Justine's blog

Building a bit on what Skip mentioned in his last post, since of course it resonated with me very much... I thought I'd share my thoughts in my own experience of transition to community acupuncture.

I’m a member of the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts(AOMSM).  Recently, a “subcommitteeof insurance” was formed by someone who is very in favor of attempting to getacupuncture covered by insurance. Currently, as some of you may know, Massachusetts requires all residentsto have health insurance – those without face tax penalties.  Putting aside the thought that thelikelihood of this is probably quite slim, I think it’s still a valuablediscussion. 

The person who started the subcommittee put the following post up in the forum:

This past weekend I took a whole weekend off for the first time since opening my clinic, went to the woods for some camping and had some time to think about how good it is to be a community acupuncturist. Here are (just) 10 things I love about it:

10) Feeling good about what I do each day - being able to help people and having no guilt whatsoever about what they are going to have to pay for it because I offer a sliding scale

9) Being able to suggest to patients who need it that they come frequently and having no problem telling them this - I allow people to come as often as they need to in order to get better.

8) Being able to offer acupuncture to people who otherwise would never try it or receive it regularly simply due to the cost.

7) Treating a bunch of people at the same time - not only is it efficient and effective, it's FUN - much more so than one-on-one, in my opinion

When I first learned about community acupuncture, I was told about the benefit and existence of group qi.  Being the lifelong-skeptic of all things non-provable as I am, I was quick to file that thought back in my mind as an unimportant fringe benefit in the grand scheme of things regarding community acupuncture.  After all, what really mattered most to me was being able to offer people affordable rates so that they would be able to come and get better and I wouldn’t feel strange asking them to pay something that I myself would feel uncomfortable paying.

Fortunately, however, by the simple time I've spent in several community acupuncture treatment rooms, either as the acupuncturist or as a patient, I have been able to sense the group qi and I truly feel it is an amazing, REAL part of the community acupuncture experience.

This past Saturday my new community acupuncture clinic, Acupuncture Together of Cambridge, had its grand opening event with free acupuncture from 11 am – 4 pm, and it was truly grand, indeed. After spreading the word by inviting nearly every person I know via email, contacting nearly every possible free publication in the Boston area asking it to list my event and using internet sites announcing it as well, I gladly received an overwhelming response, way beyond my expectations. Apparently the press found it a novelty worth including in their event listings, and my effort at seeking them all out was worth it as well. I treated 51 people in 5.5 hours!!!

Acupuncture Together is the name of my new clinic that opens next Tuesday, May 27th! Located in Cambridge, MA, I managed to get this clinic ready to go in less than 2 months - holy moly! The videos on this blog could be straight out of the TLC channel. When I left my last practice I had nothing except a big pile of furniture to keep (which was fortunate) and a lot of experience from already having started a practice, as well as my incredible gift of experience working at Manchester Acupuncture Studio for the last 7 months. I had to start over again from scratch, essentially, but this time with many more ideas and an ability to just surge ahead with my family backing me up and nothing else to really stop me.

It is my week to blog, and it’s taken me some time to think about what I’d like to say. At first I thought it would be best to keep private the most recent events in my life and business, but then I realized that sweeping everything under the rug never does any good because it just resurfaces. I could have hidden away and hoped nobody noticed, but eventually anyone on CAN would figure it out. I am no longer an owner of Back to Balance Acupuncture Center – I’m starting over.