Our highly trained practitioners will work with you to destress, alleviate pain, or begin working on a complicated medical condition. We offer Chinese medicine, herbal prescription and wellness treatments in our beautiful Asheville clinic!
Appointments can be booked conveniently online! please click here
Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture:
- New Patient Intake: first consultation to gather information, outline a treatment plan & prescribe herbal formula. Clients who book this service should expect to follow up with the same practitioner for a series of treatments to resolve the condition and discuss/ modify herbal formula. Booking sequential visits ahead of time is highly recommended to ensure practitioner availability and ensure continuity of care.
- Follow Up Treatment: consultation to quantify changes, modify formula, consult on the case or treatment options, and perform acupuncture & bodywork time permitting. Clients should expect to spend 40 dedicated minutes with their practitioner. Booking sequential visits ahead of time is highly recommended to ensure practitioner availability and ensure continuity of care.
- Extended Treatment: for new patients with complicated conditions or for those who require more than 40 minutes with their practitioner, please consider booking two back to back appointments.
Wellness Services:
- Neck & Shoulders Treatment: alleviate stress and soften the neck & upper back with this combination of massage, cupping and acupuncture.
- Abdominal Masssage for Optimal Health: this fully clothed treatment stimulates and enlivens the digestive system, tones abdominal tissue and supports fertility. For optimal benefit, a series of 3-5 sessions within a 4-6 week period is recommended.
- Destress Treatment: this fully clothed treatment resets the nervous system through the sound-vibration of singing bowls and tuning forks applied to meridians and acupoints. Deeply calming and resetting.
- Structural Bodywork: massage utilizing slow movement and solid hand pressure to reorganize the connective tissue and create lasting results & structural changes.
- Therapeutic Massage: 30, 60 or 90 minutes of relaxing or therapeutic massage tailored to each individual in our private massage room.
Pharmacy Services
Our pharmacy is the largest authentic herbal pharmacy in the Southeast! We fill herbal prescriptions by walk in and sell herbs to the public. Formulas must be submitted in person to our front desk staff with payment at time of order. Formulas will be added to our que and filled as quickly as possible. Formulas are not accepted by email or phone request.
Clinic Membership
The Alternative Clinic is a branch of the 501c3 not for profit organization, the Association for Traditional Studies (ATS) (www.traditionalstudies.org). We aim to bring eastern traditions of medicine and mindfulness to the modern world. In tandem with ATS’ online educational programs, our clinic showcases the efficacy and tangibility of Chinese medicine to the public, and promotes Chinese philosophy for health and wellness.
In the state of North Carolina, insurance rarely covers alternative medicine treatments. This makes acupuncture and wellness services a financial hardship for many. As a teaching clinic, we rely on a broad patient base and range in illness severity to create meaningful educational opportunities for interns. If our colleagues see effective treatment for a variety of illness in our clinic, they will be able to duplicate the skill in their home clinics. This elevates our profession and ensures the seeds of tangible and effective Chinese medicine are spread far beyond our clinic’s doors. Maintaining affordable treatment prices to ensure those with a variety of ailments and socioeconomic backgrounds are able to seek our care is thus crucial for our clinic’s credo.
There is no way to translate the cost of our practitioners dedication to one patient at a time, or the operating cost of our staff or wellness center to a per-patient or per-treatment price. Running a meaningful business does not easily translate to balanced business accounting.
Thus, our board of directors raises $50,000 each year to subsidize treatment prices, and we are always seeking grants and donations to expand our pro-bono services. Currently we provide 20% of our treatments on a pro-bono basis, including free care to the local fire and police force. Our herbs are top quality, lab tested and organic, yet we apply the lowest possible markup, ensuring that herbal medicine is also affordable for the short or long term.
Clinic membership is thus grass roots support crucial to helping us run a top notch clinic with exceptional practitioners and medicines at affordable and accessible prices. Membership shows grassroots support for our mission, which is crucial when applying for grants and funding, and creates a community of patients helping our community of patients.
Clinic membership is an annual tax-deductible contribution to support our work and make treatments affordable for all of our Asheville community. Members receive discounts on every Chinese medicine or wellness treatment, as both a thank you and encouragement to make follow up visits and wellness care a frequent part of one’s care regime.
Other Questions? Click here for more patient information.