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.
Five Element acupuncture uses wood, fire, earth, metal and water to organise a traditional view of health. Here is how it fits a practical plan for aches.
If you have read about Five Element acupuncture while searching for help with a sore back or tense shoulders, the terminology can seem far removed from everyday pain. The approach uses five traditional categories, wood, fire, earth, metal and water, to organise a way of looking at health and the relationships between different parts of life.
These categories belong to a traditional explanatory system. They are a way of thinking that has developed over a long history, and they sit in a different category from blood tests, scans or a medical diagnosis. Holding both ideas at once is perfectly reasonable: you can find the framework interesting while still expecting your pain to be assessed in practical terms.
If the approach appeals to you, ask Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, what difference it would make to the way she examines you and selects points. Even so, your symptoms, your hopes and your response over the coming weeks remain the core of the conversation. A holistic description is most useful when it leads to a clear plan you understand, rather than an expectation that every concern traces back to one element.
Try to separate the symptom from the result you would value. That might be less stiffness after a long day at the desk, easier movement when gardening, or knowing when another health professional should assess the problem. Whatever framework informs the choices, ask Christine when progress will be checked and what signs would lead her to try another route.
Interest in traditional theory is a good reason to ask questions. During an appointment at the Freshwater clinic, Christine can explain how the five categories are used in plain terms and how they relate to the specific aches that brought you in.
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