With all the changes occurring in the world, from COVID to politics, I think today is a good time to sit back and reflect back on my journey in TCM. When I graduated from TCM school, I, like most of my colleagues, felt not only a great sense of passion but an almost unreasonable sense of expectations concerning success. I vividly remember telling a fellow graduate that the hardest part of our clinical life was over, graduating from TCM school and passing the Boards. Boy, was I ever wrong in having that sentiment.

When I started the process of opening my clinic, I quickly realized that learning TCM points and Herbal formulas was only half the battle in being successful. I quickly realized that “real-world” issues needed to be addressed. For one, clinicians have a reputation of having poor business skills. I can vouch that this is true. In school, you are being asked to become proficient in a very specific area of study.

Now there were some students who held down a parttime job while in school. Sure, they learned some business skills. However, their experience provides very little help in starting and establishing a business. Planning a budget, marketing, establishing a referral base were things I never even thought about when in school. I mean we had a course or two on these areas. However, they were nothing more than an introduction.

Another area I quickly realized when I first started was that the Western public, were not educated, at all, on the modalities of TCM and the advantages they offer in treating pain and stress. I remember telling a colleague that people, in the West, are brainwashed in thinking that popping pills or having surgeries are the only way to heal their bodies.

I had to reeducate many of prospective patients I their thinking of the healing of their bodies.