Though there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, in general: the more often, the better (in the beginning). Think of it as going to the gym: you probably won’t notice much after one session, but if you go several times a week for 3-4 weeks, you’ll start to feel stronger pretty fast. Go once a week, and you’ll eventually reach the same place, only it’ll take longer. Exercise is very similar to how acupuncture works — the major difference being that, once your symptoms are greatly reduced or gone, you can confidently move onto a maintenance plan and come less often (or, sometimes, never again! Woo hoo!).

It’s worth noting that studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture for different conditions typically follow a treatment plan of 10+ sessions close together, usually scheduled at several times per week or even every day. Of course, that’s not always doable in our busy world, but 10 sessions over 5-10 weeks often is.

It’s also worth noting that treatment plans work different for acute and chronic conditions. Acute injuries tend to require closer-together sessions (every day is ideal), and tend to resolve much quicker, usually not requiring a maintenace plan. Chronic conditions, on the other hand, can take a while to resolve. A short burst of frequent treatments is still the best way to start, but a maintenance plan (once every 2-3 weeks, etc) is almost always going to be a good idea.

Whether it’s chronic or acute, if it’s severe (i.e. more than a 5/10 on the pain scale), come as much as you possibly can until your condition is tolerable — then, we can talk about spacing them out more.

One final note: No two people or treatments will ever produce the same exact results. Often, results can be quite different from session to session and person to person. This isn’t only true for acupuncture — we see this variability in conventional medicine, too, where one drug will work very well for one person and not at all for another; or it’s better taken at certain times of day, or with certain kinds of food (hello, iron supplements and orange juice!). Human beings are vastly variable and ever-changing creatures. Like the weather, we are constantly transforming (in often imperceptible ways), and treatments will feel differently and produce different results because of that.