BUENA PARK — An affordable acupuncture center recently joined the neighborhood.
Life in Balance Community Acupuncture, 4140 N. Sheridan Ave., offering community acupuncture — more common in Asia — quietly opened six weeks ago.
The idea is that patients pay what they can per treatment as long as it's between $15 and $40, and everyone is treated in the same room to establish a casual, soothing environment. In the United States, acupuncture patients are usually treated on tables in individual rooms.
Mina Bloom says it's acupuncture in a more casual setting:
Owner Erika Ewer, 37, decided to open a community acupuncture center because she believes everyone should have access to acupuncture regardless of their income level.
"We're not here to embarrass you. You leave acupuncture feeling happy," she said.
Ewer hasn't always wanted to be a holistic healer. The 37-year-old South Side native studied photography and sculpture at Indiana University. She later moved to Los Angeles where she worked in distribution at Sony and lived a "rock 'n' roll lifestyle."
It wasn't until she got "really sick" and several people told her to try acupuncture that she first got a treatment. She fell in love with the practice, which led her to move back to Chicago and enroll in a master's program at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.
"Rock 'n' roll made me an acupuncturist," she joked.
After running a private practice for six years where she'd charge $70 per hour, Ewer finally landed on community acupuncture, which has grown in popularity, especially in Portland, Ore.
By offering affordable services, she's hoping to draw a range of customers, from the stressed-out commuter on the way home from work to the elderly person who suffers from chronic pain.
Ewer's business isn't the first of its kind in the city. Lincoln Square Acupuncture LLC, 4720 N. Lincoln Ave., has been offering community acupuncture since 2005.
"The Lincoln Square clinic is really busy, so that's really encouraging," she said.
Once the Buena Park center becomes an official member of the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture, it'll be the sixth community acupuncture clinic in the state, she said.
For more information, and to make an appointment, visit the center's website.
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