We are happy to announce that there are some amazing changes coming to Little Bird in the next couple of months.

First, we have hired a wonderful, warm, and truly excellent new acupuncturist! Her name is Julie Johnson and we are so lucky to have her. She hails from Colorado and is new to DC. You might have already seen her observing in the clinic and we are going to get her started slinging needles on Monday, February 1st!

To help welcome our new acupunk, all treatments with Julie will be only $15 ($25 for new patients) from February 1st-12th. So help us welcome her and get a great deal all at the same time! Julie's hours are: Mondays from 9am-1pm, Thursdays from 3pm-7pm, and Fridays from 9am-1pm. Click here to book!

Secondly, Little Bird is just about done with our conversion to becoming a 501c3 non-profit organization! We are so excited to be done with our application and looking forward to being able to more deeply root and grow in the community as a non-profit. There will be more to come on this in the future, but it has been a lot of hard work and we wanted to share our progress with you!

Finally, after opening Little Bird almost 6 years ago and lovingly tending to our community for all of these years, it is time for Suzzanne to leave the Little Bird nest. She has taken a job as the Clinical Coordinator at POCA Tech in Portland, Oregon and will be relocating in the next couple months. She is very excited to join the POCA Tech faculty and help train new acupunks. Teaching has become an ever increasing passion for her, and while she is sad to leave you all, this is an amazing opportunity for her to grow, explore, and help educate new Acupunks so that more communities will have access to affordable acupuncture.

We know this is a big news and will be a big change in the clinic, but we also know that Sara and Julie are going to keep true to the loving spirit of Little Bird and will make this transition easier for all of you. Suzzanne will go down to working 3 shifts per week on February 1st, until we get Julie up to speed so that she can poke full-time. And don't worry! Your goodbyes and well wishes can be saved up for a farewell party before Suzzanne departs. Everyone will be invited and we will have a great send off!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

We’re not sure where 2015 went, but we do know we enjoyed all the time we got to spend with you last year and can’t wait to see what 2016 brings us! Please read on to learn how to snag Free New Patient Acupuncture Cards and other January news.

Staff Updates
We asked for your help getting a new part-time receptionist and you all came through big time!  We had so many wonderful applicants and offers to volunteer that we were able to cover shifts and fill the position within the week! Please make sure to welcome Dani next time you see her! Thank you so much for your help; we really felt supported and cared for.

Free Acupuncture Treatment Cards for New Patients!
You all have been awesome in getting the word out about Little Bird and sending us referrals. We haven’t had a waiting list in quite awhile, and want to help bring in new people to the Little Bird community. Starting this month, we will have Free New Patient Acupuncture Treatment cards available at the front desk. They will be there on a first come, first serve basis. The cards will expire March 31, 2016. Please feel free to grab a few at your next appointment to give to anyone you think would benefit from a cozy acunap!

Also, at the front desk we continue to have cards with cool acupuncture facts and myths! Please take a stack to hand out along with the Free Acupuncture Treatment Cards for New Patients. They can also be placed in your office break room, favorite coffee shop, or anywhere you think people might like to read up on Little Bird and acupuncture!

Inclement Weather Policy Reminder
So far it’s looking like a mild winter but just in case we get a snow or ice storm, we wanted to remind you about our inclement weather policy. If the buses and Metro are not running due to snow, we will close Little Bird and will call and email everyone with an appointment to notify them of the closure. We will also post it on Facebook and Twitter and the front page of our website. If you are ever concerned about being able to make your appointment due to the weather, please just give us a call and let us know!

Finally, we wanted to let you know that Little Bird delivered 9,882 affordable acupuncture treatments in 2015. Thank you all so very much for making this our biggest year yet!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

A big thank you to everyone who participated in the non-perishable food drive benefiting Bread for the City!!!  We appreciate your generosity and community support!

The holiday season is in full swing and we are hoping to add a little holiday cheer by offering several goodies.  We’ve got the ever so special 5 for $75 Acu Pass deal, gift certificates and other fun merchandise (books, t-shirts, hoodies, tote bags) to buy as holiday gifts, an adjusted but not too limited holiday schedule, and the cool opportunity to hear our very own Suzzanne (sweetest treat of all) share her words of wisdom on Our Space Acupuncture’s podcast about all things pregnancy related. 

The Ever So Sweet 5 For $75 Acu Pass Special!
You all have made Little Bird such a special community, so we are glad that this holiday season we are able to offer another Acu Pass special to treat to yourselves and/or loved ones.  For one week we will be offering Acu Passes of 5 treatments for $75.  That breaks down to $15 per treatment.  Yay!  The passes will be on sale from Monday, December 7th through Saturday, December 12th only.  (Limit of 2 passes per patient.  Passes are only available for purchase in person.  No cards will be taken over the phone.  Acu Passes do not expire.)

Holiday Gifts!
If you want to treat a loved one to a cozy acunap this season, we have great gift certificates available for both new and returning patients!  Other fun gifts are the books Why Did You Put That Needle There and Acupuncture Is Like Noodles, and a great selection of gorgeous Alternative Apparel jersey hoodies ($40), t-shirts ($20), and tote bags ($20) hand-screened by Lara at 237Inc.

Schedule Changes/Holiday Hours
We know the holidays are often a frustrating combo of joy and anxiety, so we are staying open as much as possible to give you the opportunity to take a break for as many stress relief acunaps as your heart desires.  The following are our adjusted hours:

• Thursday, December 24th (Christmas Eve): 9am-1pm
• Friday, December 25th & Saturday, December 26th: CLOSED
• Thursday, December 31st (New Years Eve): 9am-2pm
• Friday, January 1st  (New Years Day): CLOSED

As always, feel free to book through the online scheduler or give us a call!

Suzzanne’s All Things Pregnancy Podcast!
Last month Suzzanne went on Our Space Community Acupuncture’s podcast to talk with the clinic’s owner Farris Johnson and Malika Hook Muhammad, the DC Doula, about how to prepare to get pregnant, how acupuncture and holistic medicine support pregnancy, and how to take care of yourself after pregnancy.   Check out Episode 8: Making a Baby…Pregnancy from a Holistic Perspective to hear a lot of great info and tips!

So long, Emil!
We are sad to say that our wonderful front desk person, Emil, is leaving us for sunnier adventures in Florida at the end of the month. They have been a much loved part of the Little Bird community since we first opened. We are so thankful for all of the support they have given us over the years and are sad to seem them go!

We hope you all enjoy the holidays!  We are looking forward to spending as much of it as we can with you!!! :)

Best,
Little Bird Staff

It’s officially Fall!  Clocks have rolled back, scarves are being wrapped, and outside it’s cool and colorful.  It also means the holiday season is just around the corner, and as many of you unfortunately know, the flu/cold season is in full swing.  In celebration of Thanksgiving, we will once again be holding a non-perishable food drive.  Please read on to learn the details as well as learn about schedule changes, our sick policy, and crummy weather policy (though hopefully the ice/snow doesn’t make an appearance for a couple months).

But first of all a quick shout out to all of our newest POCA members.  You helped make the membership drive a huge success!  POCA’s membership drive goal was 300 new members.  With your help they ended up exceeding 400 new members!!!  Thank you so much to ALL of our POCA members.  POCA is a huge support to our community, and we appreciate you all giving back.

November Schedule Changes
We love spending time with you all and try to stay open as much as possible during the holidays, but we do have a couple of schedule changes this month.

• Friday, November 20th: Closed AM, OPEN 3pm-7pm
• Thursday, November 26th: CLOSED for Thanksgiving
• Friday, November 27th: OPEN noon-5pm 

Non-Perishable Food Drive
As a means of giving back to our larger community, we will once again be hosting a food drive to benefit Bread for the City!  For the entire month of November, Little Bird will be collecting healthful, non-perishable food items for the Bread for the City food program.  Please make sure to follow Bread for the City’s guidelines when selecting food to bring in.

With every item donated you will not only be doing good, but you can also enter a raffle to win one of five prizes from Little Bird!  One item equals one entry.  Prizes are the following:

• 1 Acu Pass good for 5 FREE returning patient treatments
• 1 Acu Pass good for 1 FREE returning patient treatment
• 3 Acu Passes each good for 1 FREE New Patient treatment (a great gift for a friend or loved one)

We will contact the raffle winners on Tuesday, December 1st!

When Sick…Acupuncture or No?
While we love to help those suffering from the flu and colds boost their immunity and get better quickly, we also want to keep the germmies from spreading and keep our Little Birds from getting sick in the first place.  We are asking that people wait 24 hours from their fever breaking before coming in for a treatment. Also, if you are coughing uncontrollably, vomiting, or having diarrhea, please stay home and rest up.  If you come in for treatment and are contagious, we unfortunately will not be able to treat you.  We will be here happy to help you get over your colds and flu when it is no longer contagious!

Inclement Weather Policy
Suzzanne and Sara both live super close to the clinic, so we are able to easily open the clinic no matter how much rain, sleet, or snow come our way.  However, we know that most of you are not so fortunate, so if the buses and Metro are not running due to snow, we will close Little Bird.  If we have to close, we will call and email everyone with an appointment to notify them of the closure. We will also post it on Facebook and Twitter and the front page of our website. Your safety and well-being are very important to us. If you are unable to get to Little Bird due to the weather and we are still open, just give us a call and let us know.

We have you all to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!  We hope to see you as much as possible acunapping together this holiday season.

Best,
Little Bird Staff

Suzzanne and Sara are fresh back from POCA Fest, eager to get back to poking and applying what they’ve learned!  The theme at POCA Fest was Liberation Acupuncture and how the community acupuncture model works at achieving freedom for all people by working towards the humanization of all people.  In the keynote speech, Lisa Rohleder says that community acupuncture clinics are “set up so that we meet each other primarily as human beings rather than as numbers or roles or images or income streams.  We recognize that everyone suffers, everyone has needs, everyone is struggling with limited resources.  And so for the most part, at least on our good days, our POCA clinics are humanizing environments.”  When you have a moment we recommend you read the POCA Fest Keynote: Dangerous Potential.  It’s a goodie!

We are so grateful to be a member of the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture and are happy that our co-op’s school, POCA Tech, is continuing to grow and thrive.   Please read on to learn how you can support our larger POCA community and get $15 treatments for the month of October.

POCA Membership Drive!
October 1st kicks off POCA’s Fall Membership Drive.  Being a part of the POCA co-op provides a lot of perks and helps support the movement for affordable acupuncture. Patient members are a huge part of the co-op and make things like micro loans to start and grow clinics, support for acupunks, and POCA Tech–a place to grow new acupunks–possible. This Fall, membership fees will go towards the accreditation costs of POCA Tech.  It is really expensive to get a school off the ground and we want new acupunks to get a top notch education. Our communities need more acupuncture!

Little Bird will be supporting the Membership Drive by offering $15 treatments to any POCA member in October.  Once you join, just forward to us your “welcome to POCA”/proof of membership email or print out the email and bring it in anytime in October and receive acupuncture for just $15 all month long!

POCA Tech Sustainer
If you would like to further support POCA Tech, think about becoming a Sustainer! For as little as $5 per month you can donate to help fulfill the mission of POCA Tech. 

The mission of the POCA Technical Institute is to recruit and train students to provide acupuncture to underserved communities through the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA), and to establish an academic foundation for the practice of liberation acupuncture. 

We continue to appreciate how you all come together to create a safe and healing space.  Your patience, respect, and gratitude mean so much in protecting and strengthening our Little Bird Community!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

It’s almost fall y’all!  It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over, especially with this latest heat wave.  The good news is that our A/C is still working on overdrive and you will be able to snooze and cool off at the same time!  Please read on for more news about what’s going on at Little Bird this month.

September Closures
Due to the Labor Day holiday and POCA Fest we have a few days that we will be closed this month.  Labor Day weekend we will be open Saturday, September 5th but CLOSED Monday, September 7th.  Suzzanne and Sara are excited to both be attending POCA Fest and be able to learn new things to bring back to Little Bird and connect to our POCA community.  Unfortunately this means we will be CLOSED Friday, September 25th through the morning of Monday, September 28th (We will be open from 3pm-7pm on the 28th).  Please book early for the short weeks as they tend to fill up quickly.

POCA Member Special
Are you a POCA member?  Then you will be happy to hear about our September special for POCA members.  All month long POCA members will get $15 treatments on Fridays.  Not a POCA a member and want to become one?  You can sign up here to get the September special plus other POCA benefits like a free birthday treatment and 3 free new patient treatment certificates for your friends and family.

Sara’s 2nd Anniversary!
This September marks Sara’s second year here at Little Bird!  We can’t even imagine what life was like before she joined the family. Sara has given over 8,500 treatments since starting work here.  That is a whole lot of treatments! We are so excited that she is helping provide so many affordable acunaps that whoever receives her 10,000th treatment will get it for FREE! So make an appointment today. That 10,000 treatment will come sooner than you think!  

Staff Changes
We wish we didn’t have to say goodbye to Ashley so soon, but we are super stoked for the awesome internship she snagged.  Thankfully we have snatched up another super sweet receptionist!  You will get to see the friendly Rosie on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.  Please welcome her to the Little Bird Community!

We appreciate you all being so understanding of our schedule changes due to holidays, vacations, and illnesses.  We love to be open as much as possible and see you all having restful acunaps together!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

This month is often a busy one with last minute summer vacations, work trips, and wrapping things up before school begins.  We’re bust’n a move ourselves here at Little Bird.  We have some more staff good byes and hellos, a POCA conference on the horizon, as well as some info on how we can help with post travel fatigue, aches and pains, etc.

Good-Bye Karen!
We are sad and happy to announce that Karen is stepping down as our Saturday front desker.  She is the longest tenured employee here at Little Bird and responsible for the vast majority of stuff that makes this place run.  Lets just say she will be missed!  Hopefully we will see her as a sub once in awhile and often taking an acunap.

Hello Ashley!
Some of you have already seen our new friendly face at the office.  Please welcome the wonderful Ashley to our front desk team.  She will be covering the Monday/Thursday shifts.

POCA Fest
Want to take part in a fun weekend conference hosted by the POCA Coop and held in beautiful Sausalito, CA?  Then this fall’s POCA Fest is for you!.  POCA Fest is set up for punks, patient/community members, POCA supporters, students, friends, and family.  The theme for the keynote speech is Liberation Acupuncture.  Practical ways in which the community acupuncture model is liberatory and the challenges of liberating acupuncture from mechanisms of domination, such as neglecting oppressed people and reinforcing inequality, will be addressed.  The conference runs from Friday, September 25th to Sunday, September 27th.  Not only is it an opportunity to learn new things about community acupuncture, but it is an amazing way to connect to the POCA community!

Post Travel Woes
While traveling for work and for fun can be awesome, it also tends to leave us tired, achy, and with our sleep, digestion, and bowel movements out of whack.  Whether you are dealing with jet-lag, parasites, sore joints and muscles from carrying luggage or any other travel woe, we are here to help!  Acupuncture is great at getting out bodies back on track.  We also have various herbal formulas that can also help you get back to feeling like yourself quickly.

We hope you have been enjoying the summer and look forward to seeing you soon!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

First of all, a ginormous thanks to all of you who participated in the birthday raffle.  We will be donating $107.00 to PocaTech!!!  Please read on to learn about this month’s staffing update, schedule changes, how to get your hands on a free copy of Why Did You Put That Needle There?, parking tips, and the return of our friendly Anthropologist!

Staffing Update
It is with great happiness (and selfish sadness!) we announce that Anya, one of our beloved front deskers, will be leaving us to pursue some other amazing job opportunities!  We will miss her a ton, but are excited for her to spread wings.  Her last day will be July 16th, but if you’re lucky you will see her subbing at the front desk every so often. 

On another note, this means that we are are hiring for the Front Desk once again.  We listed what we’re looking for below.  If you or a buddy is interested, please email a resume and/or any questions to info@littlebirddc.com.

Requirements:

• Ability to comfortably and appropriately interact with a diverse population of patients and coworkers
• Advanced practical knowledge of MS Office suite, Mac operating systems, Firefox and Google Chrome
• Ability to multitask in a fast-paced practice
• Ability to maintain patient confidentiality

Duties:

• Greeting patients, processing, tracking, and recording payments
• Making appointments
• Answering and returning phone calls
• Responding to clinic e-mails
• Light dusting and tidying
• Active willingness to take initiative and problem-solve

Helpful but not required:

• Conversational/fluent Spanish
• Experience working in customer service field
• Sense of humor

Receptionists start at $12/hr and get free acupuncture treatments for themselves and a designated
buddy/partner/relative.

July Schedule Changes
Due to the 4th of July holiday and staff vacation time, we will have the following changes in our schedule:

• Saturday, July 4th: CLOSED
• Tuesday, July 21st: 3-8pm
• Wednesday, July 22nd: 9am-1pm & 3pm-7pm
• Thursday, July 23rd: 9am-1pm
• Friday, July 24th: 3pm-7pm

Please book early, as our shorter weeks fill up quickly. You can click here to schedule now!

Why Did You Put That Needle There?
This is a great book that answers this question as well as other common acupuncture questions heard around the clinic.  We have a copy in the office that you can read before or after your appointment, and we also sell them for $5.  A fun fact is that you can actually download a free pdf version through Manchester Acupuncture Studio.  They offer both an English and Spanish copy.

Parking
As many of you know, parking in D.C. is quite the test in patience.  While we do have street parking and metered parking near Little Bird, it is limited and can take quite a bit of time to snag a spot.  If you can take public transportation, we highly recommend it.  There is a bus stop right in front of our building, and the Columbia Heights metro station is just a 10-15 minute walk away.  If driving is your preferred means of transportation though, and you’re having difficulty finding parking, there are plenty of spots at DC USA’s parking garage.  Please note that it is a 10-15 minute walk from the parking garage to Little Bird.

Friendly Anthropologist
Last summer many of you were able to meet Victor Kumar (aka Our Friendly Anthropologist) hanging out and seeing how our clinic runs for his doctorate at John Hopkins.  He will be back again on Mondays, and we are excited to again share with him our awesome community clinic.  However, if you are at all uncomfortable with him observing your treatment, please let us know.  Also, If you’re interested in sharing your experience at Little Bird with him, you can send him an e-mail at vkumar20@jhu.edu or give him a call at 607-237-4140.

Massage
Unfortunately for the meantime, we will no longer be offering massage on Sundays.  We hope to offer it again in the future and will be sure to keep you posted.

We hope you have an awesome 4th of July weekend! 

Best,
Little Bird Staff

Happy 5th Birthday!
It’s hard to believe that another year has already gone by!  We’ve had such an amazing year with all of our Little Birds. We hope to celebrate our birthday with as many of you as possible and have all sorts of goodies to share.  Please read on to learn about our birthday treats, in addition to our unfortunate staffing update.

Birthday Party!!!
This year we will get to celebrate our birthday on our actual birthday, which is Monday, June 1st!  As a special birthday delight, all acupuncture appointments that day are FREE.  Appointments go quickly, but please feel free to check for last minute cancellations if you aren’t able to snag a spot.  And whether you have an appointment or not, we would love to have you stop by and celebrate with us.  We will have yummy treats and other goodies (AcuPass special, $15 birthday shirts, and a raffle) as part of the birthday fun!

5 for $75 AcuPass Special
We will once again have our sweet little AcuPass birthday deal.  Our birthday bash will kick off a 5 for $75 AcuPass Special!  That breaks down to $15 per treatment!  The passes will be on sale from Monday, June 1st through Saturday, June 6th only.  (Limit two passes per patient.  Passes are only available for purchase in person.  No cards will be taken over the phone.  AcuPasses do not expire.)

Birthday Shirts!
In honor of our birthday, for the entire month of June we will be selling our new LBCA t-shirts for $15.  Once July comes around, they will go up to $20.  Check out the pic below to see all of the fun colors we’ve ordered!

Raffle to Benefit POCA Tech!
We will kick off a month long sale of raffle tickets benefiting POCA Tech at our birthday bash!  There are lots of very cool prizes listed below:

• 1 Acu Pass good for 5 FREE returning patient treatments
• 2 Acu Passes each good for 1 FREE returning patient treatment
• 3 Acu Passes each good for 1 FREE New Patient treatment (a great gift for a friend or loved one)
• 1 copy of Why Did You Put That Needle There?, the beloved patient guide to acupuncture
• 1 Little Bird Community Acupuncture T-Shirt

You can enter the raffle throughout the month of June. Tickets are $1 and can be purchased at the front desk. You can buy as many tickets as your heart desires. Winners will be chosen Wednesday, July 1st.

Art Plea Number Two!
We are sad to see our walls bare and are hoping one of you would like to share your artistic talents with us.  If you are interested in displaying your work please give us a call or email us at info@littlebirddc.com.

Staffing Update
We are sorry to inform you that Janaye is no longer working at Little Bird and we wish her the best.  We have shifted Suzzanne’s and Sara’s hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  On Wednesdays, Suzzanne will now be working 9am-1pm and 3pm-6pm and Sara will be working 6pm-8:30pm.  On Saturdays, Sara will be working 9:30am-2:30pm (except for the month of June when hours will be 9am-2pm).  Unfortunately, we will no longer have Sunday hours.  Again, we are sorry for the schedule change and appreciate your patience and understanding.

We will have slightly limited hours June 18th–27th to accommodate staff vacation time. Please be sure to make note and please feel free to book your appointments early to ensure you find a time that will work for you!

Thank you so much for creating another incredible year here at Little Bird.  We appreciate all that you have done to help us grow and can’t wait to see what another year brings!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

POCA Membership Drive
We are excited to kick off May with a celebration of POCA’s spring membership drive!  We will be offering all POCA members FREE treatments on Friday, May 1st.  To sweeten the deal, POCA members will receive unlimited $15 treatments for the entire month of May.  We love being part of a larger community dedicated to affordable and accessible acupuncture and hope you will be a part of it, too! If you aren’t yet a member, now would be a great time to join POCA!

Not only will you be supporting a cooperative that works to provide affordable acupuncture for all, but you will also be helping POCA Tech grow as proceeds from the membership drive will go to POCA Tech.   POCA Tech provides affordable acupuncture education which means there will be more Acupunks to provide even more affordable acupuncture!  You can head over to POCA’s website to fill out the membership form or you can sign up on the spot at your appointment at Little Bird on Friday, May 1st.  We will have a laptop set up and our friendly front desk ready to help you become a POCA member.

T-Shirt Contest
We extended the voting period for our t-shirt contest and now you have until Sunday, May 3rd!  So please go ahead a book your next acunap and while at Little Bird pick your favorite design.  Check out our FB Post to get a peek at your choices. We will have the winning shirt design printed up and ready for sale on our birthday- June 1st!

Memorial Day
We will be CLOSED Monday, May 25th for Memorial Day.  However, we will have normal clinic hours Saturday and Sunday!

Calling All Artists!!!
We are once again looking for new art to display in the treatment room.  If you have pieces you would like to donate or display and sell at an affordable price, please let us know.  Our current pieces are coming down soon, so we are hoping people can submit their work sooner rather than later! Please email us at info@littlebirddc.com or let us know at your next visit, if you have art to share.

Birthday Party!
Can you believe Little Bird is about to turn 5?!   Once again in appreciation for helping Little Bird grow and thrive, all appointments on our birthday (Monday, June 1st) will be free!  So be sure to sign up for an appointment early!  They will fill up fast!  And keep your eyes and ears peeled for additional goodies we will be sharing to celebrate the special day.

Trauma Informed Care 
As many of you probably know, April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  Washington DC has a lot of great resources such as the DC Rape Crisis Center to help support survivors of sexual assault.  Did you know that acupuncture can also be a helpful resource for not only survivors of sexual assault but all types of trauma?  Acupuncture is actually pretty great at addressing the various responses to trauma such as: insomnia, depression, anxiety, hypervigilance, dissociation, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, body aches and pains, etc.

The community acupuncture model is particularly geared to Trauma Informed Care.  Liberation Acupuncture has several great blog posts about this topic.  Acupuncture can be comforting to survivors as there is no need to tell the details of your story and relive trauma.  You can simply let the needles do their work and absorb the love and support of the community.  It is important to us that Little Bird is a safe place for all of you and think y’all are the best at creating that environment!  We are so thankful to be a safe haven for all of our Little Birds.

We wish you all a wonderful May and can’t wait to see you in a chair relaxing and soaking up the Spring! Thank you for being part of our community!

Best,
Little Bird Staff