AcuSprout: Acupuncture Podcast

ACU-047 In this episode I meet with Phil Settels the Dean and creator of the DAOM program at ACCHS, the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences. We decided to bring the long held tradition of teaching thru case studies to the AcuSprout airwaves.

• We talk about Phil’s training with Dr. Huang Huang and how the Ten Key Formula Families is and integral part of his SHL diagnostic process.
• We discuss abdominal Fukushin diagnosis.
• We discuss how he decides between treating low back or knee pain with a formula or local orthopedic acupuncture…or both
• Phil talks about one of his first clinical mis-steps with Ma Huang and how it resolved.

Listen in and puzzle through with me as Phil presents a case and shows me a new way to reason through the formula prescription based on his teachings with Dr. Huang Huang, Arnaud Versluys, and Dr. Suzanne Robidoux.

Enjoy the journey and get a flavor for the teachings of the DAOM program at ACCHS.

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I think one of the toughest things about designing your future upon graduation is actually taking the time to do it.

Especially after 3-4 years of no money coming in.

Especially when the people around you seem to have a plan.

Especially when you have had such focus on education and learning that you have lost touch with that person in the mirror.

Perhaps you have no idea what you want in your immediate future. Or even 5 year future.

But here’s the thing. That is exactly why you should take the time to explore. 

To ask yourself the tough questions. What DO you like? Those favorite patients you treated in student clinic? What made them so likeable? Are those traits or characteristics something you want to see more in your practice? 

What cases, treatments, modalities, and classes light you up from the inside? What do you find yourself talking about with regards to Chinese medicine?

If you do the work in the beginning, if you envision the feel, the experience and the soul of your practice, it will act as a magnet for those defined elements that bring you joy. You will be creating an experience for your patients that no other practitioner can. 

ALISON TAYLOR, CO-CEO OF JANE

Ali began her entrepreneurial journey by opening a multi-disciplinary healthcare clinic called Canopy in 2011.  Running and owning a small business taught Ali the foundations of business along with a deep empathy for the life of a small business owner.  In 2014, Ali and co-founder Trevor, launched a new business called Jane.  Jane, a software built originally for Canopy that offered Online Booking and Electronic Charting,  is now being used by over 100,000 practitioners around the world to run their practice.  Ali continues to lead this scaling tech company as Co-CEO of a team of 350 staff on our mission to “help the helpers”.

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• WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO HAVE MISSION, VISION, VALUES STATEMENT
• HOW ALI AND TREVOR STARTED THE COMPANY AND WHY.
• WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO CREATE A POSITIVE CUSTOMER JOURNEY.
• HOW THE NAME “JANE” WAS CHOSEN.
• HOW ALL OF THIS RELATES TO YOU AND YOUR PRACTICE!

• TRY JANE HERE! BE SURE TO USE THE CODE ACUSPROUT1MO AT SIGN UP.

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Case Study: Orthopedic Acupuncture Instead of A Total Shoulder Replacement with Anthony Von der Muhll, DAOM

ACU-045 I remember treating a case during my internship where after a couple orthopedic tests I suspected that my patient had torn his meniscus. It was a great opportunity to practice my new set of advanced orthopedic skills and my patient responded well, but after a couple of weeks he had pain again. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the treatments through because the semester ended, but I have wondered how it might have concluded many many times. Can you really treat a patient with substantial soft tissue damage that would otherwise require surgery? Can you treat in a way that facilitates the body’s healing mechanisms so much that the patient achieves pain free normal range of motion? Does the structure damage change or is someone just miraculously free of pain?

In this episode Dr.Anthony Von der Muhll, DAOM walks me through a pretty unbelievable case of exactly that.

You don’t want to miss this episode!

this episode is a little long, so here are some rough time jumps for you

• 3:45 I introduce Anthony and we talk about his path to becoming an East Asian Medical Practitioner.
• 10:45 Anthony talks about what distinguishes him from other practitioners like Matt Callison, Poney Chang, Clayton Shui and Whitfield Reeves.
• 14:00 Why treating unstable joints is paramount to healing.
• 43:52 The Case Study Starts HERE!

Anthony Von der Muhll graduated from the Five Branches University of TCM in 2002, and founded the Santa Cruz Acupuncture Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Clinic in 2003. In 2022, Anthony relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he now practices at the Sports Acupuncture Clinic/Berkeley Bamboo Clinic with his wife, Tamara Brown, L.Ac., DACM.

Anthony Von der Muhll is the founder of AOM Professional, and has taught Certification in Acupuncture Orthopedics since 2015, and served as a clinical supervisor at the Masters and Doctorate levels for over 17 years. He  has also taught acupuncture orthopedics and pain management in the DAOM and DACM programs of the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences (Oakland CA), the American College of TCM (San Francisco, CA), the Five Branches University of TCM (Santa Cruz, CA), and the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine (Fairfax, VA). He has been a featured instructor in acupuncture orthopedics at conferences of the Sports Acupuncture Alliance, the California State Oriental Medical Association, California Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine Associates, and the Acupuncture Society of Virginia.

• Want to learn more...

As I see it, there is rarely a perfect time for anything. When is the perfect time to go to medical school? What about starting a family? When should you start working on your Doctoral degree? Or maybe it’s time to start taking better care of yourself.

What I have learned is that life just keeps getting fuller and fuller as you age. If there is a space in my closet I will fill it. If there is free time in my schedule, I will find ways of putting “more doing” in there.

What ever happened to slowly and gently building something of value? Of mindfully constructing the life we were born worthy of? Of gently inviting the blissful whispers of our dreams to slowly unfurl in our waking life.

Our fears of not having enough, not being enough and not doing enough cause us to race into jobs, relationships and life in ways that only cause congestion in our otherwise smooth and clear life path.

Our medicine is what I like to call slow medicine. It works best when we slow our lives down and focus only on the patient in front of us. It works best when the patient relaxes their grip on the speeding train of life for one hour of slow breathing, genuine care gently shifting the scales of life force back in their favor.

I want to invite you to consider practicing slow medicine. For yourself and your patients.

MEGAN NEAL LAC.

Megan Neal dedicated her life to the study of Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine after transformational experiences with it in her late twenties. At the same time in her life, she encountered yoga, Ashtanga yoga and then Integral Yoga, and has been walking the path ever since. Today Megan is an Arizona state licensed Acupuncturist, board certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, NCCAOM, expected November 2022. She is also Arizona state certified by the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, CCAOM, in Clean Needle Technique. Upon graduating from her three year masters program, her and her husband had a beautiful baby boy. She was fortunate to use what she had learned to care for herself in the journey to motherhood. She was thus inspired to specialize in women’s health- fertility, pregnancy, perinatal and postpartum care. She has no spare time but if she did, she imagines she would again enjoy writing morning pages, finding hidden pools on Mt. Lemmon, playing the harmonium, five rhythms dance, and continuing to nerd out with her collection of Chinese Medicine books. 

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• How Megan managed to take boards in her last trimester and then with a newborn.
• We talk about introverted marketing often, but Megan is an extrovert and her attitude about networking at a health fair is inspiring.
• Find out how she chose a niche and why.
• We have differing opinions about strategically taking board exams. Listen in to figure out what is right for you.

• Trying to pass board exams? Here are the resources mentioned in the episode
• TCMTests (my personal recommendation)
• HB...

ACU-041 In this episode I meet with Phil Settels the Dean and creator of the DAOM program at ACCHS, the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences. We decided to bring the long held tradition of teaching thru case studies to the AcuSprout airwaves.

Listen in and puzzle through with me as Phil presents a case and shows me a new way to reason through the formula prescription based on his teachings with Dr. Huang Huang, Arnaud Versluys, and Dr. Suzanne Robidoux.

Enjoy the journey and get a flavor for the teachings of the DAOM program at ACCHS.

Phil Settels graduated from ACCHS in 2011. Early on in his engagement with Chinese Medicine, Phil had the opportunity to study with several amazing Shanghan Lun teachers, including Dr. Arnaud Verluys, Dr. Huang Huang and Dr. Suzanne Robidoux. Phil uses Classical Formulas almost exclusively in his own practice and in his teaching.

Phil was brought in to design the curriculum of the ACCHS DAOM program which started in 2017, and he is currently the Dean of Academics. This program was guided by the ideal of what would best serve clinicians while honoring both the roots of the medicine and its development over time, and empowering graduates to be stewards of Chinese Medicine. The program has a dual focus on Classical Chinese Herbalism as well as Orthopedics and Pain Management, with the goal that graduates have increased skill and confidence to treat any patient who walks through their door, whether their condition reflects an internal or a musculoskeletal dysfunction.

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Oct 26

ACU-042 Okay, so you've graduated and now you have to decide what's next. Maybe you already know where and who you're gonna work for, or where your clinic's gonna open, or who your ideal patient is, and maybe even what your treatment focus will be, but. I doubt it because life doesn't really work that way for most of us, and in my experience working with and supporting new practitioners, you don't really know what's next upon graduation.

Life gets jumbled again. You relocate, you have babies, you get divorced, you interview for jobs, you work for other acupuncturists, you share space and or you start your own business, et cetera, et cetera. But here's the truth. The snapshot taken five years after your initial career choice after your initial start as an acupuncturist is typically radically different.

So what you thought you wanted changed the location where you started no longer suits you. You worked for three practitioners before you found a clinic that resonates with your treatment style and goals. You thought you wanted to treat women's health challenges only to find out that hospice is where you truly belong.

I wanna tell you a little secret. It's okay, . It's supposed to happen. Just as it happens. You aren't doing it wrong and you aren't failing. You did some serious growth in school. We went in as like, I'm gonna be super cheesy here for a second, but you went in as a caterpillar and now you're about to fly.

Seriously. Now think about this. Think about how much you have changed from the beginning of school to where you are now. And I know that this is super cheesy, but serious. Take some time to get used to those wings, like take your time and be gentle with the new version of you. If Chinese medicine teaches us anything, it's that everything has cycles and so does your career.

You're going to have to learn to grow into your practice, and it's okay to change directions, and it's okay to change your mind about things as your experience levels change.

• Employee vs Independent Contractor as defined by the IRS.
• The history of the FLSA, (Fair Labor Standards Act) which in 1938 set minimum wage and standard guidelines of employment.
• The present politics. How Trump changed it and how Biden is working to re-instate the original and make further, more solid distinctions.
• How the business owner benefits and the associate does not benefit as an Independent Contractor.
• Current standard payment as an employed Associate.

• IRS Definition
• Recent publication Oct 2022 in federal register of Biden trying to reinstate original emphasis on definition.
• Article on Bloomberg Law website discussing how Trump changed the emphasis on how to delineate between IC and Employee and how Biden is working to change it.
• Episode 20 with MaryAnn Geness...

The willingness and courage to have uncomfortable conversations so that your clinic stands on ethical ground starts with doing your own internal work. To sort thru your own programming and call yourself out to become a better human and practitioner is the first step to building a safe and inclusive clinic and becoming aware of how much hidden bias affects healthcare and treatment outcomes.

I don’t think any of us would ever intentionally do something in clinic or elsewhere that would diminish another person, but bias in healthcare is a very big detriment.

I was very uncomfortable in this interview, and with good reason! I was ignorant. I was hiking into unknown territory with a moral compass, but no map. I am really grateful to have had such a generous and kind tour guide in Kiki to start my journey.

Hi! My name is Kiki and I'm a Product and DEI Specialist here at Jane. I've worked in a few areas at Jane since starting in March 2020, including Support helping out our customers and as a Learning and Development Associate guiding our newbies through the beginning of their journey here at Jane. Throughout all of my work, DEI has been one of the most passionate aspects of my role. I hope to inspire others to actively work on creating an inclusive and equitable work environment for everyone. We all walk through the door with our own story and my purpose is to highlight these stories and empower marginalized communities.

• What DEI means.
• Why having conversations around DEI is uncomfortable for most people.
• What to consider in your clinical practice.
• How we might be blinded about our own biases.
• Where to start learning about how to be a better and more informed person.

• YOUTUBE TED TALKS
• HOW TO BE AN ANTI-RACIST, BY IBRAM X. KENDI
• BETTER ALLIES NEWSLETTER
• JOIN THE ACUSPROUT NEWSLETTER HERE!

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Acusprout has partnered with the BEST EHR company ever! Find out why everybody LOVES Jane!

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Success is not a straight line. It is a succession of failed experiments, hard work, strong networks, support systems, timing and happy mistakes.

In this episode, on a random Sunday afternoon while testing new recording software a great little happy mistake of a podcast episode is born. I invite my Grumpy Uncle, Michael Max onto a mock podcast just to fill some airtime that I can later tinker with, but it was too good to not share.

I’ve been a student of acupuncture and Chinese medicine for going on 20 years now. It began as a curiosity as to how a few needles could not only resolve a stubborn health condition I’d had since childhood, but also improve my digestion, quality of sleep and mood. This lead me first to acupuncture school, and then Asia where I worked my way through the gate of Chinese language so I could study with doctors there. Today my work is informed by my clinical practice, the materials I read in Chinese from doctors of centuries past, and the teachers of our modern times who synthesize observations of the past with the challenges of the present. This podcast is rooted in my own curiosity, inquiry and appreciation for different points of view.

• What it takes to create a successful practice.
• How Qiological became the success it is.
• Should a new Acupuncturist start a podcast?
• Some basic ideas and tools to keep in mind if you DO start a podcast.

• JOIN THE ACUSPROUT NEWSLETTER HERE!
• WANT TO BE ON THE EVERYDAY ACUPUNCTURE PODCAST? GO HERE!
• LISTEN TO THE EVERYDAY ACUPUNCTURE PODCAST on APPLE or SPOTIFY.
• LISTEN TO QIOLOGICAL.
• Jane Electronic Medical Records. Use this link to get your first month free!
• Follow AcuSprout on Instagram and Facebook

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• Content creation and how to get the most out of your topics.
• Where to start.
• What tools I recommend.
• Tips and Tricks to grow and get patients on Instagram.
• How to use the 10 minute SMASH to grow your followers.
• We will cover what to put in your profile bio.
• How often to post.
• The "must have" ingredients to each post.
• And what NOT to do.

• Canva - simple graphic designs for everything
• Hootesuite - social media post management
• Later - social media management
• Constant Contact - email marketing
• Linktr.ee - put in your instagram bio to create email catch or schedule button

This is just another learning possibility. It is also a really great avenue to be creative if you are a creative person. I like it for that. I did NOT enjoy the very beginning of the learning process, but I am faster at it now an enjoy the process.

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• The legal requirements you must follow to prescribe herbs, including state and federal guidelines. 
• What to look for when purchasing herbs from a distributor.
• What you need to know about reselling herbs and other products.
• What you need to know about reselling vs dispensing vs creating products.

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