I have been practicing acupuncture for the past 25 years. This is my second career and I love it.
I could retire easily, but I don’t. And why not, you may ask? In the past four years, I moved to upstate New York, two hours north of my previous home … and that was in the middle of pandemic. Double whammy.
Starting a new practice in a new place without contacts was and still is a challenge, since I now live in a rural area. But I love to practice acupuncture and not being able to do it is painful. So, I decided to offer “Wellness Mondays” in a local cultural center in a barn. Yes, you are hearing it right.
Wellness Mondays take place in a beautiful room, full of wood and big windows, with a sheep barn on one side and a little wool shop on the other. The room has a big window into the barn so the sheep can see us and we can see them.
We gather every Monday for 1.5 hours to start the week with calmness and clear intentions. I speak for 20 minutes about some aspect of Chinese medicine, normally something related to the season and its particular element; then we tap the meridians and do some qi gong; and finally each person who comes gets 20 minutes of ear acupuncture with Loving Kindness meditation for ourselves and those who are suffering in the world. The cost is $5 donation for the space and it is rare that people can’t afford that.
I am happy that I can practice and love to prepare my little talks and get challenged by sometimes-difficult questions. The participants are slowly realizing that they know about their own bodies, minds, emotions and spirit much more than they ever realized, or that their doctors or mental health providers made them believe.
They understand now with ease that a headache or a backache is not just that; there may be a connection to their diet, emotions or inappropriate care of their warmth, for example. They feel calmer when they leave on Monday and feel real difference if they don’t do the meridian tapping or qi gong during the week.
October 24th, 2024 is National Acupuncture Day. Why not celebrate and make people aware that there is so much more to my practice than just acupuncture and moxibustion? So, as I did last year, I will hang some flyers at the local farm and co-op, and send email to my friends and patients to come to an open house to help me celebrate.
I will set up an area where we can sit together and see some of the special tools I use. I will prepare some mullein leaf tea for the lungs and blood tonic tea (always delicious), some flowers, candles, and a diffuser.
The little table in the photo has different types of acupuncture needs, different types of moxa, gua sha tools, tein shin tools, a colorpuncture set, tuning forks, essential oils, magnets and seeds, Japanese ion-pumping cords and rings, and some special gadgets and cards for emotional and trauma releases.
People will stop by for an hour, learn about the various tools, ask questions and then choose their mini treatments. Some will opt for 20 minutes on a biomat with a meditation CD; others choose ear acupuncture or moxa.
It will be fun to see what children want to experience: colorpuncture, wooden hummer tapping, tuning forks, essential oils or direct moxa? Each person will leave with a little booklet from ACE “Acupuncture in the Nutshell.” It will be a great day for me and those who come. I am proud to be able to be of service and to have tools to help people lead more peaceful and healthier lives.
I would love to hear how you celebrate National Acupuncture Day this October. Email me at shiningmtnny@aol.com.
As modern medical standardization continues, the field of traditional Chinese medicine has the advantage of comprehensive personalization. For rare or complex cases, deeper consideration of constitution is invaluable. Proper constitutional assessment, especially with first-time clients, can guide desirable and predictable outcomes. This leads to a higher rate of return, and greater trust between you and your patient.
Though the creation of a financially sustainable, health-promoting model feels far away today, we are casting a vision for a full return on health, believing that this compels us to keep one foot firmly rooted in caring for the sick and the other foot firmly founded in maintaining health. Shifting from a fee-for-service model to value-based care using a phased approach is paramount.
Laser therapy has emerged as a powerful tool in the realm of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This new modality fits beautifully into the toolbox of the modern acupuncturist, as it can be used as a hybrid form of stimulation to acupuncture points, meridians, organs, nerves, and symptomatic areas in a new way that blends both moxa and energetic needle-like responses.
