PCA, Part 1: They. Get. It.

One of the perks about leading workshops outside of my home in Portland is that I usually get to see another Community Acupuncture clinic. As we know, all of us are different and so by definition all of us who choose to define their Acupuncture clinic as a Community Acupuncture clinic all choose a slightly (or not so slightly) different way of defining what CA means. We wouldn't be human if that didn't happen as far as I can tell.

So last week the 'Ol Ball and Chain (Lisa) and I flew Back East to Philadelphia to conduct a workshop at Philadelphia Community Acupuncture (PCA) which is owned and run by partners Korben Perry and Ellen Vincent. (Yes, I have pictures. I'll post them in the comments.) My immediate reaction on seeing the clinic and reuniting with Korben after 13 months and meeting Ellen for the first time was.... They. Get. It. They really nailed the idea of what CA is about. I even thought that Lisa and I could stop talking about CA now because PCA figured out every detail to make a successful clinic after only two months in operation. I was impressed.

My second thought was that in thinking They. Get. It. that of course that's in using my definition of Getting. It. and that there are wonderful other CA clinics around the country that have their own perfectly worthy take on the CA model- many of whom are not on LOC.

Since then I've been mulling over the Synthesis of the two thoughts above. What do I mean by Getting. It? I thought of ll sorts of things: The space they are in. The neighborhood they are in. That they had volunteers from the beginning. The racial and class diversity of their clientele. Other things too I thought of. But then I hit it: Korben and Ellen are altruists. They set up their clinic with the idea that their patient's needs come first and they'll do everything possible to meet those needs. More than anything else putting that altruistic urge to the forefront defines CA.

I'm pretty naive. Until recently I thought that most acupunks put the needs of their patients first. I even used to think that the all health care workers like M.D.'s, messed up as they can be, put their patient's needs first. I know better now. I know that acupuncturists in general aren't any less selfish as most of the rest of the profession, or aluminum siding salesmen, stock brokers, the people who run those car title loan stores in some state, or the players on the World Series of Poker. The health care profession is just another way to put yourself ahead. I guess I am talking about Samsara now that I think about it. Ugh.

But its interesting, altruism is. Did anyone notice the articles that came out in the past year where some research showed that an altruistic act actually stimulated pleasure parts in the brain? I'm trying to find some of those articles and the best I am doing are here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/science/19tier.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

and here:

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/altruism/2007/06/26/

It makes sense to me that there must be a reward in oneself for an altruistic act; to even build one's life around altruism. That's what I try to do in fits and starts and when I saw PCA that's what I saw. To me the idea of altruism is as much the definition of CA as any other. Its that willingness to create your clinic around your patients' needs rather than what you want and trust that you will be taken care of. Altruism creates the idea that maybe charging as high a price as possible isn't the best of ideas, that the key to life isn't driving a Porsche. Its living in your community, being a part of your community, identifying with your patients of all walks of life.

Its funny too since we (Lisa, myself, Ellen, and Korben) didn't even talk about altruism. But I felt instantly at home there so much so that its taken me a good week after leaving there to get over my "jet lag", to re-enter the world. And, again, if I do nothing else in the acu-world, I am satisfied that with PCA I met a kindred clinic. What could be better?