Get poked and feel good: five cheap acupuncture spots

Community acupuncture is kind of like the gateway drug for integrative medicine. Start with a few needles in your arms and legs one week and end up lying back under a heat lamp with smoke coming out your ankles the next. Before you know it you’re taking a regular regiment of Chinese herbs and cutting out caffeine. Well maybe not that last one. If that sounds like what you’re looking for in a health plan, check out these five acupuncture places that’ll give you a poke for less, if you’re broke.

The community part refers not only to the shared treatment room but also to the sliding scale payment terms, where those with a higher income pay more for services than those with a lower yearly salary. So if you’re taking your $3 latte over the bridge to your office job each morning, then you’re probably floating up around the higher side of the scale, which in most places is about $40. Let’s say one day you quit that damn office job and want to hang on to your alternative health services. Then you just leave your $15 in the brown envelope at the door when you leave.

Brooklyn Open Acupuncture
388 Atlantic Avenue
Fall 2012 Hours – Every day except Sunday, select times posted on site.
$15-40 with a $10 first time paper work fee.
Walkins OK – appointment preferred.

Brooklyn Open Acupuncture is the most straightforward of the of sliding scale spots. They follow the model that started in East Asia and got picked up in Portland: treat people in the same room and make the service less expensive for everyone. Start with a private consultation before you head into the larger shared room for your 20-45 minutes trip to oblivion (the good kind).

WorkSong
88 Franklin – Greenpoint, Brooklyn
347-742-3834
$20- $50 with a $10 first time paper work fee.
By Appointment.

WorkSong in Greenpoint has two small shared rooms with a front office / consultation area. It’s cozy, den-like and I imagine would allow for long relaxation sessions. Your individual practitioner may be more white-coat then crock wearing so expect to get serious with your health and stress-recovery. The clinic is over five years old and still as strong as the habit you’re going to treat.

Third Root Community Health Center
380 Marlborough Rd, at Cortelyou, Brooklyn,
718-940-9343
Fall 2012 Hours – Monday 12pm – 5pm (arrive by 3:30 for walk-in service). Wednesday and Fridays 3pm -8pm (arrive by 6:30 for walk-in service)
$20 – $40 with a $10 first time paper work fee.

L, B, G or T? just B.R.O.K.E., whatever you are is just fine with the Third Root Community Health Center in Ditmas Park. The treatment room is a yoga space most of the time except for two days a week, when the five space-age meets lawn furniture looking treatment chairs come out. The space also has herbal consultations and sliding scale massage treatments available.

Bae Acupuncture
190 N.10th Street Suite 204
Daily clinic hours, appointment required.
$35-50

James Bae has written over ten books on East Asian philosophy, mythology and medicine, so don’t mess. He’ll feel your pulse and tell you what you’re missing in almost every part of your life in the first fifteen minutes of your individual session. He’s mostly a private practitioner who wants to be sure he keeps his services affordable for his regular clients during down times. When you leave you’ll take at least 24-48 hours of James’ peace out the door with you.

Plaza Wellness
36 Plaza St, Ste 1A
Thursday – Thursday 1-5pm, Walk in Only
$30 flat

Prospect Parker people, you can get up to 30 minutes of massage plus an acupuncture treatment in under one hour for $60. Anyone with a tighter schedule or budget can do just one treatment during the eight hours a week when the private practitioners reduce their regular fees. The community room treats up to three acupuncture clients and one massage client at once. The clinic also offers yoga and private acupuncture, massage and psychotherapy. Go and target your trouble spots, like scheduling, since this clinic is appointment free.