Jessica Kennedy is an acupuncturist in Perth. She's the founder of Community Acupuncture Perth and she runs her own private acupuncture practice. She loves supporting people's wellbeing through the joy of traditional Chinese medicine.
We’re rushing around now to open for our second week today – time never stands still now does it. But we just wanted to share some photos with you of the beautiful new space we’ve set up for you to come and have some low cost acupuncture.
How are we able to deliver such affordable treatment without compromising on quality?
Well…
While your needles are in, we’ll be talking to someone else, getting them ready for their treatment
We streamline all of our processes, so as much as possible of our time is spent with you, rather than on admin
We focus in on acupuncture, we don’t offer cupping and herbs and other aspects of Chinese Medicine
We work as a team – you may see a different practitioner at different visits (each treatment is delivered to you by that practitioner, not by Community Acupuncture Perth)
Community acupuncture is not for everyone, but for those who love it, they just love it!
We’re so pleased to announce that community acupuncture is coming to Cottesloe! You can book in for treatment on Wednesday afternoons from 10 March 2021. Your first appointment will be $60, and ongoing apppointments a hard-to-beat $40.
It’s been a loooong journey to find the ideal space for us to offer you community treatment. We are being hosted by the wonderful Solaris Centre at 80 Railway St in Cottesloe. And once we found the right spot, so many things just fell into place perfectly.
What is community acupuncture?
Community acupuncture is all about making acupuncture accessible for everyone. It’s well established all around the world, but we think it’s new to Perth! What it boils down to is low-cost treatment, in a group setting.
We don’t cut any corners. We work as a team, we’ve streamlined all of our processes, and while your needles are in we can start someone else’s treatment. This is how we bring you a top quality treatment at a reduced cost.
Is community acupuncture right for you?
Some people LOVE receiving acupuncture in a group environment. But be aware that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Having a consultation and treatment in a single large space is an unusual experience – more like being in a hospital ward than being in a private room with a doctor – but if it suits you, people often report a lovely communual atmosphere of mutual support.
Have a think whether it will suit you.
Meet the team
This is me, Jessica Kennedy. I’m an acupuncturist and I’ve been working hard to bring you community acupuncture! I’ve been interested in it for years, but it was a trip to visit the fabulous Bec Rickey at her community acupunctuture clinic near Margaret River that finally got me inspired into action.
But this is going to be a team effort, with lots of other acupuncturists keen to get involved, once we get going. You may see different practitioners on different visits, and receive different styles of treatment. We’ll be working hard to give you seamless care.
Book your treatment today
You can book online, or get in touch with any questions.
After you book you’ll receive an email confirming your appointment, the clinic address, etc.
The email will include a link to our online intake form – it will be super important that you fill that in at least 24 hours before your appointment. The form also includes lots more info for you to read, to confirm that you’ll be comfortable with community acupuncture.
Wow, what a great day it was at the Yanchep Fire Thank you Day on Sunday! Aidan Hurley and Jessica Kennedy provided fireys, fire affected residents, and members of the community, with free relaxing ear acupuncture. This was a community appreciation event for all the incredible work done by our WA fireys, both within the state and on their trips out east.
“It was fantastic to be able to do something practical to show appreciation for the mind-blowing dedication of our volunteer fireys. Feeling the quiet and the healing energy of this group of people sitting together with needles in their ears in was quite something. This simple treatment often creates a moment of stillness and relaxation, no matter what else is going on. It was so cool to be able to offer that.”
Jessica Kennedy, Acupuncturist, Community Acupuncture Perth
It probably wasn’t the first thing that people were expecting to see at this event! Perth hasn’t seen free ear acupuncture before. But, once the community saw the opportunity, people of all different stripes signed up. It would be great to be able to say that a shared calm settled on the room, and never really lifted during the four hours of the event, but actually there was a ton of background noise, oh my. Acupuncturists and patients both did well to achieve some nice calm focus in a busy space.
What next?
Community
Acupuncture Perth is planning to offer more free ear acupuncture at community
events. They’ll also soon start offering
both affordable ear acupuncture and full-body community acupuncture. The team is passionate about reaching as much
of the community as possible, with the benefits of acupuncture and traditional
Chinese medicine.
What is Community
Acupuncture Perth?
We are going to bring affordable community acupuncture to Perth
This is well established in many parts of the world
There are two main forms:
drop-in ear acupuncture clinics (supporting relaxation, addictions or trauma)
multi-bed full acupuncture clinics (for various health complaints)
Ear acupuncture is often used for relaxation, to help people experiencing addictions, or to support people who are experiencing trauma
We will be offering:
low cost drop-in ear acupuncture clinics
free ear acupuncture at more community events (event organisers can contact us for info)
affordable multi-bed full-body acupuncture (for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it, receiving treatment alongside other patients in the same room)
We have a passion for sharing the experience and benefits of acupuncture with as much of our community as possible
Taking part in these communal experiences often creates a beautiful healing energy across the group
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So I’m five days away from delivering the first Community Acupuncture Perth event, and I’m slightly wondering how on earth I suddenly got to this point!
I’ll be delivering free ear acupuncture to fireys, residents, and the community at the upcoming Yanchep Fire Thank You Day. I’m soooo excited, I can’t wait…
My inspirations
This idea didn’t come out of the blue, and I can’t take credit for thinking it up. For years, in acupuncture journals, I’ve read articles and admired the work of organisations like Acupuncturists without Borders. They do AMAZING trips to disaster zones, to provide free ear acupuncture to aid workers and residents, to help everyone process their trauma.
I’ve also been aware of organisations like AcuDetox, who also work with trauma survivors, plus supporting all kinds of low cost clinics where ear acupuncture is offered to people with substance abuse problems.
But none of that really connected with the idea that me, myself, I, could do that kind of thing, until…
I want to DO something to help!
Watching all the apocalyptic coverage of the fires on Australia’s east coast in December 2019 and January 2020 was just awful. So distressing.
We’ve not had anything nearly as bad over here in Western Australia so far this fire season, but like the rest of the world it’s distressing here to even watch that stuff on TV.
A spontaneous act
I’m a real doer. I get a lot done. I love to be in motion.
When the Yanchep Fire Thank You Day popped up in my Facebook feed, my fingers nearly of their own accord decided to reach out and see if I could offer to help:
All the help I’ve received
I can’t tell you how much help I’ve already received! It’s come from all over – from down south, from the east coast, from the UK, and even from Hawaii.
It was a bit mind-bendy to organise a phone call from Perth to Hawaii, but yesterday I spoke with the wonderful Megan Yarberry, a US guru of NADA ear acupuncture, and she gave me a hundred and one super useful tips, as well as a ton of warmth and encouragement. Sara Bursac from AcuDetox pinged straight back to my message full of help and support and useful resources. (Sara is also in the US, and one thing that’s been really clear to me throughout these fires is how distressed the whole world is, and how keen everyone is to be able to do anything they can to help.)
Rachel Peckham from the NADAGB team, the UK ear acupuncture group, got right back to me, sharing tips and resources and support.
Meanwhile Sara put me in touch with Kaime Hood in Byron Bay and Kata Japuncic in Sydney, who are working on getting ear acupuncture more widely available in Australia, they’ve set up AcuDetoxAustralia. Again they were super helpful.
Receiving so much heartfelt and enthusiastic help and support has been very touching.
Is a one-off enough?
When I volunteered my time and energy for this community event, I didn’t really think beyond that. My mind’s eye only saw a one-off event.
Sara and Megan though, from their experience, flagged up to me that people are likely to ask where they can get more of the same.
So, the bigger idea of Perth Community Acupuncure started to be born.
I was already thinking about community acupuncture
Let me take you back a step. The setting for all this is the new year, it’s the end of January now while I’m writing.
Over Christmas I’d taken myself on a camping trip, and I was holed up in Bromus Dam near Norseman, in one of my favourite forests in Western Australia – the absolutely gorgeous Great Western Woodlands. I ended up leaving town the day before all the roads out were closed for like a week because of a big bushfire.
But anyway that break, and all those long roads and exquisite landscape was a really reflective and meditative experience. I came back relaxed, inspired, and thinking very laterally.
I realised that something else I’ve admired from afar for years is community multibed acupuncture. This is where acupuncture is offerred really affordably, by treating several people in one room at the same time.
It helps people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford acupuncture to get treatment. More people having the chance to receive the benefits of acupuncture, to me just seems win win win win win.
Again, I knew about it, I loved the idea, but I didn’t connect up the idea that I personally could do that.
A little bit of time on my hands
And backing up even a bit further, to the wider terrain, I moved from the UK to Perth two years ago. Then it took AHPRA, the Australian health regulator, two years to approve my registration here. So although I’ve been here for a while, I’m just starting my practice here. I’m working with patients one to one, very holistically, in the way that I always did in the UK.
So now, all the ideas I’m talking about here, these are almost the opposite way of practising.
But, I thought, I’ve got a bit of spare time, over the next year or two while I build up my practice, maybe I could do some volunteering in a community acupuncture clinic here? Better to be treating than not treating.
Like I said, I’m a doer. I like to be in motion.
Revelations about multibed acupuncture
I couldn’t find any community acupuncture clinics in Perth, but I did find the fabulous Bec Rickey of Community Acupuncture in south west WA. Bec couldn’t have been more supportive – she let me pick her brains, observe her clinic, and come and have a treatment in her multibed clinic.
And I saw how much she loves what she does, how her patients love it too. And how interesting, and somehow nurturing, it was, to receive a treatment in a communal setting.
I described all this to a friend, who’d also received multibed acupuncture in the past, and she said yes, there’s an amazing healing energy in the room that comes from everyone sharing the experience. Compared to getting the undivided attention of the acupuncturist, “you kind of miss out on the me me me, but you get something else very special instead.”
A plan is brewing
So, now, for the community event in Yanchep, I’ve got a ton of permissions, I’ve ordered supplies, I’ve got myself organised, I’ve created a website, and a Facebook page, and all that jazz.
And I’m looking at how I can deliver more ear acupuncture, and a multibed community clinic, and bring all these ideas together:
very low cost drop-in standardised ear acupuncture sessions in chairs, for relaxation, stress relief, cravings, addictions, and trauma
affordable multibed community acupuncture treatments, tailored invidiually, for a range of health conditions
Onwards and upwards
OK so that’s my brain dump for today! It feels lighter to have splurged that all out onto the page.
