Philadelphia is pregnant with twins. Two more community
acupuncture clinics are forming in greater Philly as a direct result of
the workshop we hosted here in November. That workshop was led by the founders of Working Class Acupuncture in Portland and of The Community Acupuncture Network.
Ellen and I are doing what we can to support the three
practitioners involved in these projects. We know both places are going
to be successful; and Philly will be that much further along towards
making acupuncture accessible to the majority of its people.
This seems even more poignant for me today having just read this article about Walmart beginning to open health clinics.
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Many of you may not know that there's a new acupuncture school in
suburban Philly. The Won Institute. Ellen and I were just asked to
teach a unit on community acupuncture for their practice management
course this year.
This happened, as far as I can tell, because of overwhelming
interest from students, including in particular one rabble rousing
organizer who attended the CA workshop held here in November.
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My relationship to practicing CA style acupuncture continues to evolve.
Obviously, the way we are ale to lower prices so much is by doing a
high volume of treatments, which also has the advantage of getting a
lot of people from the community together in the same room. This
counteracts the isolation which plays such a big part in keeping us
unhealthy.
Although in my biggest thinking and most rational mind, I know that
the simple and frequent treatments experienced in this community setting
are the best possible acupuncture medicine, I have had periods of
distressed feelings (mostly fear) telling me that there's no way I can
be a complete acupuncturist without using more moxa, without being able to
treat the back, or without being able to spend more time with my
patients.
So, its with great gladness and satisfaction that I report how much
better the treatments are going. Each treatment is much more
likely to excite rather than drain my own qi, and the treatment results are
improving dramatically.
Several factors are leading to these changes. An important one is
the way I've pushed myself beyond my comfort zone in terms of getting
down to the business of pulse taking and needling with every patient.
This means not getting drawn into unrelated talk when there's no time,
and expecting return patients to be in a chair and ready to be needled
when it's time for their appointment. It means exercising maybe gentle
but definitely firm leadership with new patients that says what we'll
be doing and what we cannot do.
The more subtle interpersonal stuff behind this has to do with my
trying on KNOWING that what I'm doing is enough and that I don't need
to show my care by listening to patients longer than I actually can, given the community model. It has to
do with really recognizing how sweet and supportive and healing the
whole experience is going to be for each patient, and how my role in
that is being a competent acupuncturist, doing a treatment that helps a
patient feel better now and making sure they understand how important
regular visits are.
In this context, I am hugely grateful for our team of volunteers
(Jacks, Waliyyah, Lou, Vida, Leigh, Rafik, Aurora) who very directly
deal in providing sweetness and listening, while being brilliant
interpreters and guides to a radically different and therefore
potentially confusing experience.
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Of course, as acupuncturists we are actually listening, listening,
listening, all the time, as well as looking and smelling and asking. I
noticed an instance recently how my own classism clouded my closeness
and understanding of a patient, and so too my diagnosis and treatment.
This will be a bit oblique, but I'll try to tell you what I mean.
During her third treatment, a woman told me something about her day
that made me realize I had made an inaccurate assumption about the
nature of her work. "Oh", I heard a part of myself say. "Wow, she does
THAT for work! That's a really serious job. I thought that she
just....."
Yikes.
And, I didn't catch myself until I had subtly but immediately
shifted my take on the etiology of her symptoms in my mind. I think the
best I can do to describe this is to say, I was looking differently at
her spleen and the patterns of worry affecting it.
Fortunately, I'm not a machine measuring things, and I get to step
back, maybe laugh at myself, and shift my thinking to reflect the
reality that every single patient is Good and worthy and part of the
same world where yin and yang and the five elements are at play.
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I made a trip to New Hampshire recently and got to see Andrew Wegman and his
Manchester Acupuncture Studio. Here's one photo of a portion of the treatment room.
I got to see Andy at work, interacting with the good people of
Manchester, and just experience yet another unique example of community acupuncture, where
the clinic really reflects and respects both the particular and the
universal of another place on earth.
A bald eagle was flying north up the Merrimack as I entered the
building. A nun and some other really funny, sweet, grumpy, and loud
guy were walking out, both looking lightened and shiny.
I fell in love with the whole movement yet again.
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