I am the owner of an acupuncture clinic in the Scott's Addition area of Richmond, VA, which has been safely serving the public with over 10,000 treatments in the last four years. I also have been for the last four years an examiner for the CCAOM course that acupuncturists must pass in order to receive a license to practice in Virginia and many other states, the "Clean Needle Technique" course.  

In my practice,  I successfully treat a lot of pain.  Much of that is MUSCULAR pain, whether chronic or acute.  Many of my patients come in having completed an unsuccessful course of physical therapy (because MD's refer to PTs and insurance generally pays for PT).  Even with these cases where PTs (and even surgery) could not help, I am often successful in mitigating or resolving a painful condition.

 As part of my continuing education, I have been studying orthopedic  acupuncture, informed by the work of Dr. Gunn, Dr. Travell, Vladimir Janda, and sports medicine acupuncturist Matt Callison, L.Ac.  Over the past nine months I have travelled to four separate classes in this topic. This style of acupuncture uses some traditional acupuncture points and also looks for the most effective points using a modern anatomical knowledge of the muscular and functional systems of the body. Whether using Trigger Point or Motor Point acupuncture in a "local" manner  IS acupuncture and legitimately with the scope of the medicine that I am licensed under the board of medicine in Virginia to practice.

I also practice various forms of "distal" needling, including scalp acupuncture, to improve the conditions that patients come in with, as well as other non-needle modalities within my scope (cupping, gua sha, etc.).  This based on the comments of the PT board regarding the local nature of their scope of practice is not what PTs in Virginia should be doing, but I know that there are classes that advice the use of the same distal points that I use. This is out of scope for PT's and yet they are doing this already here in Virginia, reportedly by my patients.

I have many PT's that I enjoy working with and referring to, and have myself used both acupuncture (lateral epicondylitis) and physical therapy ( torn rotator cuff) for my muscular issues when needed.  I appreciate that they have a scope of practice that is different than mine and I enjoy working in concert with them.  And, if Physical Therapists would like to practice invasive needle techniques such as acupuncture, I would submit that they should be required to meet the same standards as Acupuncturists, including the clean needle technique classes given by the CCAOM, and sit for the NCCAOM licensing examinations in the same way that we did.