Pulse Acupuncture PC

Marina is truly a healer. I’ve been going twice a week or so for the last two months and have never had such relief from my chronic sciatica and other health issues. I am so glad I found her.

Her office is easy to find in a bldg with other health care providers. The office door was wide open which was nice actually, felt inviting. No wait time, busy practice and clean. Needle insertion was completely painless, she said she uses a very thin needle so it’s painless. I’m happy.

I’m a frequent sufferer of migraines, so I decided to go to Pulse Acupuncture after reading about Marina Doktorman in the local newspaper. I went in for a free consultation and Mrs. Doktorman seemed to be very knowledgeable. However, this was my first experience with acupuncture, so of course I didn’t know any better. I bought a package of 5 visits for $ 300, which seemed reasonable. I did think it was a little odd that her office was shared with her husband, who was a cosmetic dentist, but I figured it was just easier for them to share space.
My first visit seemed fine, and I was locked in to 4 more visits. However, with each visit, my experience seemed to get worse and worse. After speaking with a friend who’s relative is an acupuncturist, I realized things were going wrong. Some of the needles hurt going in and I thought that was normal, but apparently it’s not. And when she pulled them out, some would bleed a little — also not normal at all. She would put a foil blanket (one of those survivor-​emergency blankets) over me to keep me warm while the needles were in for 20 minutes, which I thought was strange but went along with it. However, every time she took the foil off, she just pulled it, which tugged at all the needles in my skin; eventually I requested to not have the blanket.
The last straw for me was when she left me in there, with the needles in of course, for an HOUR! I don’t know if she forgot about me or what, but that was absolutely not acceptable. The combination of her lack of explanation for what she was doing, the bleeding, the bruises caused by the needles, the pain from the needle insertion, and being left for an hour caused me to make my final decision of never going back. Additionally, her two tiny rooms in the back of what seems more like her husband’s dentistry office, despite the 2 names on the door (that seemed to be the only thing proving she was a part of that office too — all the plaques on the wall belonged to her husband), seemed less than professional.
All in all, I would not recommend Pulse Acupuncture. I feel bad for writing such an awful review for someone who seems to be a decent person, but I don’t think anyone should go through this experience.