Community style acupuncture is available this summer in Grygla

Great North Acupuncture has been open for business since early March. You may recall the Grygla Eagle featuring a story a few months ago on the local business, which is owned and operated by Rachel Rychlock, L.Ac. (Licensed Acupuncturist)

The private practice, which is located in Thief River Falls, provides Complementary & Alternative Medicine to its patients. Rachel practices Traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes acupuncture and herbal medicine. TCM is a medicine of restoring balance by treating the cause of the imbalance. All parts of the body, mind and spirit are looked at and treated in such ways to promote self-healing.

When Rachel, and her husband, moved from California to Grygla last winter, her goal was to open her own acupuncture clinic, which she accomplished last March, but she also wanted to offer area residents community acupuncture. The idea behind community style acupuncture is to offer a more affordable option for anyone that wants to receive acupuncture. In larger cities all over the U.S., there are clinics that offer strictly community style acupuncture. That model works well because they are highly populated areas, open several days a week, and have multiple practitioners. “The community style acupuncture model isn’t exactly ideal for a town the size of Grygla, but since Grygla is the ‘biggest town of its size’, why not give it a try,” Rachel recognized.

As mentioned, Rachel has her private acupuncture office in downtown Thief River Falls, located on Labree Avenue, in the Professional Building. She earned her Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco, CA, and is a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) with the Minnesota Medical Board. 

Patients might wonder how community acupuncture differs from private acupuncture. There are a few differences when opting for community style acupuncture vs. visiting Rachel in her Thief River Falls office. First of all, as expected, the treatments aren’t as private. Patients are in a shared space with at least three other individuals. Both types can treat a numerous amount of symptoms and issues, but community acupuncture is less expensive; the time spent with the patient is less. Patients still get a therapeutic response, however, which is the ultimate goal.

When visiting Rachel privately, she is able to use more tools and techniques, of course. She adds, “The more complex the patient is, the more I would need additional time with them.  If someone is not sure what is appropriate, they can always call me and we can talk through it prior to a visit.”

Each treatment session is very individual, based on what problems the patient is experiencing. Although the space is shared, the room is quiet, and the atmosphere is relaxed. Patients can expect to meet briefly with Rachel, discussing what they’d like to be treated for. 

A health history and consent for treatment form is filled out (online prior to the appointment, or on paper when the patient arrives) and the session can begin. Because of the community-style setting, it’s more fast-paced and no body work is done along with the treatment. “The patient interaction takes about 5 minutes,” Rachel says. “It then takes about 5 minutes to place the needles and 20-30 minutes of the patient relaxing in the reclining chair. I start one person, move on to the next, and by the time I finish with the fourth patient, I go back and remove the needles from the first person and begin again,” she adds.

Patients don’t need to bring anything with them and are asked to wear comfortably fitting clothing. The cost of each session is $30.00 for the first visit, and $25.00 thereafter. “I want people in Grygla to have these treatments available to them. It gets expensive to go into town and/or do private acupuncture. Community style is a way to get the treatments here and make them affordable,” Rachel added.

Acupuncture is very successful in treating pain of all kinds, both chronic and acute pain. Rachel also treats patients with insomnia, headaches, asthma, women’s health issues, sport’s injuries, stroke rehabilitation, nausea, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, and symptom support for those undergoing cancer therapies.

Two of her patients, who were more than willing to share their success stories with the Grygla Eagle, are Ray McMillin and Midge Weeks. Ray and Midge have been acupuncture patients for some time now. Midge claimed when she first tried acupuncture, in Crookston, MN, she was very skeptic. She stated that she had no expectations for her first treatment, but has since changed her tune. “I tried it and it worked for me. I was having so much trouble with my shoulder so I tried massage therapy and nothing seemed to work. It was suggested I try acupuncture and I’ve been having great results,” told Midge. 

“I had a muscle that was torn apart due to a fall. The doctor gave me a 30% chance of being able to fix it, along with 8 months of rehab. The pain I was in was excruciating. I had spasms all of the time that only disappeared after doing acupuncture,” she voiced.

Ray McMillin had suffered a stroke and was facing issues with swallowing. He was choking even with drinking water, Midge claimed. After trying acupuncture, his swallowing has improved greatly. In fact, when he was down in Florida for the winter, unable to get his treatments, the swallowing difficulties began again. As soon as he was back in Grygla, he started seeing Rachel for his treatments and those difficulties started to fade.

“Try it,” urged Midge. “It’s worth a shot. It might not be for everything you’ve got going on with you, but it just might be able to fix a lot of it. Rachel is very thorough and she’s very good. Having her and these treatments available to us is a huge asset to us and to our community.”

Rachel noted that often people turn to acupuncture when it’s their last resort; when they’ve tried everything else and nothing has worked. “…but it’s fantastic when we can make someone feel better,” she expressed.

For the next 8 weeks, during the months of June and July, Great North Acupuncture will be offering community acupuncture in Grygla to area residents. The treatments will be offered in the board room at the Grygla Civic Building from 12:30-3pm, every Tuesday. Walk-ins are welcome, however, to guarantee a treatment, it is best to schedule ahead. 

Appointments can be made by calling Rachel at 218-686-2151 or emailing rachel@greatnorthacupuncture.com. Patients can also schedule online at www.greatnorthacupuncture.com.