I completed an internship at San Marcos Community Acupuncture Clinic and took on the duties of a regular volunteer, but was also extended privileges of observing and participating in different forms of traditional Chinese medicine. My interest in traditional medicine and healing in different cultures led me to the acupuncture clinic to gain a better understanding of what is involved in non-biomedical or western healing. Besides receiving acupuncture, I also received herbal therapy and was bled. I learned a tremendous amount throughout my internship, especially better people skills. It gave me a glimpse of what it is like to run an acupuncture clinic as well as a chance to evaluate the science as a whole.
The clinic belongs to People’s Organization for Community Acupuncture (POCA), a movement began by Lisa Rohleder in a small clinic outside Portland, Oregon. The clinic model is a low-priced, high-volume acupuncture that is a response to the expensive cost of acupuncture school as well as the client limitations most acupuncture clinics have due to high treatment prices. She created a model where patients are allowed to choose what they can pay within certain boundaries ($15-$35). Basically, the people who pay the higher price allow the clinics to offer such a low minimum payment. Although the acupuncturists are trained in acupuncture, moxibustion (mugwart burnt on patients skin or on acupuncture needle ends), oriental medicine, tui na (therapeutic massage), gua sha (scraping therapy), bleeding, cupping, and a variety of biomedical diagnostics, the POCA model only allows for acupuncture to be performed. The POCA model allows for the acupuncturist to spend about five minutes before each session to discuss treatment and progress. Each acupuncturist is trained in Chinese pulse diagnosis, as well as being able to examine the tongue and physical symptoms. All the combined information they receive creates the diagnosis and treatment for the patient.
My daily routine included arriving at the office before opening, illuminating the open sign and placing a sandwich board outside to attract sidewalk traffic. I made sure that all patients’ charts are out for the day and the ones from the day before were put away, and I was expected to watch the list of patients for any last minute appointments made online. I made sure the patients’ tea area was stocked. My responsibility also included greeting patients, checking them in, taking payment information, gathering any specific requests (for example, if a patient needed to leave by a certain time, if they needed a blanket or a heating pad, etc.), and most of all I prepared patients for their treatment.
San Marcos Community Acupuncture Clinic is an extremely interesting case of how alternative healthcare is moving into the United States. The approach is focuses on the social aspect of receiving treatment. Each patient is directly responsible for others treatment, by way of paying an extra five dollars or having donated a recliner. The ability to see the extra money patients give put back into the clinic allows them to feel good about what they are doing as well as being interested in the clinic’s progress.
There are many differences between traditional Chinese medicine and western biomedicine, but the most noticeable one is the mind-body split in western medicine, where in Chinese medicine, the split never happened. Acupuncturists embrace the idea that the body can heal itself, and they recognize that the needles are assisting the body’s natural healing mechanisms (Kaptchuk, 1947). Biomedicine, however, calls medicine that acts without cause a ‘placebo’. The placebo, in western culture, means one of two things: there was nothing wrong in the first place or it was a psychological problem. Neither of the two explanations are what acupuncture embraces, because in the biomedical model, there is no recognition of the mind being an active part in healing the body.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the depletion or influx of a person’s energy is the factor that makes one sick. This makes for an interesting biomedicine and traditional medicine debate. Their polar opposite perspectives leads each other to think that the other practitioner is doing harm. I do not see this distinction quite as clearly, they both have so much to offer as well as teach each other. Eastern medicine is very good at listening and having a patient centered approach, making the patient feel more relaxed and taken care of. Western medicine has the scientific basis to lean on, which provides patients comfort with a diagnosis using expensive tests. As a proponent of both science and patient-centered healing, I believe these two systems have a lot to learn from each other. Integration is a difficult task, not because patients would not be receptive to a choice in healing, but because each doctrine needs a way to integrate with other without losing fundamental tenants.