If you put a modality, such as acupuncture, in the hands of a health care professional who sees nothing but symptoms, the effectiveness of the modality is suddenly, severely restricted. The thinking looks somewhat like this...

• "Oh, I'll use this point. It's supposed to be good for headaches."
• "Shoulder pain? Well, I know lots of shoulder points. I'll just needle some of those. "
• "Depression? Sounds like you need an anti-depressant."
• "Well, acupuncture only works for pain, you know..."
• "Let me just put in a few more needles."

Used in this way, acupuncture is nothing more than a novel addition to the western practitioner's paint-by-number pallet.

Used within the context in which it was born — Oriental Medicine — acupuncture effectively treats all diseases, physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual disorders, as well as pain.

The reason acupuncture is viewed in the west as simply a pain treatment, is that westerners are doing the viewing, and, unfortunately, sometimes wielding the needles, as in the case of MDs, chiropractors, or others who have received a few weekends of training in "where to put needles for what symptoms." This is a disservice to the public on more than one level.

• The patient of such a physician experiences mediocre results. Would you prefer to receive 30% of a medicine's effectiveness, or 100%?
• The reputation of acupuncture suffers. "I tried acupuncture, and it didn't work."
• Our understanding of a brilliant medical system remains shrouded in darkness.

Everyone loses.  More importantly, there can be problems. It is possible to cause actual harm in this scenario, because the practitioner has no idea what the energetic implications of his/her treatment will be — the practitioner has no idea what they are doing in terms of the real medicine. But there will be an energetic effect. It may be beneficial, it may be detrimental. Neither the practitioner nor the client knows what the outcome will be.

Avoid this situation.  Select a true health care practitioner.  Experience counts!