When I first graduated from school thirteen years ago, I remember joking to a friend about my “ego-wall” where I hung my diplomas, my Washington state license, and my national board certification. I had no experience in business and little preparation from my school. The ego wall was all pretense, puffed up ego hiding a desperate cry to my patients: “hey, I’m barely making it here and scared-you-know-what-less of facing the economic realities of running a business, but look at my credentials.”
And those diplomas look mighty fine – all the squiggly John Hancock signatures, gold embossed seals, expensive matte, polished glass, and banker’s black frames. The schools who print these impressive looking certificates are not dumb. By throwing their grappling hooks into the ego of the practitioner, they, and the profession, get pulled along for the ride. The practitioner is conditioned to think – it can’t be the fault of the school that my practice is failing, it must be because acupuncturists don’t have enough recognition from the mainstream medical establishment…and so we are told that we need a Doctorate to boost recognition, told to lobby for acupuncture coverage of Medicare….bandaid solutions for a broken system. I stopped buying those story lines when I decided to open a community acupuncture clinic.
Regardless of what social class an acupuncture graduate comes from, students are trained to imitate and appeal to the the codes of power of the wealthy, upper class – ways of dress, speech, professional appearance – hence, the “ego wall” which is fairly standard in most white coated medical practices. Please don’t misunderstand this as a rant against the mainstream. I’ve certainly met compassionate, skilled, and humble doctors. And I’ve made clear elsewhere of my respect for the value of primary care medicine. My reference to the “ego wall” isn’t any aspersion against any of that. Expectations of clientele, and perhaps even professional rules, will dictate such practices. My point here is that too often professionals do get snagged by their egos, and then forget that their original purpose was to help all people, not just those who can afford to pay top dollar. More specifically, we aren’t trained in cultural competency that is welcoming to people of the working class, diverse cultures and ethnicities. These blind spots take time and re-education to unravel.
Fast forward to 2007. After a successful (profitable) private acupuncture practice (as defined by the wealthy niche mentality), I realized (again) that my definition of success was helping as many people as possible, so I sold my private practice in Ellensburg and, with Serena, opened CommuniChi inside El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill – joining community hands with an organization with over three decades of social justice work. I even scaled down my ego wall somewhat, but not completely.
Fast forward to 2010. In another two weeks, CommuniChi celebrates three years in business and probably over 10,000 affordable acupuncture treatments. Even after an amicable partnership dissolution, a few bumps in learning to be an employer, and weathering the whims of a sour economy, my confidence in the sustainability of this model continues to grow. Businesses can succeed quite well while paying attention to social ethics, and leaving behind the Gordon Gecko “greed is good” mentality. So much so that when my brother offered me a new painting, I quickly realized right where I wanted to put it. It was time to dismantle the last vestiges of the ego wall. Down came the remaining bricks paying homage to officialdom. (Okay, I confess, I hung them up in the closet!)
My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia three decades ago. His brush strokes are bold, unpretentious, and his paintings are full of wild colors. His art pays homage to no one – except God – but welcomes all. That is who he is, and a role model for me in that regard. It is a fitting tribute to the extraordinarily ordinary unpretentious lives of the 90% of Americans that a community acupuncture clinic aspires to serve. Thank you brother; letting go of the ego wall is a most auspicious beginning to the new Year!
Untitled, by Henry Van Voast
p.s. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition opposing the development of an entry level doctorate for acupuncture. The ACAOM rules on this issue this Friday. I will keep you posted.