A TCM Practitioner's Comments on CA

I recently received a short email from an acupuncturist friend of mine who went to the same TCM school as I did in Canada. We had been corresponding about my experience with community acupuncture and I thought his most recent email was powerful and worth sharing here. He was kind enough to allow me to post it for others to read. My original letter is below and the response from my friend follows:
Happy Holidays,

Good to hear you are doing well.

I never fully appreciated the power of acupuncture until I did so much of it in a short period of time. I see about 20 patients a day now, 5 days per week, in 10 minute increments.

For our training that may sound a little bit overwhelming and nuts but it has become a whole new way to practice that I am really enjoying. Basically, community acupuncture is like the comfortable cafe of acupuncture. Our patients pay as they come in at the front desk, seat themselves anywhere they like in the large treatment room, and then rest. I simply focus mostly on pulse diagnosis and minimal dialogue to address the most pressing complaints of each patient.

Instead of trying so hard to be the whole healer for each patient, I am just the acupuncture part of their health process, and it turns out that is very significant. With the prices between $15-40 most working people can afford to come in often enough to really let the needles do what they do best, shut the monkey mind up long enough to direct some energy towards relaxing and renewing. After a brief discussion and taking the pulse (also brief due to a simple pulse system that I have picked up here at the clinic) the needles are placed. Then they simply rest, as long as they like. Most people stay around an hour but if deeper rest is needed some stay over 2 hours.

I have attached a short essay that describes a day at the clinic. If you are ever in the Portland area please stop by.

Best,

Moses

(the attached document was my post in this blog called “A Glimpse of CA in Action”. You can find it in the November blog archives)

Response from my acupuncturist friend:

Moses … thanks for telling me about your practice. I have to admit I am intrigued. The thing that has always stopped me from enjoying what I do is the illusion set up around it. I see so many acupuncturists and TCM practitioners swelling up what they do in order to charge the big bucks. We all like money, but many of us subtly build up our actions into more than they really are in order to justify our income. I believe acupuncture is powerful because I have seen it do amazing things … and the experiences I have had with it convince me that all the surrounding padding is unnecessary. Some people are willing to pay for frills … and mostly I have seen that those are the people that are also most disappointed when they find the practitioner wants them to take some responsibility for their own health. There is an idea that the more you pay for something (healthcare) the better it is, and the less you need to work to have it … hmmm … I often wonder about that.

I truly believe that we as acupuncturists are part of a bag of resources that a person can and should use to remain or become healthy. I have lots of trouble with acupuncturists and other health practitioners that try to give off the aura that they are ‘the’ solution to their patient’s health problems. There is in some ways, a tendency for healthcare workers to feel that they have power to ‘fix’ their patient and be ‘responsible’ for their patients’ health rather than the truth, which is they are facilitators for aiding those who want to take responsibility for their own health.

More power to you, Moses. Stay in touch and keep me posted on how things are unfolding for you.

Cheers