CA Acupuncturist Lauds Chinese Medicine Practitioners Program

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 18, 2008 – None of my colleagues ever dreamed of growing up to be an Acupuncturist. The possibility didn’t even exist until the last quarter of the 20th century when the first schools began offering certificates, and later, degrees in Acupuncture and Oriental medicine. I graduated from Yo San University in Los Angeles, California.

I knew none of this when I started my medical studies in the mid-1990’s in traditional Chinese medicine. I came to Oriental medicine as an outgrowth of my martial arts training because I had learned that, traditionally in China, many martial arts masters used acupuncture points and were expert bone-setters and herbalists and I hoped to acquire just a little bit of the hoary wisdom that those antique masters were known for.

What I found was work. Lots of work. And study. I studied every day. For hours on end. Eventually my world revolved around the study of Oriental medicine and my social life became the friends I made in the course of studying acupuncture. The complementary medicine program took over my life and I was enraptured. It filled me and flowed around me, becoming inseparable from who I was and opened my senses to a universe of new possibilities.

I have since been fortunate enough to experience traditional Chinese medicine as a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.), an instructor, and an administrator. I am also a board member of the California State Oriental Medical Association (CSOMA), the largest Oriental medical professional association in California and host of the CSOMA Expo, a large annual gathering of acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners.

Participation in each of these arenas has given me a perspective on the education, the practice and public image of the medicine that relatively few in my profession ever see. I have met hundreds, if not thousands, of awe-struck incoming freshman whose minds are filled with images of Daoist sages practicing their yogic breathing techniques in their lonely cliffside dwellings. They come to Oriental medicine because of their desire to become healers and they see Oriental medicine as the single best vehicle towards achieving that goal.

It was always a great pleasure to see the students whom I had taught in their introductory classes become intern practitioners and start treating their own patients. Their visions of public service and holistic healthcare were materializing and most of them displayed a level of self-confidence that was conspicuously absent in my classes a few year earlier.

I started working in administration to supplement my income when my practice was still in its infancy. Little did I suspect that it would become my primary form of employment in years to come. My administrative role continues to give me insight into the means by which medical education is delivered. My colleagues and I would spend countless hours, days and weeks meeting and developing innovative classes and programs that (we hoped) would most effectively provide the best educational opportunities available with the limited resources at our disposal. We would then monitor all of the benefits and problems that arose and go back to the meeting room to see how we could adjust our designs, and so on, and so on. Weirdly, I still find this process to be invigorating. Developing a large plan, working with so many intelligent and dedicated professionals, and seeing that plan through to fruition is one of the most fulfilling experiences I have ever had. I am fortunate to have had that experience multiple times and I always look forward to the next big creative challenge.

Professionally acupuncturists tend to be less organized than other medical professionals. I, myself, consciously avoided membership with any professional organization until I realized that, like so many parts of life, we are individually responsible for creating the changes in our own lives. Armed with this sentiment, I accepted my friend’s call to arms and accepted a seat on the CSOMA Board of Directors hoping to create a more dynamic and responsive professional network.

During my tenure on the board I have learned a few things about corporate law and Robert’s Rules of Order but, most importantly, that with conscious effort and a modicum of whimsy, some very diverse individuals can come together and create opportunities that benefit an entire class of professionals. My colleagues on CSOMA have shopped for such seemingly tiny business opportunities such as super-low interest credit card processing rates to continuously lobbying for Acupuncture and Oriental medical insurance privileges and watching out for State legislation that affects our medical community. Through CSOMA I have learned much about civic responsibility and professional pride and I encourage all students and practitioners to join an organization of some sort.

What does all of this mean? Can the sum of my brief professional career be summed up in one word? Of course not. Lives cannot (and should not) be encapsulated on a bumper sticker. But I can say that I wake up every day regardless of whatever is happening in my life or in the world knowing that what I do is going to make the world a little healthier, a little kinder and that a few people will experience less suffering by nightfall. And that’s a good start.

Johnathan Heywood, President
Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
13315 W. Washington Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90066
Tel: 310.577.3000 x15
Fax: 310.577.3033
Email: jheywood@yosan.edu
www.yosan.edu