SACA turns 3

Nearly  9000 acupuncture treatments later, South Austin Community Acupuncture turns 3 years old today!
November 15th, 2006 we opened our doors for business. What a long, strange trip it's been...

Thank you to our friends and patrons.
It is with your support that we are able to keep this beautiful dream alive.

Speaking of acudetox, The Great American Smokeout is Nov. 19th

Ready to stop smoking? Join us Nov 19th for The Great American Smokeout. We'll be offering FREE acudetox treatments all day on a walk in basis for those who are giving up their smokes.

Acudetox at South Austin Community Acupuncture

South Austin Community Acupuncture is a sliding scale acupuncture clinic where treatments happen in a group setting. We are now now making acudetox treatments available for a flat $10 per session.

Acudetox treatment utilizes the National Association of Detoxification Acupuncture (or NADA) protocol developed by Dr. Michael Smith at the Lincoln Recovery Center in the Bronx. It is an extremely simple and effective treatment consisting of the insertion of five small acupuncture needles into points in each ear. It is used widely all over the world for all kinds of addictions, habituated behaviors, stress, and trauma.

One of the more salient features of the treatment is that it is a non-verbal therapy. You don’t have to talk about where you’ve been or what you are going through. Rather, you essentially do nothing. Hence the name: NADA (Spanish for nothing). In essence what happens in the treatment is you get to experience a few moments of inner peace. For most in recovery, this is a new experience – or at least one that has long since been obscured or forgotten. So the NADA treatment affords a glimpse of something we all possess innately inside ourselves.

We are separating the NADA treatments from our usual $15-$40 sliding scale acupuncture, and making them $10 because we want to make the process of getting acudetox treatments more straightforward, and because we want people to be able to get frequent treatments – which can be especially important early in the process of recovery.

Blawg, Blawg, Blawg, Blawg, Blawg

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, so the saying goes. And so, a month has just about lapsed since my last post. Well, a lot has happened in that time to take me away from cyber reality. We got new shirts. We got new bumper stickers. We had our grand opening party, which was nuts -  45 free treatments were given. Los Pinkys played. Strange and interesting people came and went. We lived to tell the tale.
More to come...

Let them go out of business

The insurance lobby dislikes a "public option" for fear it would drive them out of business. Folks, we have a morally reprehensible health care system in this country: one in which middlemen profit hugely on the suffering and disease of others. Insurance companies are responsible to their shareholders, and they are in the business of making money - not delivering healthcare. Period.

I had a patient tell me today he spent $9000 on insurance premiums last year for his family. Without even using his insurance, he spent an additional $9000 out of pocket . This is because he has a high deductable policy so he can afford to have insurance. This is insane.

I say let them go out of business.

Daring to Cross the Great Ben White Divide

We relocated to the Ben White access road - on the South side - as of July, 2009. This was a bold move, no doubt. We did this because our lease was up, and our landlord on South Lamar proved to be an absolute nightmare (and still is some three months after leaving). We decided the price of being in a increasingly "hip" part of town simply wasn't worth it. Besides, 99% of our customers drove their cars to get to us anyway.

We never wanted to land in a commercial strip center. But after three years of dealing with one ridiculous situation after another on South Lamar, we were willing to explore the possibilities.

What we found is: a space that is significantly larger for less money; a totally likable landlord that treats us like human beings; a lease that is joyfully straightforward; and a management company that was willing to do all of the make ready to our space to our liking. The space is quieter, and we have a great view of the sky and the green edge of South Austin out our front windows. We have found beauty in the unlikeliest of places.

Grand Opening Party/AAOM Day October 24th

Join us Saturday, October 24th, 2009 as we celebrate Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day and the Grand Opening of our new location. We'll have an open house and be giving FREE treatments from 10am - 4pm. Party to follow with music by Conjunto Los Pinkys. More details to follow...