Is your present care getting the results you’re looking for? What you feel now often has a deeper story and understanding that full context helps us support lasting change.
Sleep, stress, digestion, hormones, past injuries — they all shape how your body responds. Pain has causes, once you treat that your body wants to heal. The body is far more capable of healing than most of us have ever been told.
Our approach is grounded in balanced integration: the steadiness of clinical rigour woven with the wisdom of Eastern medicine. We work with your body’s intelligence, not against it — creating space for relief, repair, and long-term wellbeing.
Every person who walks through our door is somewhere along this arc. The work is understanding where you are — and what needs to happen next.
What brings most people through our door. Pain that's been quietly accommodated — and is ready to be addressed. Acupuncture can re-establish function faster than most people expect.
Sleep, stamina, focus, energy. The things pain quietly steals. This is where we work on the underlying cause — and where most people start to recognise themselves again.
Move again. Garden again. Travel again. Live the life pain put on hold.
Levels of Care is Mal's framework for building a plan that's right for where you are. Three levels. One direction of travel.
Acute. Pain dominant. Sessions weekly until relief lands.
Underlying patterns identified. Sessions weekly to fortnightly. Address the cause.
Maintenance. Monthly or seasonal. Catch drift before it becomes pain again.
For deep restorative care clients can work through a structured 12-treatment protocol that maps all three levels. We talk about it together at your first consultation.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is one of the oldest preventative-medicine traditions in the world. The principle is straightforward: most chronic patterns begin somewhere other than where you feel them.
Acupuncture — the careful placement of fine sterile needles at specific points along the body's meridian system — supports the body's own ability to recalibrate, recover, and restore balance. It works for acute conditions and for the patterns underneath them. That is what balanced integration means in practice: treating the cause and the symptom, at the same time.
Our role is to find where the pattern starts, support the body to unwind it, and give you a framework you can use long-term — not just address what's hurting today.
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Everything we get asked at the front desk, with honest answers.
Acupuncture has been used to support illness and wellbeing for more than 3,000 years and is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is the art of anatomically inserting very fine, sterile, single-use needles into acupuncture points along the body's energy channels (meridians) to relieve pain, clear energy blockages and encourage the normal flow of Qi. As a natural form of healing it can provide drug-free pain relief, support a wide range of acute and chronic ailments, treat the underlying cause as well as the symptoms, and offer a holistic approach that links body, mind and emotions. Treatment may include auxiliary methods such as moxa, cupping, heat lamp, herbal patches, remedial massage, supplements and/or Chinese herbal medicine to enhance the effect.
Most patients describe the sensation as a dull awareness rather than pain. The needles are very fine — about as thick as a human hair. Most people relax deeply during a session, and many fall asleep.
Acupuncture needles are very fine and inserted into energy wells that absorb the stimulation without pain, so most clients make the transition to needles comfortably as a personal preference. Acupuncture is also not the only way to stimulate Qi — if you're concerned or anxious about needles, you can receive electro-acupuncture, moxibustion, manual point stimulation or Traditional Chinese massage as alternatives to needle insertion.
Most major private health funds (Medibank, Bupa, NIB, HCF and others) cover acupuncture under their extras cover. We process claims on the spot via HICAPS — you pay only the gap. Check your level of cover with your fund directly.
Yes — we provide treatment under NDIS, Work Cover and Motor Vehicle Insurance. We are not a registered first point of call provider, so we require a referral letter from your doctor (GP) for us to provide treatment under your cover.
Pensioner / Health Care Card: $105 initial — $83 follow-up. Defence and Centrelink card holders: same rates. School student follow-ups from $78. Bring your card to your first appointment.
It depends on what you come in for and how long the pattern has been there. We talk about it together at your initial 75-minute consultation. Most patients work through some form of the 12-treatment protocol — but we never lock you into open-ended commitments.
Your first consultation will generally include a health assessment and treatment. The health assessment involves an interview, health questionnaire and physical examination. Traditional diagnosis including examination of your tongue and palpation of your wrist pulses are further augmented with western clinical examination.
Such thorough enquiry using modern and traditional methods of analysis ensures we gain a deep understanding of:
Once an assessment is made, a series of acupuncture points is selected to improve the balance of yin and yang, to harmonise a deficient or excess condition, and to nourish the organ or channel involved in the disease process. Stimulation of the selected acupoints (situated along meridians in the body) by inserting needles promotes the flow of energy through the system, and thereby restores the body's balance and relieves symptoms.
Acupuncture needles are very fine and insertion is generally pain free. Report any discomfort, as it is important that you are relaxed and comfortable during treatment, which can last for 45 minutes. Many clients doze off to sleep, which is fine as it allows the body's energy to absorb the effects of the acupuncture. Depending on what is required, treatments are performed with the client lying down on a treatment table clothed or partially clothed, and administered to the back and/or front of the body.
Lifestyle advice may also be discussed and recommended, with the aim to assist healing and recovery processes.
We understand that the importance of health can be different from person to person. To cater for this, we have developed Levels of Care to suit your particular needs and health goals.
Symptomatic Care
Symptomatic Level of Care is for simple acute health problems, which can be dealt with quickly. Superficial complaints can be relieved in as little as one treatment. More long-term conditions may require a Treatment Plan of two acupuncture treatments per week for up to 3–5 weeks depending on the degree of the problem. This level of care is ideal if you want a quick fix and are not interested in treating the underlying cause of your health problem.
Corrective Care
Our Corrective Care Level takes more time, energy and commitment. A chronic or long-term condition may require a more intensive and/or long-term program. This level of care is ideal for clients who wish to improve and maintain their health with longer-term, quality health and lifestyle goals. At the end of the prescribed program you will feel renewed and understand what it takes to stay on top of your health in the future.
Health evaluations at your first consultation and results from any tests will determine the Specialised Corrective Care Program best suited to your needs. It is important that your core energy is at a level able to support deeper healing at this level of care, so the first stage often involves at least 3 weeks of 2 acupuncture treatments per week as a way to improve all system responses to the healing process required. It is expected that at the end of the first stage your condition will have improved markedly and moved into a less debilitating stage or process. Next, the underlying causes of your condition are addressed and deeper organ imbalances relieved by a program combining dietary modification, detoxification, nutritional supplementation and acupuncture treatments.
Programs at this level of care are designed to reverse a lifetime of damage to organs and prevent degenerative disease — the outcome being improved performance, enhanced standard of living and quality of life.
Disease Prevention and Maintenance Health Care
A Preventative and Maintenance Health Program for Life prevents health conditions developing. When the signs and symptoms of disharmony present, the disease is already active and has been for quite a while. It is only when our quality of life is lost that we seek alternative treatment; treatment at an earlier stage would prevent a debilitating disease crisis. Many clients adopt maintenance care programs as an effective way to reduce long-term health costs, prevent drastic health outcomes including surgery and long-term drug reliance, while increasing life force and quality of life. Preventative or Maintenance Care is less demanding on the body, as it doesn't deplete life-giving energy reserves to the extent that healing a disease does. Ask one of our practitioners for more information on our Maintenance Care Program.
Comfortable, loose clothing — easy to roll up sleeves and trouser legs. We'll guide you through what's needed depending on what you're coming in for.
Yes — and we encourage it. Acupuncture supports the body's own capacity to heal alongside conventional medical care. We never replace your treating doctor or Specialist.
We ask for at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. Late cancellations and no-shows may incur a fee, as the appointment time can rarely be filled at short notice.
The clinic at 87–89 Tweed Coast Road is at street level. If you have specific access needs, please call us before your first appointment so we can make sure things are set up for you.
Yes — children respond well to acupuncture, and we use gentle or non-invasive methods. Family Care is one of the programs we run; many older children describe acupuncture as relaxing rather than uncomfortable. We tailor the approach to what each child can handle.
Yes — Pregnancy Programme is one of our specialist programs. Acupuncture support during pregnancy is safe, gentle and tailored. Always tell us if you are or might be pregnant.
The WHO recognises acupuncture as supportive of a wide range of symptom areas — including musculoskeletal pain, headaches, women's health, digestive issues, and stress-related symptoms. Acupuncture is one of the most-researched complementary health practices.
Off-street parking is available at the clinic, and there is street parking on Tweed Coast Road. The clinic is a short walk from the Hastings Point bus stop.