What Is Community Acupuncture?
Acupuncture works best when people can use it regularly. Community acupuncture is a way to make that possible.
It’s a simple idea:
provide care in a shared space so people can come often enough to benefit from it consistently and avoid isolation while doing so.
Personalized treatments are provided:
- in a shared room
- in comfortable recliners
- fully-clothed
Even though the room is shared, it’s usually quite still—people resting, often sleeping, each in their own space.
You’ll also notice several large air purifiers running, cleaning the air and creating a low-level of white noise that helps keep conversations private.
Why Community Acupuncture Exists
To remove barriers preventing people from getting enough treatment to actually see change.
Cost is the biggest barrier. Finding time in one's schedule is another.
This model is built to address that directly with a low sliding-scale fee schedule and two locations open almost all the time.
How It’s Different
In the U.S., acupuncture is often provided one-on-one in private rooms.
Community acupuncture takes a more traditional approach:
- shared space
- lower cost
- easier to get treated consistently
That consistency is often what allows change to happen more readily over time.
Our Story
Manchester Acupuncture Studio (MAS) opened in June of 2007.
Before that, director Andy Wegman spent years working in a private-room setting in a local integrative medical practice as the staff acupuncturist.
One problem kept coming up: many people couldn’t come often enough to benefit in lasting ways— most often due to cost.
MAS was built to change that. Nearly twenty years and hundreds of thousands of treatments on, it's safe to say we were on to something.