicated conditions often take 3-4 treatments to even begin to understand and untangle issues that have developed over months or years.

We understand not everyone can afford continual care, and may just need massage or acupuncture to relax or unwind.  We now offer wellness services as single ‘walk in’ treatments.  Follow up visits are not expected with any of our wellness treatment options.

We value building relationships with our patients to provide solutions from the Chinese medical perspective of health & treatment.

A treatment session lasts 30-40 minutes including discussion, acupuncture & bodywork and formula prescription.

Depending on the complexity of the condition, a first consultation is spent understanding the condition, discussing treatment options and prescribing an herbal formula. Often, there is only a small portion of time left for a physical treatment on the first visit.

Subsequent visits are focused on physical treatments and tangibly seeing results. Most patients should expect to be prescribed an herbal regimen to follow, as taking herbs is often the most profound way to affect the condition of the body, and is similar to receiving a treatment twice every day.

Click here for more information on our herbal pharmacy.

Our practitioners are experienced and knowledgeable. Our founders received extensive training and experience under the last great doctors in Beijing.

Please click here to read more about our practitioners.