too old to rock and roll?

December 18, 2006

Fernando,

You are wrong my dear brother! I'm also an old/young child of the 60s. But

I'm also new at this. I can assure you, there is tremendous respect for those

of you who predated the Masters and Doctoral degrees, yet who have earned the

highest degree: that of distinction that comes with years of experience and

professionalism. Our medicine is so underdeveloped, the only reason someone

shouldn't make a living is because they practice in an oversaturated area,

and/or even there, they don't know how to sell themselves, for instance by

advertising a specialization. I'm telling you, students and new practitioners

are in awe of your skills, and to fear competition from them is misplaced. The

cream always rises to the top. Nearly 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of being

part of a group of professionals (in my previous incarnation) who hired perhaps

the top tax lawyer in Los Angeles. In 1988, his hourly fee was $500! Each

member of our business association(there were 20 or

so of us) paid him a flat fee of $10,000. He explained to us that the amount

of time he would spend on our case against the IRS, might be 50 hours and it

might be 2 hours. How could he justify charging us $200,000? Because, he

explained, we were hiring his expertise and knowledge, his connections, he

communication skills and his experience. Those tools were worth far more than

an investment of 100 hours of research and communications with a low echelon IRS

agent. He regularly had lunch with the regional director of the IRS. He had

connections in Washington and Sacramento. People owed him favors. Did we

succeed? You bet! How much time was involved? Maybe 10-15 hours at the most!

Did we get our money's worth. Of course! The point is that those of you who

have practiced for years, who have learned therapies and treatment tricks that

we never learn in school, those of you who have developed connections with other

professionals, in Western and in alternative

modalities, are like that attorney. Do you think he was afraid to speak to

young sharp attorneys straight out of law school with their eyes on making a

reputation for themselves. Not a chance.

Just be cool and keep doing what you're doing. Like chen pi, you are smooth,

mature, you stabilize imbalance, you dry dampness of those who are wet behind

the ears, you get the qi to flow in the right direction, and you get better with

age.

You've paid your due. Persevere and you will collect.

With much respect,

Yehuda

fbernall <fbernall wrote:

Yehuda, Z'ev,

I think that in the long run our field will become subject to and

manipulated by those higher in the food chain. Employment for those of

us who graduated 10 to 15 years ago is next to none.. When was last

time anyone saw an employment ad for an acupuncturist?

New graduates are graduating with Master degrees. It was not the case

when I graduated.. Who is a hospital going to hire first? An old cat

like me with just a TCM diploma? Or a young graduate with a Master's

degree?

I can't see how a school is going to help graduates find employment

when jobs are not available.. You can often see ads for massage

therapists, physical therapists and other related fields but I've yet

to see an ad looking for an acupuncturist..

And if one mentors a new graduate, could that eventually be shooting

yourself on the foot? Or do you do the distateful, vulgar, non-compete

clause?

As Bob pointed out, time goes by very fast.

Fernando

, " "

<zrosenbe wrote:

>

> I also agree with you, Yehuda.

>

> I think the schools will, sooner or later, have to respond to the

> points you make about scholarship, mentoring, and helping students

> find work after graduation, or there will be a backlash of some

> kind. The tuition is unreasonable in proportion to the present

> earning power of acupuncturists, even those who are motivated to

> succeed despite the barriers.

http://traditionaljewishmedicine.com/

December 19, 2006

Yehuda

Fernando has a point. I recently saw an ad for a nice job at NIH

doing research consulting in the field of TCM. this would have been

my dream job once upon a time. However, in order to get it, one must

have a DAOM degree. I saw this coming when the profession went down

this road and I railed against it. So now a bunch of know nothing

recent grads, some of who have never practiced, are ones qualified

for the few " real " jobs out there and those of us who don't have the

creds are left to rot. Its definitely a good advertisement for going

on to get the DAOM.

On Dec 18, 2006, at 11:26 PM, yehuda frischman wrote:

>

> You are wrong my dear brother! I'm also an old/young child of the

> 60s. But I'm also new at this. I can assure you, there is

> tremendous respect for those of you who predated the Masters and

> Doctoral degrees,

December 19, 2006

Yehuda,

While I agree that the cream rises to the top there are economic

realities an istitution must consider prior to hiring a young vs an

older practitioner. This fact is accentuated particularly when the

older practitioner does not have long working history such as myself.

I've been self-employed most of my life and have held very few jobs

under someone's payroll.

A hospital, for example, should they wish to hire a tcm practitioner,

most likely will target someone who can be molded into their system

without much resistance. While someone who may be settled in their own

ways of doing things would not be so desirable.

Personally, I have no ambitions or illusions about working for a

hospital or similar institutions. But this reality does affect older

practitioners who seek full-time employment with health benefits..

Regards,

Fernando

, yehuda frischman

< wrote:

>

> Fernando,

>

> You are wrong my dear brother! I'm also an old/young child of the

60s. But I'm also new at this. I can assure you, there is tremendous

respect for those of you who predated the Masters and Doctoral

degrees, yet who have earned the highest degree: that of distinction

that comes with years of experience and professionalism.

December 19, 2006

As Z'ev implied and others I have run into that are going through the DAOM

programs have expressed, it's unfortunately the price that must be paid to

access fields of research that were heretofore generally unavailable to us. But

just like PHD programs for those that want to be researchers, one, not everyone

is interested in doing it , and two, I would suspect that compensation would be

pretty substantial with the right credentials, and I also suspect that more and

more research opportunities will present themselves in

< wrote: Yehuda