A Metamorphosis

I remember when I first started acupuncture school. For me it was one of the best times of my life. I was so happy to start a new career that I really loved, happy to be around other people who shared my enthusiasm for acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and relieved to have left a job I found devoid of any pleasure or meaning. When I told people what I was doing, some thought I was nuts to go back to school for four years. Others thought it was really interesting and shared my excitement. It was a time of transition, and there were many adjustments to be made by the time I finished school.

I didn’t always feel this great about what I was doing, however. At some point I began to realize that I was important to the school primarily as a source of income. I was playing a typical role in our culture as “consumer” and the product just happened to be an expensive Chinese medical education.

Meanwhile, there were other changes taking place in my personal life. Without my income, my husband and I could not afford the mortgage and taxes on our house. We downsized to a smaller apartment in a condo. I watched as my school debt grew. Later, new assessments on the condo meant that we would have to cough up more cash for building maintenance and renovations. I couldn’t help feeling like everyone was shaking me down for a buck, and I began to wonder if what I was doing, placing my family’s financial future at stake so that I could indulge an intellectual holiday and an exotic new career, was the right thing to do. Would it be worth it, or was I just another opportunity for someone else to make a buck? What did I really have that could make a difference to patients? Would I be ready to step out into the world and plug myself and my medicine as the answer to people’s health problems? My chiropractor kept coming to mind. He is a good chiropractor, but he is an aggressive salesman of additional treatments, his wife’s pilates instruction, neck pillows, and on and on.

Then came the class in practice management where we learned to look at patients, at certain diseases, as income generators. If I was going to reverse the negative flow of cash in my life, I would have to study the art of separating sick people from their money, and I would have to become good at justifying payment for acupuncture treatments that I could no longer afford for myself. This was a truly demoralizing time for me. This big transition of mine suddenly felt Kafka-esque.

It was spring 2006 when all this happened and a malaise set in. Midterms were approaching, and I could not muster the energy to study. I spent a lot of time net surfing, overeating, working on my wine cork collection. I had a Google alert set up to look for stuff about acupuncture, and one day it displayed a link to a book review by someone named Lisa Rohleder. I can’t remember who reviewed The Remedy, but it was reviewed positively, so I downloaded it and began reading it. I was going to read a few pages and then study. I couldn’t put it down! I read it and reread it and brought it to school to share with other students. And it was so aptly named. Community style acupuncture was the solution to my concerns about running my future practice.

It was particularly interesting to see other people’s reaction to The Remedy. Some poo-pooed it as unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky liberalism; some were annoyed that anyone would accept $15 for a treatment. But most people reacted positively, and many students became very excited about community style acupuncture as an alternative practice model. I could sense a new, positive kind of transformation in myself and many others as I approached the end of my last semester. I knew this was the kind of practice I wanted to have. I had that old feeling back, of being really excited about what I was doing again, and that feeling was (and is) sublime!

I am still in transition as I set up my new practice. I just put a deposit down on a 1600 square-foot space in Royal Oak, Michigan. The space itself requires some transformation, and there is still a lot of work to be done before I can open my clinic, but I am confident that it is the right kind of practice to start, especially in this area. I know there will be other hurdles to clear, but I have a renewed sense of faith that there will be solutions to whatever challenges come my way.