grads not practicing/developing personal life creates new patient flow

[Guest guest]

I'm playing catch up, so forgive the delayed responce on this thread:

 

ABD:

 

this is an interesting point you raise about your practice getting busier

when you develope other aspects of you life and therefore place less

emphasis/dependence on your practice. personally, i've noticed for the get

go of practicing that whenever i plan a vacation and make deposits, the

phone starts ringing and everyone suddenly wants to come in so that the week

before and after get really jammed (no complaints, but i had available slots

earlier, too). this month i've been in the throws of moving. i planned the

dates for what have traditionally been a quiet time. so what happened: new

patients coming out of the wood work, and i'm busier than ever.

 

i've been thinking people are attracted to activity, and scarce commodities,

likes moths to a flame. but this idea of AB's about getting life more

balanced and multi-faceted for a practice to flourish is interesting. i

wonder if others have thoughts on this issue.

 

 

 

on the issue of 30% of acu grads are still practicing in 5 years:

 

laura makes a valid point that this is a fact of most professions. still,

i'ld like to see where the stats are coming from, or is this rumour?

 

my 6 cents,

 

kath

 

 

On 7/14/07, < wrote:

>

> Hi All-

>

> This is an interesting topic for me, not so much for the success/failure

> discussion aspect, but more as related to personal growth and interest. I am

> in my 5th year of practice, and hold lightly the work that I do. I do not

> love it, nor despise it, though at times I find it fascinating and

> captivating, other times frustrating and disappointing. And I suppose this

> is all the " normal " stuff of life.

>

> What I find interesting lately, is that the more I " let go " of my

> " attachments " to my practice, the more successful it is as a business. What

> this is looking like, is the more I explore additional professional and

> personal possibilities, the better my practice does and the more confident I

> am as a practitioner - and happier, too. For instance, I have been writing

> and singing songs for the last 20 years, and now am exploring ways to get my

> music on CD and out into the public. Also, in 1993, I applied to rabbinic

> school programs with an interest in pastoral counseling - which, by the way,

> was the very reason I was denied admission, but that's another whole can of

> worms... Lately, however, I have come across some programs in spiritual

> direction, which is very nifty and exciting, because my primary interest in

> TCM was to use it to heal spiritual wounds anyway, and this is not something

> I was taught in school.

>

> So anyway, as I become more " whole " by re-integrating more aspects of what

> I love into my life, my practice grows and flourishes. It reminds me of

> something my clinical counseling teacher once taught us about a healer

> having a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted life, and being competent in

> all of them. The more I shift my practice away from being the center of my

> life, the busier it is, and the more balanced and happy I am. I no longer

> care whether or not I am a practitioner of TCM for the rest of my life, and

> I am prepared to follow the course of my life wherever it takes me. If I do

> decide to stop practicing at some point, I will never have considered my

> choice to practice a mistake, nor my leaving the profession an incident of

> failure. I'm just growing, changing, and enjoying many different things.

>

> My 4 cents.

>

>

>

> heylaurag <heylaurag <heylaurag%40hotmail.com>> wrote: Hi

> All-I have a couple thoughts--one is that I think that it is to be

> expected that a career in an " alternative " health profession would be

> less likely to have a high success rate than other professions. The

> other thought is that I think we'd all be surprised to see how few

> people succeed in any profession.

>

> I received an MSW prior to going into Chinese medicine, and so I

> sometimes felt down on myself for having " failed " at my first career

> (particularly because I went deeply in debt for grad school at Boston

> University--I enjoyed MSW work but knew it wasn't what I felt

> passionate enough about to continue forever). Therefore I found

> myself paying attention whenever statistics came out on this kind of

> thing and I discovered that I was actually a huge success in my field

> because the vast majority of people in most professions are not in

> their field anymore after 5 years, and another large percent never

> even have one job in their field. I was successfully employed for 5

> years after I got my MSW, so that was comforting to me. But the point

> is that the statistics show that it is a gamble to go into any field.

> However, I think that most of the time the path that eventually is

> settled on turns out to be related (as in my case---my MSW work has

> everything to do with why I've been successful in my TCM clinic).

>

> Just a few thoughts--

>

> Laura

>

> --- In

Chinese Medicine <Chinese Medicine%40yaho\

ogroups.com>,

> mike Bowser

> wrote:

> >

> > Zev,

> >

> > So then why was he allowed continuing access if he has retired? I

> thought this forum

> > was for practitioners/students. From time to time, I have found it

> odd that

> > many in our profession have difficulty with acknowledging reality of

> others (majority?)

> > and the way things stand (ie, a majority of grads are not practicing

> for long after school).

> > I guess I was hoping to hear some acknowledgement of this problem

> and also a discussion

> > as to suggestions that could help, both for schools and LAc. As for

> junk mail, I find a lot

> > of discussions on this forum get deleted as such (sorry). Nice to

> hear from you again. Mike W. Bowser, L Ac

> >

> >

> > : zrosenbe: Thu, 12 Jul 2007

> 20:53:01 -0700Re: Re: Pete Thiessen

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Mike,While I had no problem with Pete personally, this thread was

> interminable, we'd been down this road before not too many months ago

> with the same subject, same person, and Pete also retired from

> practice some time ago. My opinion was that this thread was out of

> control, and generating a lot of junk mail in the process.Z'ev

> RosenbergOn Jul 12, 2007, at 8:34 PM, mike Bowser wrote:> I would

> agree with Hugo on this as well. When the subject matter > becomes>

> uncomfortable we tend to ignore the realities of it. I have heard >

> many times> the numbers of practicing grads is not really that

> impressive after > 5 years.> Instead of blasting him, I think we

> should have acknowledged his > experience> and then start looking for

> solutions to help others. I have been > involved in> a couple of

> different schools and find that it appears these > students do not>

> seem to understand what it takes, at least from a business stand >

> point and> I would question their ability to do well. Mike W. Bowser,

> L Ac>> > Chinese Medicine:subincor > e: Thu,

> 12 Jul 2007 20:30:51 +0000Re: Re: Pete Thiessen>> Hi

> all...I'm with Alon on this one. Hit the delete key...I erase > most

> of the threads anyway !! :DBut seriously, I am disappointed > that

> Pete was banned. Things seemed to have gone really badly for > him,

> and he is understandably angry about it. A temporary, > compassionate,

> ban (a time-out, if you will) might have been more > appropriate. Does

> the software do that, or was it coded by someone > with a more

> draconian bent?In any case, I understand how difficult > bitterness is

> to handle...at the same time, I am surprised at the > list. We're

> supposed to be healers here...? But then, who knows, > banning could

> create a healing effect...but was that the intent...? > What I saw was

> a lot of people trying to shut him down, and very > very few trying to

> listen and support. I'm not surprised it turned > ugly.In any case, I

> am still disappointed. Poo poo on all of > you.Hugo----- Original

> Message ----Alon Marcus > BillYou can always

> choose to not read. To me > its like all the ranting about media. Just

> choose what you readAlon > Marcus DOM{font-size:13px;font-family:arial, >

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