What I learned while a client at DSE

The first thing I learned as a client at David Singer Enterprises was tenacity. My first weekend seminar was with one Dr. Mark deEulio, a chiropractor who is no longer with DSE. (sometimes I wonder why) He was encouraging, dynamic, motivational and had some good stories. The one that caught my attention was about a client of his who had migraine headaches. She came in three times a week for three months, as was his standard issuance, and saw no change in her headaches. He said to her, well I have some other ideas about how to treat you so lets do another three months. She agreed. Still no change. At this point he was getting uncomfortable and said, well if you are willing to continue, I have some other treatment ideas so lets stick with the three times a week. She agreed. (I figured that she liked the process, and could afford it somehow) To make a longer story short, she apparently came in three times per week for over a year to his office, and then her headaches went away and they never came back. I was intrigued by that story, and thought about it for a long time. I realized that it really is true that I don't have the timing of healing in my hands, and that if I trust in what I am doing, and if the patient enjoys the process, and if there is benefit along the way, then who am I to dictate what is possible. This was a confidence builder for me.

From this kind of thinking I also began to put it together that I could trust my chosen field and didn't have to get the problem solved on the first treatment. I have learned since from other sources, that treatment and responses to treatment are also a way to build a clear diagnosis over time. I think a lot of us get out of school not knowing just what acupuncture does and how it works, and how long the process will take... etc. DSE is the first place I learned to treat more than once a week. I loved it right away! And these things helped me to take the pressure off myself, so I could enjoy the process more.

Another thing I learned from DSE was an "us and them" sort of view point. Dr Singer is very anti-drug and will work with anyone in any field of the helper~professions as long as they are doing work that is anti-drug. He tells his personal story, and it is fantastic, about his own healing without the use of drugs or surgery. In fact, the best part about being in those seminars is listening to the wild stories that are told by other practitoners. We often are cooped up in our practices, large or small, and don't hear some of the more amazing healing stories that express the capabilites of acupuncture. Going to these seminars is always energizing because you hear a lot of success stories from other natural health care practitioners.

That being said, the DSE seminar atmosphere can be a little feisty. I find that I am stirred up and my own feistiness against drug and surgery types of health care gets fueled. I find that a little distressing. One thing I have noticed as a professional is that when another professional speaks poorly of a colleague, whether a close or distant colleague, I feel bad and I think it reflects poorly on the speaker. So again, putting it all together from my personal experience and the experiences I had at those seminars, I am able to see what kind of professional I want to be: one that never speaks poorly of a colleague.

Another thing I learned from DSE: Well, here I have to admit what a slow learner I am. Sitting in those seminars and doing the optional telephone role play practice sessions with an acupuncturist buddy in New York, I kept saying to myself: so THAT is what they meant in acupuncture school! So THAT is what they were trying to teach me in traditional diagnosis class! I felt silly, but the systems that DSE puts out there get me the information from the patient faster and more directly than anything I learned in school. My little Small Intestine official was over whlemed in school, and with DSE and his clarity of systems, I found a way I could learn to learn from my patients. I love it and will use it forever. I feel a thousand times more confident about what to ask, what info I am getting back, and how I will use it. Simplicity is all important, and DSE got me there as far as the patient interview goes.

Now I know a lot of you dislike DSE. What I have found is that I am still, several years after working with him, integrating my learnings (both good and bad) and makingmy practice my own. My presonal style is much gentler, and I use what I like of what I learned and I leave the rest. Some of what he teaches doesn't work for me, and some of it I use to different ends than he does. (I guess I feel a little defensive since I know so many people dislike his style.) I did find that his scattershot way of lecturing made me feel like I needed a treatment at the end of the weekend. Its a lot to integrate. And he does a heavy sell job.

DSE is also involved with something called scientology. There, now you know almost as much about it as I do. I did have some conversations with the consultants about scientology. They spoke about someone named Hubbard, and when I recognized a bit of similarity to Native religious philosophy (which I study) I asked about it. This is the place that I saw some things I disliked: DSE preaches about abundance and creativity this way: if you are not growing your practice, you are declining. And we don't want to decline! Ever! Never! I got to thinking about that, and realized that without decline, we don't have growth. They belong to each other in the tai chi symbol. This is something that acupuncturists know simply and clearly from our training, and is probably why DSE is so unpopular in our field. In my way of thinking about it, I decided that there is no reason to be afraid of night, because day always comes after. There hasn't been a year yet when spring has not followed winter. So in a funny way during these seminars, I lost my fear of decline and of growth.

The upshot of what I got out of DSE is the permission to really go for it, to really take pride in what I do and see how natural healing techniques are not only a good thing, they are vital and lifesaving. And I got a cheerleader: admittedly it was a cheerleader who was interested in my success because it meant I would spend more money with his business, but it was a cheerleader nonetheless. With careful listening, I caught them in their own contradiction within their trying to sell me more of their products. I used to say it is so worth it to go to at least one DSE seminar. Now I wonder: was it just Dr deEulio that sold me at first? He was someone I really enjoyed learning from. If you do go, make sure you are going in with a buyer beware kind of attitude.

And if you really need a cheerleader, join CAN instead! The inspiration is fabulous, the cheerleading is royal and the information is solid and presented without greed.