Blogger Bios

I just this spring started People's Acupuncture in South Berkeley with my fabulous acu-buddy/business partner Thuy Nguyen. From the time I first came upon Lisa's Acupuncture Today articles to the time Thuy and I decided to do community acupuncture was a matter of weeks. Five months later, we are up and running and steadily growing and evolving. All along it's been one of those “well, of course I have to do this” things, and CAN has been a godsend through it all. Anytime we can't figure something out, we go to the forum, where there's lots of supportive folks who've already been where we are, and are generous with information and insight.

In addition to community acupuncture, I love teaching Reiki and practicing hypnotherapy (I'm particularly into helping acupuncture students with test anxiety!). I'm also a freelance writer, and as Editor-in-Chief of the /California Journal of Oriental Medicine, /I'm always looking for interesting articles and op-ed essays by acupuncturists. I went to AIMC nee Meiji in Berkeley for acupuncture school, and in previous lives, I got degrees in journalism and creative writing and worked in alternative energy, journalism and PR. I was born in Branson, Missouri, where my 4th grade science project involved a large Kewpie doll stuck full of straight pins indicating acupuncture points. Some of my favorite things include /Waiting for Guffman/, Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie, reading David Sedaris and laughing out loud, wild mind writing and mountains in Mexico.

 

Opened Manchester Acupuncture Studio in Manchester, NH in June '07 after a two-year courtship with the teetering and relentless desire to 'do it WCA-style'. Now in May '08 with 2 full-time Punks and 10 shifts over 6 days/week, we are on our way...

I've been an L.Ac since 2001 and an RN forever. I love doing community acupuncture and seeing people get better without having to stop treatment too soon due to money. I also see the end of chronic illness as we know it if there were a CAN style clinic in every neighborhood. I live in the Twin Cities with my cat Priscilla, Queen of the House and really enjoy spreading the word about community acupuncture.

It is hard to stay where it started. Perhaps it was deep down in Blythe Miller's roots in the 19th century Russian proletariat. Perhaps it was deep in a Qi Gong fueled meditative state. Hell, maybe it was something her dog told her. At any rate, it became crystal clear to Blythe that regular people have a really hard time getting access to quality healthcare, especially acupuncture. And she has made it a priority to bridge that gap through promoting Community Acupuncture. She is currently slogging her way through the Masters program at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine.

I Grew up in Utah and even did some experimenting with LDS, but I am recovering now. I am currently in my last 6 months of acupuncture school in Phoenix, Arizona, afterwards my wife and I are very excited to open a CA clinic in the east valley area.

I am still a student of acupuncture (and not in the metaphorical sense), I am an actual student that is still paying actual good money to "learn" acupuncture at OCOM here in Portland. I have 15 months left and then I will be free! The good news....I will be treating patients at the school clinic in September and thus will be learning tremendously by actual practice.

I plan to incorporate Jingei Pulse diagnosis into my practice there and am excited to begin. In the future, I am going to open up a "community acupuncture clinic" and in the meantime, I am trying to learn as much as I can from Lisa, Skip, Sarah, Lupine, and all those wonderful people at WCA.

I am lucky/grateful to have been exposed to this model early in my schooling because as soon as I was, I was thrilled about it and it just made perfect sense to me. It is helping me to stay eager about practicing as I jump through the hoops at school. That long paragraph said, I am happy to be part of the blog

Started Providence Community Acupuncture after reading "The Little Red Book of Working Class Acupuncture" and attending a conference at WCA in Oct. '06. The community clinic has enabled her to spend more time working out doors at a friend's vegetable farm and at killing her own lawn to plant more food and flowers. Cris enjoys biking to work, scrumping (harvesting local food surpluses) and her wonderful community of friends and family.

I am an average white female, married to an average white Canadian-American. We share our home with three extraordinary felines: two large orange brothers and a small lanky gray girl who fears nothing. I enjoy cult movies and ice hockey. I value environmental conservation and social responsibility. Before acupuncture, I was an editor and writer of medical books and journals and continuing medical education materials. This profession caused a huge pain in the neck, which brought me to an acupuncturist, and that's when I knew that sticking needles into people would be my new career. I went to PCOM New York and graduated August 2007. Luckily, I found The Remedy in spring of 2006. My Royal Oak, MI, CAP should open by spring 2008.

 

I'm French-Irish-American hybrid living in SF, married to a Irish-American gal from New Hampshire. I have a son named after my hometown in Texas; he was born in the year of the Monkey (me--the Dog.) I went to school to learn how to stick needles into people in order to make them feel better. I'm broke, in-debt, and pay too much rent for a one-bedroom apartment. I have health insurance but owe about $2000 in medical bills and believe that CA will make my life, and others like me, more comfortable. I also have about 20 kilos of puer tea aging in a red metal cabinet -- I plan to drink it all before my days are over.

David finds himself running a community acupuncture clinic in Fort Lauderdale Florida after spending many years in his favorite of all cities - New York. He studied at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and later graduated from Tri-State College of Acupuncture in 2001. From there he headed north to Boston where he had an acupuncturist's dream job of working with Pathways Boston - a community based Chinese medicine clinic. But one winter there and he shot south to Fort Lauderdale.

His clinic, Community Acupuncture & Massage Project (CAMP) - which he founded with another local acupuncturist - provide sliding scale community acupuncture treatments to anyone in the community and free treatment to people living with HIV. They are a not-for-profit organization attempting to find a balance between public funding and private pay clients to keep their organization afloat. No small task!

His interest in treating people with HIV and addictions comes from his earlier incarnation when he worked for another incredible organization in New York City called Housing Works - a not-for-profit organization which provides housing and support services to homeless people living with HIV.

I had just hit 10 years in practice when I stumbled on the Working Class Acupuncture model in 1995, via Lisa and Skip's "Little red book of working class acupuncture". After reading this 3 times in the first two weeks, I was ready to jump, and two months later I was offering Community Acupuncture part time in my Cape Cod, Massachusetts clinic.

While my boutiqe style practice had always been enough to pay the bills, I was forever needing to recruit new clients, and the ones I had often ignored my recommendations for a treatment plan, mosty due to cost. This made me feel frustrated and not very effective. The opportunity to transform my practice in ways that better support me, my community, and my values has been life changing for me. While it's all still a work in progress, there's no question that this is what I want to be doing, and helping others to do as well.

is the co-founder of Philadelphia Community Acupuncture.  She lives four blocks from her clinic, two blocks from the park, and has to go nurse now.  The baby monitor is making noises.  Oh wait, they stopped.  So here's more:  Use a stainless steel guide tube!  Ellen loves them and so will you.  

Co-owner, founder, mail room worker, practitioner, and water bottle filler of and at Boise Community Acupuncture. Boise Community Acupuncture: opened January 2007 Born on Long Island, NY (no, I do not have an accent) Graduated from: www.aoma.edu bike commuter, organic gardener, and serious salsa aficionado Stumbled upon Community Acupuncture quite unintentionally, fell in love with the concept, and covertly brewed up my own little clinic right here in the potato state. Community Acupuncture can happen everywhere!

Gabe is an acupunk wanna-be currently slogging (or how about slugging - in both senses of the word as Oregon is slug-central and school and the non-CAN acupuncture world make her want to slug someone) her way through her first year of acupuncture school. She specializes in parenthetical run-on sentences, bitching and moaning about stuff and avoiding studying or coming up with solutions by watching entire seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in one night...and now by blogging, too.