collective happiness

So, I was supposed to post last week, but I was stuck in snarky mode and didn't feel like indulging that (turns out I was coming down with something). Maybe I'll snark later, but right now, I'm taking a cue from the environment--it's collective happiness time!

That's right, the He Huan tree (aka Mimosa or Silk Tree) is in bloom around these here parts, and a more joyful looking plant would be hard to find; here's an image if you haven't seen one in person:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:AlbizziaJulibrissin2.jpg
So, in the spirit of dispelling gloom and anxiety and fostering collective happiness, I thought I'd write a little bit about partnership.

Now, a lot of CAN folks have posted or commented on the ways that they have formed partnerships with their communities, and ways that patients have supported them. That's super important. It's helpful to remember that we don't have to do any of this alone - in fact, the idea that we could do it alone is a myth, from the fact that we're not making our own needles (much less mining the metals they're made of) to the fact that we're drawing on a medical tradition that has been kept alive and passed down for a couple of millenia. Not to mention that an acupuncturist without patients is just some crazy person jabbing at the air. (Lisa just wrote about this in the forums as I was working on this post, so if you don't believe me, read what she wrote: http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/forum/read.php?24,4348)

But this post isn't about any of that really important stuff; this post is about partnership in the more literal sense. I have three partners, and while I think you could do this with a different number of people, I personally would never have done this alone (I could now, if I had to, but I'd still rather not). Of course, as with any relationship, there are occasional difficulties, but I think all of us feel that the benefits of working with others are worth it. These benefits are manifold, but it seems to me that they all break down into two categories:

1) You don't have to do it all yourself.
That means everything from raising capital, to sharing risk, to marketing, to bookkeeping, to the laundry. Your clinic can be open lots more hours, which makes you more accessible. You have other colleagues whose opinions you can easily solicit when faced with sticky cases or tough business decisions. You have other people who really know what you're going through; and you can take turns freaking out, or just hanging back a little and resting, while the other(s) keep the vessel on course.

2) You don't GET to do it all yourself.
This benefit is a little less obvious, and has a lot of subtle manifestations. One of the less subtle ones is that, if you have any control issues that you didn't know about, your partners will find them for you. This is, I think, a good thing (and better than your patients finding them for you, though you can bet they'll help too). After all, a lot of what we try to teach our patients through our needles is how to relax, and how to respond more flexibly to situations, as opposed to always reacting in predictable ways. Good partners will help open your mind a little about things--including your own strengths and limitations--partly just by being themselves and doing things differently than you would; and this will make you better practitioners and better businesspeople.

Also, since you're not the only practitioner, the situation doesn't as easily contribute to neurotic ideas you might have about being a great healer (or being really incompetent). My three partners and I are pretty similar in a lot of ways, but we have fairly different treatment styles, and different perspectives on patients. And you know what? All of us get results. Mostly because our patients can afford to come regularly.

Whether or not people can find good partners, I really encourage folks to get help, and to offer help: to partner with other acupuncturists to form clinics, yes, but also to help other CA clinics in your region, to accept help from your patients, and to use and contribute to CAN. There are a lot of people and situations contributing to major unhappiness in the world; the only sustainable response is a collective one.