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The AcuGroup Method:
Principles That Guide Your Care.

Built over two decades of clinical collaboration.

AcuGroup co‑founders Franco  and Jonah have each been helping people get out of pain for over 25 years. When they met in 2005, they quickly recognized how much they had in common: their strong backgrounds in massage, dry needling and trigger point acupuncture, their integrative approach to pain care, and their practical focus on what works. They’ve been working together ever since.

Jonah Hershowitz & Franco Garritano,
AcuGroup Co-Founders

10 Guiding Principles of the AcuGroup Method

The AcuGroup Method grew from Franco and Jonah’s collaboration, resulting in a patient experience we’re proud of, and a standard of care that only gets better over time.

Every visit is focused entirely on you. Assessment and treatment are precise, showcasing our experience and skills as detectives and technicians. We set goals with you, evaluate progress at defined milestones, and guide you on what to do between visits.

Ten principles guide our method—how we assess and treat every patient, and how we train every AcuGroup provider.

1

Patient-Centered

We start by seeing a person and asking ourselves how we can help. Following First, Do No Harm, we commit to safety first and pursue the best care we can offer. We build strong, lasting relationships with our patients. Your goals and concerns guide your care, and we’re here to listen, explain, and help you move forward.

2

Collaborative

We draw from multiple disciplines and clinical traditions to create a cohesive plan. No single approach works for every problem. Our providers collaborate with each other and your broader healthcare team when needed. We treat the whole person by recognizing the physical, emotional, and environmental factors that affect health and healing.

3

Outcome-Driven

Our courses of care are built on clinical evidence, standard of care, and three decades of experience. We use standardized scales at appropriate intervals to measure how you’re progressing. Treatment adapts as you improve or things change, at the pace tissues and systems need.

4

Hands-On

We use direct techniques—palpation, needling, manual therapy, and therapeutic laser—to engage soft tissue and the nervous system. We are artisans practicing a manual art, developing expert sensitivity to body and tissue. Our needling style is a hybrid of trigger point acupuncture and modern dry needling—bodywork with needles.

5

Pain Science-Based

Pain and function depend on more than muscles and joints—they depend on the nerves that sense, create movement, and carry pain signals, and the brain and neurotransmitter responses that determine how much something hurts. Our care calms sensitized connections with precise needling and education in at-home strategies to help the brain dial down pain.

6

Emphasis on Movement & Function

We’re here to help you get back to the activities you love. Whether that’s running, swimming, or playing an instrument, our goal is to help you move better, feel stronger, and enjoy daily life again. But movement isn’t just rewarding, it’s therapeutic, often the key to lasting pain relief and long-term recovery.

7

Supporting Self-Repair

We’re experts in healing, and we know how to put someone in the best position to get better. Our treatments stimulate the body’s built-in repair processes—from tissue recovery to nervous system regulation and pain modulation. We work with biology, not around it. When obstacles to healing are identified and removed, the body does much of the rest.

8

Motivational & Goal-Oriented

We help you clarify what matters most, and focus treatment plans on meaningful targets, whether in a sport, daily activity, or physical capacity, with clear milestones to help us review your progress and goals.

9

Habit & Lifestyle-Focused

Sleep, stress, activity, and daily patterns all affect recovery. We work with you to turn vicious cycles into virtuous ones, with habits that support and reinforce improvement. Small, consistent changes in how you sleep, move, and manage stress often matter as much as anything we do in the treatment room.

10

Committed to Education

We believe the more patients know, the better their care is. We explain our understanding of what’s going on and how your care works, so you can make informed choices. And we keep learning, too: our team stays current with research and training in our fields of focus. We seek to empower patients beyond the treatment room.

The Method in Practice

These principles aren’t a philosophy statement—they’re how we run the practice. Every provider who joins AcuGroup trains in the method directly. It’s how we make sure the care you get is the care we’ve refined over 25 years, consistently, across our team.

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Whether you’re dealing with pain, working on performance, or navigating a change in your health, we’re here to help.
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