Umbrella season is upon us!  We’ve got some great tips for how to stay healthy during this transition to cooler, rainier weather, and we’ve also got some new weekend hours for you to take advantage of!  Read on for details!

New Sunday Hours!  (And Other Schedule Changes)
Starting Sunday, October 9, LBCA will be offering treatments from 11am-3pm every Sunday.  We get a lot of requests for Sunday appointments, and we hope you will take advantage of the new hours!  

Starting this month we are also making a few other schedule tweaks, including closing some of our morning shifts.  We will be closed Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings, but we will also be extending our Monday evening appointments by an extra hour.  Please check the column to the right for a full list of our current hours going forward.

Staying Healthy During Cold & Flu Season
Regular acupuncture appointments are a key aspect of keeping your immune system tuned up during the fall, but there are other things you can do on your own to keep yourself healthy!  Here is a great article by acupuncturist Jacqueline Gabardy that details some important fall and winter self-care habits you can develop.

One of the easiest to implement?  Wear socks and scarves to keep your neck and feet warm! And her #1 tip? Bone Broth! She even includes her favorite recipe.

Last But Not Least, Happy Halloween!

Thanks so much for supporting Little Bird Community Acupuncture!  Wishing you a healthy, happy October!

Little Bird Staff

It’s back-to-school season already!  Welcome back, students and teachers!  Read on to find out about free treatments, our 2-for-1 September special, tips for students (or anyone who is stressed and spends too much time sitting), new staff at Little Bird, and upcoming schedule changes!  

Free Treatments!
Do you have friends and family who could benefit from acupuncture?  Grab some referral cards from our front desk staff to give out, and your friends will get their first treatment absolutely FREE!  These referral cards expire at the end of September, so don’t delay!  

New patients can schedule their appointment and download new patient forms here.

2 For 1 Wednesdays – Bring a Buddy!
For the whole month of September, we will be offering 2 treatments for the price of 1 every Wednesday.  Bring a friend or family member to take advantage of this deal!  When you sign up with a buddy, you will pay a total of $20* for both treatments!  Make sure that you sign up both people’s names in our scheduling system and please sign up for back-to-back times: for example, schedule one person up at 11:00 and the other at 11:10.  Schedule Now!  

(*Please Note: New patients will still be charged an additional $10 paperwork fee for their first appointment.)

New Front Desk Staff
Please welcome our new front desk staff!   You have likely already met Emily and Jacey, who have been on board for a while now, and please also give a warm welcome to Caitie, who started just this week!   We are very sad to say goodbye to Melissa, but very excited for her new adventures.  She will be moving to Mexico for her dream job doing conservation work.  Congratulations and best wishes, Melissa!

Back to School: Tips for Students (And Everyone Else!)

1. Stress Reduction: These simple stress reduction tips are great for everyone.  Even if you are pressed for time, you can do #1, 2, & 3 without even getting up out of your chair!  
   Read here.
2. Sitting too much? Whether you are sitting and studying or working a desk job, you are probably spending long hours sitting.  Unfortunately, even if you exercise, too much sitting time is bad. So what can you do?  Stand up regularly!  
   Read more here

September Schedule Changes
Due to the Labor Day Holiday and staff vacation, the following days will have reduced hours as follows:

• Monday, Sept. 5: CLOSED
• Monday, Sept. 19:  CLOSED
• Tuesday, Sept. 20:  Open 9AM-1PM; 4-8PM 
• Wednesday, Sept. 21:  Open 3-8:30PM
• Thursday, Sept. 22:  Open 3-8PM 
• Friday, Sept. 23: Open 9AM-12PM 

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

Happy September, everyone!
Little Bird Staff

August News!
Summer is in full swing, and man it’s hot out there!  We’re grateful for AC, but we are seeing a lot of people coming in with colds as a result!  Below we share tips not just for surviving the heat (and AC) but also for coping with the emotional roller-coaster this summer has brought for many of us.  Secondly, read on to learn about our August FLASH SPECIALS and schedule changes!

Self-Care Tips for Stress & Summertime
If you are wilting in the heat or suffering stress and anxiety provoked by current events, you are not alone.  This has been a rough summer for lots of folks.  Here are 3 resources to turn to for help navigating these hot days and difficult times.

1) Basic Mammal Maintenance, Or How to Be Nice To Yourself: If self-care was not modeled for you as a child, this is a good read of gentle, basic ways to be good to yourself.

2) 12 Summer Self-Care Tips From Acupuncturists: Everything from cooling down with watermelon to protecting yourself from getting chilled by AC!

3) 4 Self-Care Resources for Days When the World Is Terrible: Healing from trauma, specifically addressing people of color 

Also, don’t be afraid to lean on us for support.  Sometimes people shyly ask, “Do you think it would be ok if I come in more than than once a week?” The answer is: “Of course!” When you are going through a rough time, scheduling 2 or more acupuncture treatments in a week can be a lovely way to get support and to restore your physical and emotional well-being.  Schedule Here

August Flash Specials
Have you liked us on Facebook?  If not, now is the time!  We will be posting day-of Flash Specials for $15 treatments on our Facebook page during the month of August.  Check our page daily to catch a special, and mention it to our front desk staff to receive your discount!  

August Schedule Changes
Due to staff vacation, the following days will have reduced hours as follows:

• Monday, Aug. 22:  Open 9AM-12PM 
• Tuesday, Aug 23:  Open 3-8PM 
• Wednesday, Aug. 24:  Open 3-8:30PM
• Thursday, Aug. 25:  Open 3-8PM 
• Friday, Aug. 26: Open 9AM-12PM 

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

Happy August, and enjoy that watermelon!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

July News!
Thanks so much to all of you who participated in the birthday raffle.  We will be donating $77.00 to PocaTech! (Raffle winners will be notified directly.) Please read on to learn about $15 Treatment Tuesdays, July schedule changes, FREE new patient cards for your friends and family, and acupuncture for emotional release.

Summer Steal: $15 Treatment Tuesdays
Every Tuesday in July we will be offering $15 treatments all day long!  Schedule Now to take advantage of this hot deal!

We Heart Referrals!
Do you have friends, family, or clients who you think would benefit from acupuncture?  Please send them our way!  At your next appointment you can ask our front desk for free new patient vouchers to hand out.  Your friend will get their first visit completely free, and you will get our undying gratitude! Thanks for helping us spread the word about Little Bird Community Acupuncture!

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

• Monday, July 4th: CLOSED
• Tuesday, July 19th Hours: 9am-1pm (closed in the evening)
• Wednesday, July 20th Hours: 3pm-8:30pm (closed in the morning)
• Thursday, July 21st Hours: 3pm-8pm (closed in early afternoon)
• Friday, July 22nd Hours: 9am-1pm (closed in the evening)

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

Crying & Community Acupuncture: Tears in the Treatment Room
In this lovely post by Guelph Community Acupuncture, they discuss the subject of crying and why it is totally ok and even encouraged to let your tears flow during your treatment in the community room. “Acupuncture can stir up strong emotions, [and it] can be an especially emotional experience if we’ve been ‘holding it together.’ For many of us, acupuncture time is when we get to relax and stop pretending that we’re fine.”

The article also describes how tears can be beneficial not just emotionally, but also physiologically.  Given that emotional tears contain stress hormones like ACTH, they explain that one theory about why we cry suggests that “we evolved to shed tears as a mechanism to literally wash stress away.”  

We think that acupuncture alone already does a pretty good job of washing stress away, but if you need a good cry, don’t be shy!  Read the full article here!

Happy 4th of July!  We hope you have a great weekend! 

Best,
Little Bird Staff

Happy 6th Birthday!

It’s been another wonderful year at Little Bird! Thanks to all you Little Birds who have been a part of our community and who help make Little Bird Community Acupuncture such an amazing place! We hope to celebrate our birthday with as many of you as possible and we have all sorts of goodies to share. Please read on to learn about our birthday treats!

Birthday Party!!!
We are celebrating Little Bird’s 6th birthday on Wednesday, 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, a raffle, and other birthday goodies) 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 Wednesday, June 1st through Tuesday, June 7th 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 Shirt Clearance Sale!
As a special birthday treat, for the entire month of June we will be selling our LBCA t-shirts for $10. There are lots of great colors to choose from!

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 Friday, July 1st.

Welcome Ruby, Our New Office Greeter!
Ruby, our new office greeter, is a trained service dog who is very sweet and friendly. We love having her here! You are welcome to pet her and interact with her. She loves her Little Bird friends! 

Thanks again for creating another incredible year here at Little Bird. We are so grateful to have you in our community and we look forward to another wonderful year together!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

Happy May, everyone!  We have some really exciting things going on this month!  Read on to find out more about the perks of becoming a POCA member, our discounted treatments for nurses during Nurses Week, and our up-coming birthday!  Please also note that we have a few closures in May.  Details below!

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 Monday, May 2nd.  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!

POCA Perks

• Free birthday treatment each year.
• Three “free first treatment” certificates for your friends and family (good at any POCA clinic). Introduce friends and family to community acupuncture!
• Sticking Together – POCA’s e-newsletter.
• Waiving new patient fees at POCA member clinics.
• Access to online discussion forums to connect with punks and other patients .
• Volunteer opportunities in local clinics and in our movement.

Signing Up:

• 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 Monday, May 2nd.  We will have a laptop set up and our friendly front desk ready to help you become a POCA member.
• Make sure to mention Little Bird Community Acupuncture as your home clinic when you sign up for your membership!
• Send us your membership email so we can note your membership on your account!

Nurses Week
The second week of May is Nurses Week!  From Friday, May 6 to Thursday, May 12 Little Bird will be offering $15 treatments for nurses all week.  (Plus, the $10 paperwork fee will be waived for any nurses who are new patients at Little Bird Community Acupuncture.)  Thanks, nurses, for all that you do in the community!  We appreciate you!

May Closures
We will be CLOSED the morning of Friday, May 20, but will remain open for our Friday evening hours.

We will also be CLOSED Monday, May 30th for Memorial Day.  However, we will have normal clinic hours over the weekend on Saturday!

Happy Birthday to Little Bird!
Little Bird is turning 6 on Wednesday, June 1st! Once again in appreciation for helping Little Bird grow and thrive, all appointments on our birthday will be FREE!  So be sure to sign up for an appointment early!  They will fill up fast! We’ll also have some special goodies that we’ll be giving out to celebrate!

Happy April, everyone!  Read on for details about our April special and our upcoming LBCA Celebration/Bon Voyage Party for Suzzanne!

Thursday Hours: 12-8pm
Just a reminder about our new lunchtime appointments every Thursday! It’s a great opportunity to break up the work day and enjoy a relaxing acunap during your lunch break!  Schedule now!

April Special: Wednesday Mornings, 2 for 1 treatments!
Bring a buddy on any Wednesday morning in April, and get both treatments for just $20!  Be sure to book both appointments in our schedule so that we can ensure that we have a chair for each of you. :)  As usual, an additional $10 paperwork fee applies to any new patients.

Bon Voyage, Suzzanne!
It is time to celebrate our wonderful acupunk and founder, Suzzanne, and give her a great send-off for her upcoming move to Oregon!

Suzzanne has taken a job as the Student Clinic Coordinator at POCA Tech, a community acupuncture school in Portland.  This career change is a wonderful opportunity for her to share her clinical knowledge and expertise with the next generation of acupunks, so that they can go forth to open successful community clinics that will benefit thousands of individuals, just like Little Bird Community Acupuncture has done over the past 5 years.

Suzzanne’s last day treating at Little Bird will be Saturday, April 9.  Although we will miss her greatly, we are so happy that she is following her heart and that she will be playing a key role in bringing quality, affordable acupuncture into more and more communities.

We would love a little help with snacks. If you have a favorite treat to share, please bring it to the party! We hope to see you there!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

It’s finally March and we’re excited that we are starting to see flowers on the ground instead of snow! Read on for our thoughts on seasonal allergy prevention as well as information on schedule changes, new front desk staff, and acupuncture for weight loss.

Schedule Changes
New lunchtime hours on Thursdays! In response to popular demand for lunchtime appointments, we have bumped back our Thursday start time to noon, and we will be open straight through from noon to 8 pm. Come visit us for an acunap during your lunch break!

Starting March 1, Suzzanne will be cutting her hours back and Julie will be taking on the Tuesday morning shift. Suzzanne buddies, don’t panic! You can still snag an appointment with her on Mondays from 3-7pm and Wednesdays from 9am-1pm.

New Front Desk Staff
We are excited to announce our awesome new front deskers Sherese, Adina, and Campbell! We are so grateful to have them on board! Sherese will be working mornings and Adina will be working afternoons, and Campbell is a long-time friend of Little Bird who has offered to fill in when we need them. Please give our fabulous new staff a warm welcome!

Acupuncture for Weight Loss?
People ask us all the time if acupuncture works for weight loss. While technically our answer is “no,” there is a more complex answer under the surface! Acupuncture may not directly facilitate weight loss, but there are a lot of common benefits of treatment that may indirectly help the body shed unwanted pounds. Our friends Stef, Lisa, & Nora have written an excellent article explaining these benefits. While recognizing that “we all come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, and that a healthy weight looks very different from person to person,” they explain the ways in which acupuncture can improve quality of life so that people have the resources they need to take care of themselves and so that the body has the resources it needs to heal itself. Read the full article here!

Seasonal Allergies
We love springtime for the songbirds and cherry blossoms, but not so much for the sniffles and sneezes! If you suffer from seasonal allergies, it’s important to start your treatments BEFORE allergy season starts. We recommend weekly visits starting in March to give you the best shot at a sneeze- and sniffle-free spring! We are moving into our busy season at Little Bird, so it’s a good idea to book in advance!

Lastly, stay tuned for details on our upcoming party to celebrate Suzzanne and Little Bird Community Acupuncture! We hope you have a really great March!

Best,
Little Bird Staff

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