Growing Pains

If you’re like me, you wait and wait and wait and wait for your Community acupuncture practice to grow, and really get busy. You are beside yourself with excitement, it can’t happen quick enough for you.

Then all of a sudden, it’s here, and it’s kickin’ your butt.

Kinda like wanting to be all grown up…. First you’re a teen, then you’re in college, then, boom, you’re 40, and somehow in spite of all that waiting time, you are unprepared.

I have pretty much always been in solo practice. I have no experience getting out of the way and letting other people help me. Two months ago, I had the opportunity to expand my practice. The new space would allow for reception help. Fairly quickly I had three volunteers signed up. They are great – very committed to the cause, all are retired and a couple are ridiculously over-qualified. The problem is mostly me. Twelve years in practice, honing my responses to every question that a patient (or potential patient) can throw at me. How can I let a newbie handle it for me? It is, after all, my practice.

The short answer is, I have to learn how, and quick. You see, I treated 66 people this week. In four days. Nine of them were new patients. If I don’t truly learn to let others help me, I will burn out.

My volunteer folks are having fun! They tell me they love being in my office, chatting with my clients, and being part of the community acupuncture revolution. They talk their friends and families into coming. They tell their acupuncture success stories to new clients. One of my volunteers has been getting acupuncture for over 25 years. When she first started, she sometimes had to choose between meat for dinner and getting enough acupuncture. With her lovely spouse’s support, acupuncture always won. “What good is meat,” he said, “if you are in too much pain to enjoy it?”

Now, I am facing another transition. I need to bring in another acupuncturist—I’m really not capable of handling the clinic’s continued growth by myself. This isn’t really great timing. I’m still getting used to having front office help. At the same time, I need to interview and get used to having clinical help. Not to mention, this week, it felt like I needed the help 3 months ago at least, and just couldn’t recognize it.

Community Acupuncture requires community. It is not a solo gig. And it turns out, community means people who care enough about what you’re doing to go out of their way to help. They may not be the community you imagined or expected. But they are the folks you need, if you want to stay sane and continue to love your job. And I have worked too hard to get here to be willing to not love my job.

So here’s a word to those who aren’t quite this far along. If you’ve been on your own so far, get motivated to ask for help. Do it before you have to, before your back is against the wall. People really do want to help you. You really can learn how to let them. And the sooner, the better.