For the knot under your shoulder blade that is back every Thursday, the tension headache that arrives mid-afternoon, and muscle pain that massage alone has not shifted. Three minutes from Holborn station, 8am to 10pm, seven days a week.
Each one a full appointment with Joy.
Add dry needling inside a session already booked: 15 minutes, £30.
Acupuncture places fine needles at chosen points and leaves them in while a heat lamp warms the area. It suits pain and tension spread across a region: a stiff neck and upper back, a headache pattern, a lower back that aches by the end of the week.
Dry needling goes into one trigger point, the tight band you can press and feel refer pain elsewhere. It suits a specific knot: the one under the shoulder blade, in the upper trap, in the glute or the calf. Expect a twitch as the band lets go and some soreness for a day.
Not sure which you need? Book the needling your problem sounds most like, and Joy will tell you in the first few minutes if the other would suit it better.
Migraine prevention. NICE recommends considering a course of up to 10 acupuncture sessions over 5 to 8 weeks where the usual preventive medicines are unsuitable or have not worked (NICE CG150).
Long-term pain with no clear structural cause. NICE supports a single course of acupuncture or dry needling for chronic primary pain, with trials showing less pain and better quality of life for up to three months (NICE NG193).
Osteoarthritis. NICE advises against acupuncture here and puts strength work at the centre of treatment (NICE NG226). For an arthritic knee or hip, book the Initial Assessment & Treatment (75 minutes, £90) and Joy will build the loading programme instead.
Inside Saachii Wellness Rooms, three minutes' walk from Holborn station on the Central and Piccadilly lines. One private room, one therapist, open 8am to 10pm every day of the week.
Rated 5.0 across 28 reviews on Fresha. Book and pay on Fresha in one go.
Yan Liu (Joy) holds an MSc in Sport Rehabilitation and Soft Tissue Therapy from Middlesex University, and works with acupuncture, dry needling, cupping and IASTM alongside hands-on treatment. She speaks English and Mandarin.