When I am lecturing to students or meeting a patient for the first time, I am very often asked how did I get from being a scientist to being an acupuncturist? Well, I came to acupuncture in the same manner as many of my peer acupuncturists have---by being a patient first and experiencing profound results in the middle of my own health challenge.
It is the same footpath that leads many of my patients to my office door now — I was in a tough health spot and I simply had nowhere else to go. I had tried everything else that Western medicine had to offer — and the Boston medical community provided me the best available, world class care — but it didn't help—and in fact, it was making things worse.
I had been practicing yoga and attending meditation, and mindfulness classes for some time, and a classmate suggested acupuncture to me. I politely declined—ahem, no more needles for me! But I was still having problems, and by the time acupuncture was suggested by a second, and then a third person. I was finally ready to go — as I said, I simply had nothing else left to try.
So I went... and to my great surprise and immense relief, acupuncture worked (and the needles didn't hurt)! My symptoms were significantly reduced on the very first visit. I returned for follow-up visits as the intensity and frequency of the issues lessened until they were gone. Years later, I still go regularly for treatments with acupuncture for its unique benefits to health and disease prevention.
But my curiosity was piqued — I began to read about acupuncture and it reminded me why I became a biologist in the first place. I had spent years building my career in biotechnology — helping to bring along a new class of all natural biologic drugs, the molecules our body actually makes on its own to send signals to boost our immunity or blood cells to fight off serious diseases. Now I began to read about acupuncture research collaborations (Boston is again, a world class city for science and medicine) and came across studies showing early results that acupuncture and other forms of Asian medicine encourage and boost the body's production of these same immune enhancing molecules in our body--from within ourselves and without drugs.
That was the hook for me — I jumped career tracks from being at the top of my game in biotech, already having earned two graduate degrees — to start over again in graduate school and pursue the study or acupuncture and oriental medicine.
With a beginner's mind and a bit of beginners luck, I landed at the oldest and most esteemed school of acupuncture and oriental medicine in the country — again let's hear it for Boston — and the school was nearly in my backyard, 4 miles from my home. Now, after nearly 4000 hours of clinical and classroom training, a year of clinical internship at hospitals and clinics all around Boston area, I am fully licensed, nationally certified, and in practice in two locations, Newton and Andover.
This is my story — what is yours? Whether you have a tough health situation, maybe a strong desire for relief without drugs, or are just curious to enhance your health and reduce stress, I'd like to hear your story and introduce you to acupuncture. Acupuncture works — and I will work with you to provide powerful relief with gentle acupuncture. CALL NOW for a no fee introductory consultation.
