The Lane Cove rooms are at 2 Austin Street, directly opposite the Lane Cove Library and a few metres from Longueville Road. If you are coming from the village it is a walk of two or three minutes, and the parking behind the library is the easiest option in the middle of the day.
Lane Cove sends a particular mix of problems through the door. There are the desk-and-commute necks and low backs from St Leonards and the city, the shoulders and elbows of a suburb that plays a lot of tennis, and the knees and Achilles tendons that come with living on a hillside — the stairs down to Tambourine Bay and the streets off Burns Bay Road are their own kind of training load. Lane Cove also has a lot of people in their thirties and forties carrying small children, which is its own demand on a back.
A first appointment is mostly questions and movement testing: where the pain is, what makes it worse, what it stops you doing, and how it has behaved over weeks rather than days. From there you should leave knowing what is proposed, roughly how long it is expected to take, and what would mean changing the plan.
Worth bringing: any imaging or specialist letters you already have, a list of medications, and the shoes you actually walk or train in. If the pain is new and severe, follows a significant fall, or comes with numbness, weakness, fever or any change in bladder or bowel control, see a doctor first — that is a medical assessment, not a treatment question.
The nearest alternative if Lane Cove does not suit you is the Freshwater side, about 14 kilometres away across the Spit.
Classical acupuncture texts describe several ways of organising treatment. Those traditions do not mean two people with the same ache receive identical care.
If you have read about traditional acupuncture, you may have come across classical terms such as regulating, unblocking and guiding. They come from a long tradition of clinical reasoning and describe different ways practitioners have organised treatment over centuries. For someone with a sore lower back or stiff shoulders, the language can feel intriguing and a little puzzling.
These classical methods help explain how acupuncture has developed as a practice. Sharing a diagnosis with someone does not commit you to their points, their needle count or their level of stimulation. Two people with knee pain may be approached quite differently depending on their history, general health, sensitivity and preferences.
Ask Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, to describe the proposed plan in words that connect with your experience. Which concern is being addressed first? Why have particular points been chosen? How will your response be assessed? A good explanation helps you participate in decisions without needing to memorise traditional terminology.
You can share preferences about comfort, such as fewer needles, gentler stimulation or a different position. You can also ask whether the treatment remains worthwhile after a few sessions, and it is fine to decide to stop. Classical ideas can inform the approach, but your goals and response should steer it.
It helps to define the outcome you are hoping for, such as getting out of bed with less stiffness or sitting through a film comfortably. Knowing when your GP or another practitioner should be involved can also be a useful result. Ask Christine what would lead her to adjust the plan.
If classical acupuncture interests you, mention it when you come to the Lane Cove clinic, and Christine will describe how traditional ideas shape her reasoning while keeping the conversation centred on the pain you came about.
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