Philadelphia Community Acupuncture

Community Acupuncture documentary!

2011-11-11T11:22:00.001-08:00

Brian Lindstrom came to Philadelphia Community Acupuncture last January to film a segment for the amazing documentary that is now available to watch at bliptv. The entire documentary is about 35 minutes, and copies of the DVD are available for sale at PCA.

Korben and family moving in August: a thank you note to my patients

2011-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

With great sadness and also excitement, I’d like to let those who don’t already know that my family and I are moving back to New England in August. This is one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made, trying to reconcile our desire to be closer to family (especially in regards to my son, Julian) with the profound sense of belonging that you’ve all given me as your community acupuncturist.
I’m afraid I’ll never be able to express my gratitude for being able to work so closely with all of you. I have never felt more alive and connected and useful as I do each time I spend I few moments with a patient like yourself, listening, maybe laughing, or maybe saying nothing at all, surrounded by other perfect and mysterious and resting someones, and with the sun at whatever angle it is, and hopefully helping you to settle into a slightly more cooperative and flowing place within your body.
So, a huge thank you to everyone I’ve ever treated here at PCA. I will not remember your symptoms, but your beauty and the very particular way you went ahead and believed in your body and your mind despite the challenges.
Also, thank you to the unbelievably righteous band of volunteers who made this place work logistically and who give it nearly all of its flavor and rhythm. And, thank you to Ellen Vincent, Pascal Vincent, Amy Walsh, Waliyyah Muhsin, Jacks Cody, Lou Cutler, Danielle Stimson, Zem Chance, and Linford Martin for building this thing together. I hope it lasts forever.
Thank you to the rose window on the Hickman Temple for reflecting back perfect design from the north. Thank you to the countless sunsets and occasional violent storms coming from the west. Thank you to the gigantic oak I can see out the back, south window, probably on Springfield, which always focused me when I washed my hands, and to one of the neighborhood hawks which lands in that tree sometimes. Thank you to the many moon rises behind the skyline and to that beautiful (unfinished?) mural, both of which woke me out of complacency when I started feeling like I was “working”. I hope to come back often and bask in the very special energy which is this exact place on earth at rest and at peace.
I will work my regular schedule up through the last week in July. If you are a regular patient of mine, I encourage you to go ahead and get a treatment with one or two of the other fantastic acupuncturists now, so that if you want you can still schedule with me and give feedback and get encouragement.
Please stay tuned for info about a going-away party in July.
With love, Korben. (korbenp@yahoo.com)

History and Myth in Chinese Medicine

2011-05-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in Chinese Medical History, there is a lecture on "History and Myth in Chinese Medicine," on June 5th from 3 - 5 pm at the Won Institute. Here is how Salguero describes his presentation:

"Practitioners of Chinese medicine often characterize their healing arts as “ancient,” imagining an unbroken tradition stretching back over thousands of years. Historians of Chinese medicine, on the other hand, have emphasized the ever-changing nature of Chinese medicine and have shown that modern practices have little to do with ancient precedents. This presentation will introduce the audience to the latest historical research on the origins of acupuncture, and the transformation over the past 2000 years in theory and practice. At the heart of the presentation are the questions of why history matters to practitioners, and whether facts and myths can be reconciled."

Pierce Salguero is Assistant Professor of Asian History at Penn State's Abington College. Dr. Salguero has a Ph.D. in the History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and has published numerous books and articles on Asian medical history. He is a historian of medicine in China, specializing in religious healing in the medieval period.

Introducing: People's Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA)

2011-04-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Community Acupuncture Network (CAN) is the world-wide organization of which Philadelphia Community Acupuncture has been a part since opening. Within the next several months that organization will transform itself into a multi-stakeholder cooperative entitled POCA, the People's organization of Community Acupuncture.

We hope that you'll read a little bit of the following, and see how we're trying to figure out how to even more effectively deliver affordable healthcare, and how POCA will help us acknowledge even more how central you are to the every day and to the future of community acupuncture.

Since its inception, the Community Acupuncture movement has been led by practitioners to serve patients. The movement has grown from a single clinic in Portland, Oregon, to hundreds of clinics around the country and the world. Practitioners and acupuncture students turning to this model of affordable, sliding-scale care in a group setting have generated a critical mass of energy that is propelling the Community Acupuncture movement into its next stage of growth and development. To date, the Community Acupuncture Network (CAN), a 501c6 non-profit professional organization, has been the main vehicle to foster the growth and proliferation of community acupuncture.

However, needs have arisen that will be best met by a new type of organization—a multi-stakeholder cooperative. One of the most basic issues addressed by the cooperative that was not served by CAN is the direct involvement of patients in the process of governing the organization. Participation in a coop means that membership is a shared responsibility – everybody is invited to become involved.

WHY DOES COMMUNITY ACUPUNCTURE NEED A COOPERATIVE?

Acupuncture is important to our health – as individuals, families, co-workers, and community members – because it provides inexpensive, non-invasive relief from pain and suffering.

Community Acupuncture defines and supports a mode of direct delivery of affordable care for people of ordinary incomes regardless of insurance coverage.

Community Acupuncture provides a new model for healthcare and self-care empowerment.

Community Acupuncture has at its heart a commitment to social justice and the deconstruction of barriers to care and resources.

Community Acupuncture’s commitment to social justice is expressed in part by addressing specific barriers to accessing care and training in the field of acupuncture, namely cost.

Community Acupuncture has created, just in the last 5 years, employment opportunities where there were none. However, because of the debt load that graduates bear coupled with the culture of the acupuncture profession, many of these positions have yet to be filled.

A COOPERATIVE WILL ADDRESS EXISTING NEEDS FOR:

Proliferating and sustaining affordable acupuncture
Offering affordable training and education for acupuncturists
Articulating new paradigms of healthcare and health empowerment
Growing vital local economies
Creating social and financial capital – both in our local communities and within the community acupuncture movement
Expanding into currently un-served communities
Linking with other communities working for social justice
Meeting the many needs of existing clinics: employees, micro-lending, training materials, personnel materials, managerial materials, mentoring, other hands-on support

WHY JOIN A COMMUNITY ACUPUNCTURE COOPERATIVE?

Patient/Community member benefits: coop’s (vs. non-member) sliding-scale, 10^th tx free, special offers, initial fee waived at member clinics, three “Free Treatment” cards to share, newsletter, (poss. access to membership list for cross marketing purposes)

Punk/Student member benefits: forum, employer support, collective buying power, LOC directory, low-interest loans, employment network (poss. malpractice ins.)

Every Voice Matters—It starts with “how you feel” after coming for acupuncture—once, ten times, fifty times. When acupuncture is able to provide lasting relief from a problem or help to optimize one’s health, it is important to share this feedback with others. The riches of our collective knowledge are a valuable community resource. Sharing this resource by sharing our experiences will help to bring students, practitioners, patients, regulators, and others to the movement.

Every Vote Matters—Individual coop members each have one vote in the decision-making processes that will define and guide the coop towards its stated goals. Annual elections for coop board members and specific projects are a shared responsibility of the membership. In this way, the accessibility and proliferation of an effective form of health care is directed by the very people the coop serves: its practioners, its patients, its community.

Coming Together—we create mutually beneficial relationships where patient/community members can give hands-on support inside the clinic and out in the community. We continue our advocacy as patients and practitioners to bring affordable acupuncture to places where it is still needed. We manifest our vision of vital local economies and healthy, empowered communities of individuals. Through our collective resources, we create training and employment opportunities. Our collective voice speaks our purpose to the acupuncture profession, its regulatory bodies, and the health care field at large.

WHAT CAN I DO RIGHT NOW?

Watch the CAN blog for POCA updates

Raed POCA's mission and vision statements, and our goals and objectives.

Join POCA on Facebook (until the official POCA website launches, we hope in early May)

pocacoop@groups.facebook.com

Download and read “Solidarity as a Business Model” at www.uwcc.wisc.edu/pdf/multistakeholder%20coop%20manual.pdf

Community pitches in for local artist's medical bills

2011-01-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

On Thursday Novmber 5th, , local artist and educator, Hope Rovelto was hit by a car crossing 2nd and Girard in Philadelphia. The accident left Hope with severe injuries to both her knees and since then Hope has had multiple surgeries and extended hospital admission.

The driver who hit Hope fled the scene.

Please support Hope by subscribing to this blog as there will be updates and news on fundraising events and ways you can support her recovery.

Please have a look at the beautiful work dozens of artists contributed to be sold at a January 30th fundraiser.

a piece on the state of community acupuncture by Larry Gatti

2011-01-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

Great blog post from fellow acupunk in Tuscon, Arizona. Please read.

"People of ordinary income treating other people of ordinary income devoid of the idea of charity or philanthropy have together created a new culture. One that has at its root the principles and values of equality, access, social change and social justice. One that is willing to put the people first, always. One that is ready and willing to confront racism, classism, sexism and ableism. One that is both altering the current professional landscape while continually undergoing its own evolutionary process."

Classism in coverage of community acupuncture by New York Times

2010-05-14T09:04:00.001-07:00

Community Acupuncture Network was mentioned in a New York Times article last week. Great. Except that it likened our services to chair massage (nothing wrong with chair massage) and said that our style of acupuncture was for problems that are not serious or complicated. Please read this letter to the author and editor written by C.A.N. founder, Lisa Rohleder.

Blog Post and video's about PCA

2010-05-06T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice article from the blog, Philadelphia Neighborhoods, a publication of Temple University's Multimedia Urban Reporting lab.

New video intro to community acupuncture

2010-03-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

Filmed largely at Turning Point Community Acupuncture in Frederick, Md., here's a great, 8 minute intro to what we're doing, and to the network we're a part of.

How to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season (…or nip one in the bud if it starts!)

2010-02-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Article by acupuncturist, Rebecca Parker

When everyone around you is sniffling and coughing, you need a strategy. Here’s how to avoid getting sick:

Become obsessive about washing your hands. Especially before eating or when coming home from being out and about.
Get enough sleep! Can’t be overemphasized. 8-10 hours is best.
Eat clean (fruits, veggies, whole grains, good quality protein and fats) and limit alcohol. Keep sugar to a minimum, it’s been shown to depress the immune system for hours afterwards. Eat a serving of dark leafy veggies daily.
Take Yu Ping Feng San (Jade Windscreen Powder), which contains herbs like Astragalus to boost the immune system. Do not take this if you are already sick.
Take Vitamin D: the FDA says 2,000 ius is the safe upper limit, but this is very conservative. Darker skinned people and those who are obsessive about sunblock need more than lighter skinned people. Research shows that 10,000 ius can be safely taken daily. It is important for immune support, and can help prevent the flu. Go to vitamindcouncil.org to read up on this topic in more depth. The best thing to do if possible, is get your blood levels tested.
Exposing yourself to things you love or that create a good feeling can go a long way to boosting your immunity.

Pay attention to the warning signs!!! If you feel like you are going over the waterfall toward sickness and misery, take action right away. Now is the time to wipe it out.

Drink tons of water (no ice!) to flush it out.
Eliminate all sugar, alcohol and dairy. Soup is perfect food now.
Rest rest rest! Taking a little time off now could save you from days of incapacitation.
If you have a sore throat, gargle with salt water. Echinacea-goldenseal tincture is helpful when there seems to be drippy suppuration in the back of the throat. Do not take Echinacea if you think you have H1N1.
Take vitamin C. I like emergenC because it’s easy and tasty, though it does have sugar. A few thousand mg per day is good. Vitamin D is very important too. You can take a high dose (up to 50,000 iu) safely for short term. See the above section.
Zinc has been shown to limit the duration of illness. Take up to 50mg for just the duration of symptoms, not longer, or you can induce a mineral imbalance.
Sweat it out: take a hot bath, put on your warmest sweats and crawl under the covers. No need to drench the sheets, a light sheen will do the trick.
Take herbal formulas appropriate to the symptoms. For a hot-type sickness, with sore throat, and feverishness, Yin Qiao or Forsythia 18 helps in the very early days. For cold-types with head and body aches and chills, Gui Zhi Tang tea or ginger tea followed by wrapping up warm can really knock it out.
Protect your neck. Wear a scarf and keep your ears covered, avoid drafts and getting chilled.
Other products have worked well for people I know in the past, such as Wellness Formula and Alpha CF, but as with herbal formulas, there always seem to be exceptions to the rule. The best bet is to do everything you can to keep the bugs from getting a foothold instead of relying on one magic potion while you continue to abuse your body.
Stay away from orange juice. It creates phlegm.
Take responsibility for your health and go to a doctor if symptoms are severe and things seem to be getting worse despite all your actions.

Baltimore Ave Visioning?

2010-02-13T22:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a project by Cedar Park Neighbors everyone ought to know about.

Health insurers post record profits

2010-02-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Here's the article.
Sorry about all the ads.

Some Warming Foods for Winter

2010-02-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from an article called Seasonal Harmony by Ellesara.

Learning basics about each season, foods and having basic seasonal recipes become foundations from which we can easily incorporate more information and fall back upon when we have simple questions. For example, last week an elderly friend of mine got a chill and couldn’t get warm. When I went over to her home with my “ginger tea kit” her fingers were like ice cubes. I made her basic ginger tea, (recipe below) and before she finished her first cup, she felt warm and the circulation had returned to her fingers. Ginger is a yang food that aids digestion and generally balances the forces in your body.

Basic Ginger Tea

1” fresh ginger – sliced, chopped

4-5 scallions – whites only

Rind of one dried tangerine

4 cups of water

Rock/Brown sugar/honey to taste

Add all the ingredients together and bring to a boil Simmer for no more than 5 minutes as it will get bitter. Remove the foods. Drink hot.

Additionally, I want to mention that every culture has food cures and food combinations for increasing health. Often, the purposes for these foods have been forgotten, even when the custom has been retained. For example, the parents of a friend of mine are from Poland and her mother makes bone marrow soup in the winter simply because “it is good for you to eat in the winter.” When we consult Five Element Theory, we see that bone marrow soup is an excellent winter energy soup that supports the Kidney function (recipe below).

Basic Bone Marrow Soup

Ingredients

1 lb marrow bones

1-1/2 quarts water

2” sliced ginger

6 scallion whites

1 bay leaf

Part 2

1 diced carrot

1 diced stalk celery

1 quartered plum tomato

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup cilantro/;parsley

Directions

Put the marrow bones, bay leaf, ginger, and scallions in the water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 3 hours

Let cool--Poke marrow out of bones and discard everything except water. You should now have about 3 cups of broth.

Add veggies, cover and cook till veggies are done. add salt and pepper to taste.. .serve and sprinkle with cilantro

To this basic recipe you can add other root vegetables, such as turnip, or green vegetables such as kale. Adjust this to your own taste. Bone marrow soup is considered to be a strengthening soup that is good for prevention and also if someone has been ill.

Further, it is helpful to have seasonal guildelines. Things that are particularly good to do or pay attention to in a given season. Often, they remind me of things my Mom said when I was growing up. Simple things such as, eat a good warm breakfast, especially in the winter.

Winter Energy Cereal

Ingredients

1/2 cup of rice

6 cups of water

½ cup toasted black sesame seeds

½ cup TB toasted crushed walnuts

3 TB honey

½ tsp salt

Directions

Cover the rice in 2 cups of water and soak for 2 hours.

Toast the walnuts and crush. A simple crushing method is to place the walnuts in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin.

Toast the black sesame seeds.

Drain the excess water off the rice.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and mix.

Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the rice is thoroughly cooked and all the water has been absorbed. Stir the cereal frequently as it is cooking. The texture of the cereal at this stage is like a thick porridge or cornmeal mush. The rice is creamy and the sesame seeds are still slightly crunchy.

To make into a breakfast cereal: add ½ cup boiling water to ½ cup of cereal – optional: a touch of cinnamon Yield: 4 cups

Serving size ½ cup

Basic Congee

1 cup of white rice (or ½ cup short grain rice and ½ cup of long grain rice)

8-10 cups of water

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer for about 3 hours.

This makes a basic rice porridge which is very easy to digest and which can be eaten at any time of year. To it, you can add shredded ginger, chopped scallion whites, lightly steamed vegetables, pieces of fish, pickled vegetables, etc.

A few other winter guidelines that are in accord with TCM/Five Element Theory are: Raw foods are cooling and should be avoided in the winter when warming foods are best emphasized, such as eating warming, hearty soups*, cooked whole grains, root vegetables and toasted nuts. These kinds of foods warm the center of the body and their heat stays with you longer. Since winter energy is about storing and rest, it is good to go to bed earlier and get very restful sleep, lighten one’s activities list, if possible and spend more time in contemplation and meditation.

*Kidney Bean, Tomato & Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients:

2TB walnut oil

1 medium red onion

4 cloves of garlic – slivered

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped parsnip

½ cup chopped yam

14 oz can of plum tomatoes

½ tsp rosemary

3 half dollar slices of ginger

2 small dried hot red peppers (or to personal taste)

1 15 oz can of kidney beans

5 cups of water

3 cups of Kombachu or butternut or hubbard squash, diced into 1 inch cubes

Salt to taste, ground pepper

Chopped cilantro/parsley garnish

Directions

Heat the oil in a saucepan/wok/dutch oven and add the onion. . .cook until it is just softened. Add the garlic, parsnip, yam and cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat.

Add the tomatoes, rosemary, ginger, peppers, beans and water

Bring to a soft boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 1/2 hour – stir occasionally

Add squash and simmer for about 1 hour until squash is tender. Check liquid levels, add water if necessary and don’t forget to stir occasionally.

Add salt and ground pepper, adjust seasonings to personal taste.

Garnish each bowl with a sprig of cilantro or parsley

Music to wind down by

2010-01-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a really wonderful mix-tape you can download created by local artist, Eric Ruin, specifically for play during community acupuncture. Really gorgeous, textural sounds put together with the idea of "Winding Down".

Go to the link, and then look for mix # 19.

And, by the way, here is some of his amazing art, which he sells at a sliding scale, and some of which can be seen at the clinic.

The First professional Doctorate in acupuncture. Oh boy!

2009-12-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

Please, next time you're at the clinic, remember to read our petition against the proposed requirement of a Doctorate degree for acupuncture licensing. If you're interested in acupuncture being affordable to people with ordinary incomes, or in acupuncturists being able to make a living with their work without help from a trust fund, or in the profession not becoming even more white, then you you will find the proposal for the "First Professional Doctorate" quite ridiculous and unjust.

Here's a wonderful article by Lisa Rohleder which does a great job with humor describing the debate. This stuff really makes a difference to us, so it would make a difference to us if you read this and/or signed the petition.

Thanks, Korben and Ellen and Rebecca.

The Case for Working with Our Hands

2009-05-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

One reason we love our jobs is that we're lucky enough to work with our hands, and with other people, every day. Here's a great article about the "trades" and working with one's hands.
(Thank you once again to Nora from Detroit Community Acupuncture for this link.)

Local TV News Story on PCA

2009-05-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Community Acupuncture was featured on Fox News in Philly last night. Check out the clip here.

Acupuncture is Like Noodles. New Book on Community Acupuncture now at PCA

2009-05-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

For 20 - 25 bucks, you can own the wonderful, radical, and important new book by the founder of the Community Acupuncture Network, while helping raise money for our clinic.

"Acupuncture is Like Noodles: the Little Red (cook) Book of Working Class Acupuncture", by Lisa Rohleder and the staff of Working Class Acupuncture in Portland, is meant to be read by patients and other non-acupuncturists interested in the community acupuncture model, and "the calmest revolution ever staged".

' Noodles' does a great job simply and clearly explaining what acupuncture is (and isn't), why thousands of people are getting treated every week at community acupuncture clinics around the country, and what this might mean for health care in general.

Rohleder and others, including us, founded and run The Community Acupuncture Network, or CAN. CAN's intention, and that of the book, is to expand the scope of interest and activism in all matters of affordable acupuncture to include all who have interest in the revolution - in order for current and additional clinics to develop and thrive.

We support the idea of multiple community acupuncture clinics in Philadelphia and in every city. We don't support acupuncturists or other health care providers using the buzz and language of community acupuncture to attract clients to their essentially boutique style clinics.

We invite you to pick up a copy of 'Noodles' at PCA', and join a powerful wave of everyday
people advocating for affordable acupuncture and keeping the revolution moving forward.

$1 from each sale of 'Noodles' will be donated to CAN - and used as part of upcoming
initiatives to help secure the growth of future budding community acupuncture clinics. And, about $10 goes straight to Philadelphia Community Acupuncture

If you'd like to see the book, you can look at this link, but be sure to buy one from us next time you come in for a treatment.
(http://www.workingclassacupuncture.org/node/17)

Acupuncture and pro football?

2009-04-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to Nora, at Detroit Community Acupuncture, for the link.

Acupuncture for Prison Inmates in Baltimore

2009-04-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the Philly Enquirer article.

Acupuncture Thoughts

2009-04-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a wonderful blog piece by a patient talking about her community acupuncture experience.

Spring Asserts Itself

2009-04-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is written by an acupunk commrade in Detroit, the inimitable Nora Madden of Detroit Community Acupuncture.

Last week, when my partner and I were driving home from work, we saw a small shape waddling across the road up ahead. “Is it a chicken, crossing the road?” I asked, with incredulous delight; but as we got closer and saw the shape take flight, we realized that it was in fact a pheasant! - the first one we’d seen this season. When we got to our house, we also noticed for the first time that crocuses were pushing up out of the soil in the front yard.

What does all this have to do with acupuncture? Chinese Medicine (like all traditional medicines, to my knowledge) is based in observation of the natural environment, the seasons and their “elements.” The element associated with Spring is Wood–that is to say, the energy of plant life. The emotion associated with the Wood element is anger and all of its permutations; but another way of thinking about the energy of Wood and Spring is as assertiveness. It is the energy required for the seed to sprout, and for the sprout to pierce the soil and reach towards the sun. It is the assertiveness required for the salmon to return upstream, the pluckiness that it takes for that pheasant (or chicken) to cross the road, or to push off and take flight.

Sometimes this healthy feeling of assertiveness is thwarted and turns into frustration, or “stuckness.” (The feeling of your knickers being in a knot is a definite sign of the Wood element being out of whack.) This “stuckness” can manifest emotionally (as anger, irritability, inability to make decisions, etc.) or physical (e.g. an upset stomach, tense shoulders or jaws, or even a stronger sensation of pain). Conversely, pain tends to be emotionally and physically frustrating, so even the most sunny and even-tempered among us can get cranky after awhile of being in pain. Blockage leads to more blockage, as when leaves and other flotsam pile up around the rocks in a stream.

Spring can also engender a feeling of frustration or impatience, the way that warm and sunny days get our hopes up, only to be interrupted by more cold and grayness. But I love Spring because it is *exactly* addressing these kinds of blockage and restoring a healthy, directed “flow” that acupuncture is particularly good for. Deep breathing and movement also help, especially a nice walk outside, getting a lungful of the sprout-and-mud-scented air.

2009-03-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Lots of baby time these days at the clinic. Pretty wonderful.

2009-03-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Relaxing in the waiting room/health resources library.

A Poem by Billy Collins

2009-03-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Song Dynasty I Pause to Admire the Length and Clarity of their Titles

It seems these poets have nothing
up their ample sleeves
they turn over so many cards so early,
telling us before the first line
whether it is wet or dry,
night or day, the season the man is standing in,
even how much he has had to drink.
Maybe it is autumn and he is looking at a sparrow.
Maybe it is snowing on a town with a beautiful name.
“Viewing Peonies at the Temple of Good Fortune
on a Cloudy Afternoon” is one of Sun Tung Po’s.
“Dipping Water from the River and Simmering Tea”
is another one, or just
“On a Boat, Awake at Night.”
And Lu Yu takes the simple rice cake with
“in a Boat on a Summer Evening
I heard the Cry of a Waterbird.
It Was Very Sad and Seemed To Be Saying
My Woman is Cruel—Moved, I Wrote This Poem.”
There is no iron turnstile to push against here
as with headings like “Vortex on a String,”
“The Horn of Neurosis,” or whatever.
No confusingly inscribed welcome mat to puzzle over.
Instead, “I Walk Out on a Summer Morning
to the Sound of Birds and a Waterfall”
is a beaded curtain brushing over my shoulders.
And “Ten Days of Spring Rain Have Kept Me Indoors”
is a servant who shows me into the room
where a poet with a thin beard
is sitting on a mat witha jug of wine
whispering something about clouds and cold wind,
about sickness and the loss of friends.
How easy he has made it for me to enter here,
to sit down in a corner,
cross my legs like him, and listen.

We need help making a sign for Baltimore Ave.

2009-03-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

We'd like to make a beautiful sign for PCA, and we need help. We probably need a 20 ' ladder to measure these brackets, and then eventually to hang the sign. We're going to make a cloth or vinyl sign, and would love help with design and creation. We could definitely barter acupuncture treatments, and can talk about a fee.

Cedar Park Neighbors Meet and Greet this Thursday

2009-03-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, March 19, 6-8 pm, Cedar Park Neighbors is hosting a neighborhood Meet and Greet at Elana's Soul - Showcase Lounge and Cafe (formerly known as Leroy's) at 4912 Baltimore Ave. Cedar Park Neighbors organization want's to meet more Cedar Park neighbors, and wants more neighbors to meet each other and to enjoy the *NEW* Showcase Lounge. There will be a soul food sampling buffet and drink specials. It's free, open to all, and should be a fun evening.

Some great articles from another blog about community acupuncture

2009-02-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

Wow! The blog posts on The Community Acupuncture Network have been particularly juicy of late. Here's a couple we'd really like to share.
"Playful Poking", about laughter medicine.
"The Genius in the Corner of the Room", about how it's not some mystical, "genius" thing the acupuncturist is doing, it's just collective knowledge and love.
"Getting Acupuncture", about WHO acupuncture is for.

Community Bread

2009-01-31T19:47:00.000-08:00

Local baker Michael "Challahman" Dolich talks about bread, bicycles and a sustainable local economy.
Watch this video.
Read this article.

Pregnancy and Chinese Medicine

2009-01-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

Here's an article by community acupuncturist, Alex Rossan, of Grassroots Acupuncture Project in Santa Cruz, Ca. about the uses of acupuncture during pregnancy.

Are you pregnant?

As you may or may not know, acupuncture can be a super effective treatment for many of the “aches and pains” associated with pregnancy, as well as very safely and successfully treat other pregnancy related conditions that pop up as your body plays host to the growing baby inside and experiences profound changes. Sometimes these physical and emotional changes are uncomfortable, and the tools that used to be in your toolbox of self-care (certain types of exercise, over the counter medicines, and even some prescription drugs) are now unavailable as options. This is where acupuncture and even carefully prescribed herbs can help women to experience a joyful and pleasant pregnancy. Chinese Medicine can serve as a viable, safe, and effective pre-natal healthcare adjunct to the care you are already receiving from your OB or Midwife.

So, there is the frequently asked question of “when do I come in and for what?” Here is a brief laundry list of all the things acupuncture can help pregnant women with: Nausea and vomiting, heartburn, constipation (or other digestive complaints) varicose veins, edema, urinary tract infections, musculoskeletal issues (sciatica, carpal tunnel), fatigue, anemia, insomnia, anxiety, depression, sinusitis, colds and flu, pregnancy induced hypertension, and breech presentation.

Some of these, depending of course on the severity of the symptom, can be easily remedied by acupuncture and sometimes herbal medicine. In case of pregnancy induced hypertension and breech presentation, acupuncture is most effective when treatment is started shortly after the diagnosis has been made. For example, breech babies are usually diagnosed between weeks 32 and 34, and are more likely to turn before week 34. In cases of pregnancy induced hypertension, acupuncture can be most successful when treatment is started early – the optimal time to treat is when blood pressure reading begins to be of concern.

Acupuncture can also be used as a routine pre-birth treatment starting at week 37 or 38. Chinese medicine historically holds that the time before a woman is to give birth is an optimal time to balance her hormones and strengthen her organ systems. Studies have shown that specific pre-birth treatments can actually increase the likelihood of a delivering by the due date, shorten time spent in labor, ensure a smoother labor (less stop and go) and reduce medical interventions such as epidurals and caesareans. The points chosen will actually help the cervix soften and dilate, ready the uterus for the labor, and relax and soften surrounding ligaments in the pelvis. Even if a woman does go past her due date, these pre-birth treatments will make her respond more readily to induction – either through acupuncture or medicine.

What about acupuncture for labor inductions? There are several medical reasons why labor needs to be induced, including post-term babies, premature membrane rupturing, and babies getting too large in the case of diabetic mothers. Acupuncture for labor induction can be very effective, and treatments are recommended daily to maintain momentum. During the treatment, many women report contractions and increased movement of their baby. How many treatments you will need is dependent on how quickly you respond to treatment, but usually a labor will commence after 1 to 3 treatments.

All in all, working with an acupuncturist along side your midwife or OB can ensure a healthier and smoother pregnancy.

To see more of Alex's articles and to see more about Grassroots acupuncture Project, visit their website.

Salute to Benny "the barber" Augello

2009-01-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sat, Jan 24 at 6:30, Salute to Benny Augello:
You can be part of an appreciation for Benny (celebrating his 50+ years of cutting hair at 4714 Baltimore Avenue). We will have a light dinner buffet and beverages at Abbraccio with remembrances and perhaps a retelling of some of Benny’s bad jokes! Nominal charge of $15 per person to pay for food/beverage at this event, plus cash bar. Reservations are suggested.

"Enoughness" by Bill McKibbon

2009-01-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

"Nature, like close-knit human community, is designed to help us stay sane."

Read the whole essay here.

2008-12-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

“Everything is made of fire,” claimed Heraclitus. What is fascinating about this ancient remark is how it turned out to be so improbably true. Werner Heisenberg, one of the twentieth century’s most important nuclear physicists, wrote in Physics and Philosophy that “modern physics is in some way extremely near to the doctrines of Heraclitus. If we replace the word ‘fire’ by the word ‘energy’ we can almost repeat his statements word for word from our modern point of view.” Twenty-five hundred years after Heraclitus, Heisenberg found his thinking much closer to modern physics than any philosopher who had followed him. Furthermore, Heraclitus did not try to separate himself from the natural world as philosophy has done from Socrates up to Descartes. It was Descartes, most profoundly, whose philosophy created a terrible sense of separateness between mind and body, human beings and the natural world. He destroyed the Logos, the gathering principle, by reducing the world to a set of objects that had little connection to one another.

Read the whole article here:
Notes from a Very Small Island
A practice in belonging to this world
by Erik Reece

Fiddle Workshop at PCA

2008-12-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Crossroads Music presents:

a fiddle workshop at Philadelphia Community Acupuncture.
Sunday, April 7, 11 am to 1 pm.
with APRIL VERCH BAND
Ottawa Valley fiddle and stepdance.

There will be a concert Saturday, December 6 at 7:30 pm
Calvary Church, 48th St. and Baltimore Ave. in West Philadelphia.

You can get all the event info and sound samples @
www.crossroadsconcerts.org.
Please look at the amazing series of music that
Crossroads Music brings to our neighborhood.

Free acupuncture for veterans in Philadelphia

2008-11-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

Check out the website for Philadelphia Area Veterans Acupuncture Project.

Obama, The Electric Slide, and acupuncture theory

2008-11-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to Korben's piece at The Community Acupuncture Network.

Community Acupuncture Network board meeting

2008-11-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ellen an I traveled to Portland last week with my wife Amy for the board meeting of the Community Acupuncture Network, or CAN. It took place at the mothership, Working Class Acupuncture in Cully.
The board is working on a lot of things related to figuring out how to create affordable acupuncture, how to get acupuncturists out of theory land and get related to the people in their communities, and how to get more non-acupunks leading CAN. If you're interested in any of the business of the board, check out these articles on CAN's blog.
General description of meeting and members.
A new manifesto for emphasizing the "community": in community acupuncture.
Critique"integrative medicine" vis-a-vis acupuncture.

But, mostly our visit was just tons of fun being around a lot of great people who are really serious about our small part of the revolution, and serious about having fun.

Rebecca Parker: new acupunk at Philly Community Acupuncture !

2008-10-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

We are so so pleased to introduce Rebecca Parker. She is a delight, as a person and a practitioner. (I actually just got a treatment from her, and am feeling like a million bucks.) She has already been seeing patients for two weeks, working every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Ellen and I dreamed about Rebecca working with us when she finished her studies. And, it happened!

Rebecca wrote the following to introduce herself.

Working at the Firehouse is like coming home for me. Before my life as an acupuncturist, I was a bicycle mechanic. I worked toward the health of my community as a wrench at Firehouse bikes, and facilitator at the Bike Church bike coop. I started hanging out on Baltimore Avenue over a decade ago, and came back to visit periodically while away at acupuncture school. This neighborhood is a unique place where passion, creativity and community sensibility mix, and I’m thrilled to serve as a neighborhood acupuncturist here. As a practitioner, I think of myself as a facilitator who guides the acupuncture recipient through the process of rediscovering their own resources. As my teacher used to say, we just direct traffic, it’s the patient who is driving the car.

One of the things I love about PCA is that it’s a place that encourages people to take responsibility for their own health, empowering the patient as much as possible. People are given types of agency over their care that they don’t get in places where they are told exactly how much to pay, taken to exactly the treatment bed that the practitioner designates for them, and told how long their treatment will last. Here the patient is encouraged to pay attention to their body, because through this relationship comes the information needed to be healthy. I love acupuncture because it reminds my body of what it could feel like. It moves my stuckness, and sticks my moveness. I love it because it’s a simple, safe, cheap, effective medicine. With Big Pharma and Big Insurance making healthcare less and less accessible, it’s really important that we have ways of reducing our reliance on these sometimes unavoidable monstrosities.

So big thanks and gratitude are due to the amazing Korben and Ellen who turned this space, that was once a dumping ground for old bike frames and a tangle of wheels, forks, and banana seats, into a peaceful sanctuary for group nap-time. Much gratitude to my current and future patients, who teach me so much about human resiliency, and to all my teachers who shared their wisdom with me. And finally, much gratitude to West Philadelphia.

Pay-what-you-want fundraiser for Studio 34

2008-10-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Experimental performers The Missoula Oblongata present "The Last Hurrah of the Clementines" as a fundraiser for neighborhood art/yoga space Studio 34. Check Puppet Uprising's website for details.

Community Acupuncture and "Social Business"

2008-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Integrator Blog, edited by John Weeks, presents "news, reports, opinion, and networking for the business, education, policy and practice of Intagrative Medicine and CAM." Weeks wrote an article last week about community acupuncture and the "social business" model, as defined by Mohammed Yunis.
Read the whole article here.
It quotes Community Acupuncture founder Lisa Rohleder as saying "A social business is not a 'socially responsible business' and it is not a nonprofit. It functions completely differently. The structure of a socially-responsible business is to make a profit and then use the money for good. The structure of a nonprofit is to subsidize doing good with money that has been made some other way. The structure of a 'social business' is not to make a profit at all, but to create 'social dividends.' If a social business does make a profit, it reinvests that profit immediately into itself rather than pulling it out and giving it to its owners or shareholders or to some separate nonprofit (as a 'socially responsible business' would do).
She goes on to say that the social business model "is just to exist and do its thing without either depending on subsidies or making extra money beyond what it needs to meet its social goals." Instead, WCA's social goals are "to create jobs for acupuncturists and to provide acupuncture to people with ordinary incomes."

Urban Sustainability Series

2008-09-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

From natural building to seed saving to herbal tinctures, most of the series hosted by the Jewish Farm School will take place in West Philly. Here's the schedule.

Here's the "Marketplace" piece

2008-09-04T16:25:00.001-07:00

Here's a link to the piece on community acupuncture by local Philly journalist, Joel Rose.

PCA on National Public Radio this week

2008-08-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

NPR's "Marketplace" is running a story on us this week or next. How crazy is that? We'd love to give you a heads up, but, they're not sure when it's going to run. We'll let everyone know as soon as we know.

Citypaper article

2008-07-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

From local writer, Andrew Zitcer. Read it here.

Free acupuncture for Veterans in Philly?

2008-07-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

Acupuncturists across the nation are volunteering their time and skills to make free regular treatments available to returned and returning vets. http://www.acuwithoutborders.org/veteransprogram.php

We'd like to start such a program here. Are you interested in helping? We need volunteers for various jobs to get it going and keep it going.

Contact Korben Perry

Ellen in the news

2008-06-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

A big photo of acupuncturist Ellen Vincent graces page 76 of the new Utne Reader. Actually, it's almost the same photo as the one below. It's a good article about the Community Acupuncture movement. Even though the cover of the magazine makes it look like a fast food trade magazine, we're still proud and delighted about it. I'll link to it if they put the article on line. Actually, here's the article as it first appeared in Yes Magazine.

Also, Ellen was recently the recipient of the Trailblazer Award for women owned business in Philadelphia. Here's a Philadelphia Tribune article about the awards.

Check back soon for another soon-to-be-published article about Philadelphia Acupuncture.

the nice spring light returns to the PCA clinic

2008-05-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

A belated Happy May Day to all!

Acupuncturist and co-founder Ellen Vincent and a room full of people being treated.

We'd like to publish some original descriptions/testimonials/essays/poems on what a treatment feels like, where you go, who you become, the way time moves, etc.
Feel free to email us stuff and let us know if it's not OK to publish.

Here's an excerpt from Lisa Rohleder's "Working Class Acupuncture for Patients", available as a download or book from www.lulu.com.

Acupuncture works best in an atmosphere of quiet and internal focus.As one of our patients explained, "when I come in here I feel like I can let go of everything and get completely into my own internal space. I can concentrate on myself completely. This is my sanctuary. I don't even notice, much less care, what's going on around me."
Treating patients in a community space also allows a unique kind of synergy to kick in. When everyone in the room is in a state of deep relaxation, the energy of each individual treatment spills over into the whole and creates a powerful shared state, similar to the experience of group meditation - even though the majority of our patients are not meditators. That shared state in turn makes each of the individual treatments more potent. From that perspective, the community allows us to do more for each individual for less money. Furthermore, the patients are creating the healing atmosphere as much as the practitioners are, which helps us remember where the real strength resides.

Art and Healing Network

2008-03-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Please check out this amazing podcast project of interviews with artist/activist/healers around the subject of art and healing. It's part of the Art and Healing Network

what national health care looks like right now

2008-02-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Walmart is opening 400 new health clinics nationwide by 2010. Wow.

Here's an article:
Baltimore Business Journal

Remember "company scrip", the currency issued in certain industries to pay workers. Such scrip can only be exchanged by wage-earners in company stores owned by their employers and often charging inflated prices. In the UK, such systems have been formally outlawed under Truck Acts.

In the U.S., mining and logging camps were typically created, owned and operated by a single company. These remote locations were cash poor and workers had very little choice but to purchase goods at a company store. With this economic monopoly, the employer could place enormous markups on goods, making workers completely dependent on the company, thus enforcing employee loyalty.

HealthCare for All!

2008-01-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Join PhilaHealthia founder Paul Glover as he discusses why and how WE can create our own cooperative health coverage plan, based on his successful Ithaca Health Alliance in New York: www.ithacahealth.org

Health Democracy contributes, by local example, to the campaign for universal health coverage. Check out www.HealthDemocracy.org

PhilaHealthia

· Benefits both the insured and uninsured

· When 1,000 people pledge $100 a year, we will begin a

minor medical plan

· As more people join, coverage expands!

Great article in YES! Magazine about community acupuncture

2007-12-31T11:42:00.000-08:00

Here's the article

Community Acupuncture Workshop at PCA

2007-12-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

On November 17th, PCA hosted a workshop for regional acupuncturists on community acupuncture. The workshop was lead by Skip Van Meter and Lisa Rohleder, founders of Working Class Acupuncture in Portland and of the Community Acupuncture Network.

About 25 acupuncturists and students from New York, New Jersey, Pa., Delaware, and Maryland attended.

Lisa Rohleder discussed classism in the acupuncture industry, and how to date in the U.S., it has been available mostly to the very wealthy in a spa environment, or as charity to homeless and people with alcohol or narcotics addictions, but not to people with normal incomes.

Lisa, Skip, Ellen, and I discussed the "nuts and bolts" of our business model, as a rough blueprint for creating a sustainable practice that supports the practitioners and makes a long course of acupuncture treatments accessible to working and middle class people in our own communities.

Skip lead a mini workshop in the afternoon on a pulse taking method which quickly gets to a patient's underlying pattern and is a jumping off point for creating a simple and powerful treatment.

It was wonderful to fill up PCA with new colleagues and friends trying to figure out how to expand access to the brilliant medicine of acupuncture.

Grand Open House

2007-10-02T14:28:00.001-07:00

This last Friday, September 28th, we hosted a Grand Open House to celebrate a successful first month and to thank neighbors and volunteers. About a hundred people stopped through to chat with neighbors, learn about community acupuncture. Everyone enjoyed some of the delightful and healthy food prepared by Rath Radelman, and listened to the beautiful and inventive music performed by guitarist Michael Mantra and violinist Kenneth Parker, both of Audio Emotif.

I had a fabulous time talking to current patients and meeting lots of new people interested in acupuncture. Ellen and I are so grateful to get to practice acupuncture with our own community and with our neighbors we don't yet know in the beautiful sanctuary of the Firehouse. Another BIG thanks to our volunteers, Pascal, Amy, Waliyyah, Jacks, Jennifer, Lou, and Rafik, and yoga instructor Leilani.

Community Acupuncture Workshop

2007-10-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Community Supported Acupuncture Workshop
Conducted by Working Class Acupuncture and hosted by Philadelphia Community Acupuncture
50th Street and Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia, on the third floor of the Firehouse Saturday, November 17th, 2007, Philadelphia, PA, 8:30am – 5:30pm

PART ONE: "Working Class Acupuncture" - 8:30am - 12:30pm
–Nuts and Bolts of the Business Model; Classism in Marketing
by Lisa Rohleder, L.Ac.

PART TWO: Jingei Pulse Diagnosis - 1:30-5:30pm
–Nuts and Bolts of the Treatment Model; Treat Anything in a Recliner
by Skip Van Meter, L.Ac. and Lisa Rohleder, L.Ac.

Sliding scale for workshop: $125 - $175 (for CAN members*)
$150 - $200 (for non-members)
$75 - $125 (for students)
*go to www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org
(8 CEUS through NCCAOM for the full day of training)

To register, please email lupine@workingclassacupuncture.org or call 503.481.6515

Network website at: www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org

Ceremony

2007-09-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

I went to a performance/art installation this last weekend as part of the Philly Fringe Festival. I thought it was sublime, fun, full of wonder and mystery. It changed how my body felt and the thoughts in my mind. It connected me to the hundred and fifty or so other people in the room.

The artists, The Headlong Dance Theater, figured out how to lead a whole bunch of strangers into really participating in a conscious ceremony with a beginning, middle, and end. Neither an exact trajectory nor the outcomes of the event could be predicted. However, the combination of the compassionate and curious intention of the artists, the way they stayed committed to their best creative thinking, no matter how daring, and the way an already beautiful and intentionally holy space was infused with the love of the artists created a huge opening. And, given each audience member’s natural desire to connect and to heal, it was hard for most everyone not to go ahead and walk through towards a transformative and hopeful experience.

It was also hard for me not to walk out thinking about community acupuncture, the spaces where it takes place, and the caring, artful intention of those making it happen. Holy.

The performance was partly about the tension between our wanting to watch, on one hand, and the choice we have, on the other hand, to participate. For most people, each gentle encouragement was enough to go ahead and join as an active part of what was unmistakably ritualistic in nature. All attendees were asked to wear blue. Most did. Everyone was divided into four groups before entering the old abandoned Christian Science rotunda. I was in the first group. In the foyer, we were told a story and invited to think about an unexplainable event in our lives, and, then, led through a fabric membrane into the huge domed cathedral where the old wooden floor had been cleared of everything. Explore the space freely, we were told, walking in. A short piece of music played while 6 dancers in orange made swirls of movement around the gigantic space. We all seemed tiny under the ocular window at the zenith of the towering dome. The dancers’ movements were lovely or silly or solemn or rhythmic or not, connected to the others or not.

The music ended, and we, the first group were divided further into a few organic collections of individuals and invited by the artists to create, when the music begin again and the second group entered, patterns of movement of our own choosing which related to the space and the music. This was just the beginning of a long series of group motion-poems facilitated brilliantly by the dance troupe, which all eventually linked together into a fluid ceremony.

One thing that got revealed was our relationship to the space around us, how Everything is intimate and touching. That as energizing as it is when we’re open as individuals to the universe’s qi, when we’re inviting hand-holding with a hundred people, or at least not actively avoiding one another, the energy is even more vast, complex, awesome, potentially delicious.

Some audience members had initial resistance to being led toward this kind of activity. There were slumped shoulders, puffed chests, turned heads, and nervous laughter. Most of these folks got swept up by fun and beauty, not by peer pressure.

About a week after we opened Philadelphia Community Acupuncture, Ellen and I were readying the space for another day. It was five minutes or so before our first scheduled patient and in my excitement I shouted like a carnival barker “it’s show time!”. I certainly don’t think we’re creating fiction or illusion, or that Ellen or I are playing some role other than ourselves. I do believe there is a delicate choreography we undertake to make the clinic click and flow. And, in best moments, patients find themselves floating not only in the acupuncture-induced Shavasina-like state within their own bodies, but also in a collective swirl of benign reality, a real relief from the just barely capped terror, or sadness, or rage we all walk with quite often.

I just thought how interesting it would be to create a time-lapse bird’s eye movie of a whole shift’s activity, the clockwise flow of patients around our space from coming to going and everything in between. You’d see a constant and calm orbit of arriving, checking in, heading around the corner to the bathrooms and into the treatment space, and out the other way back to the reception area. Inside that circle, you’d see the spoke tracing arrows of Ellen and I moving decisively between needle stands and patients. You’d see the subtle movements of the front desk person in the middle of it all, reaching out to every patient, the shifting light from sunbeams across surfaces and textures lovingly and skillfully prepared by Ellen’s artist husband who had to anticipate at least some of this celestial-like symphony.

Art need not hold the beholder away from its body. Religious experience doesn’t happen for me when being told how I’m supposed to feel gets in the way of connecting with mystery. We get to act with the kind of intelligence and love the Headlong Dance Theater showed me. We get to do something that allows this kind of holy space to move through. We get to know that we join all kinds of artists/medicine people doing this work today and all kinds of ancient traditions where opening and listening and moving to the stars with one another makes sense and mends the world.

Philadelphia Community Acupuncture health resource center and community room

2007-08-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

PCA's community room will provide a relaxing space for people to congregate, ask questions about acupuncture, learn about natural health, get info on affordable care in Philly, use or contribute to our library, and enjoy a cup of our delicious tea.

Taoist yin-yang theory holds that each body and interior self is a reflection of its environment. You can not take care of yourself without taking care of your community. Health care not only happens to you as a consumer but is something we all cultivate and maintain the more we're connected to one another acting powerfully towards goals of our own choosing. Bodies and minds work better and feel better when they have real security: liberation from fear and isolation.

While acupuncture brilliantly smooths the flow of information (qi) within the body, PCA also hopes to contribute to the strengthening of connections between the different elements in our community. So, we'll house classes, performance, other gatherings generated by the vast collective knowledge and inspiration of Cedar Park and West Philadelphia.

Along with information about affordable health resources, we will also keep contact info for organizations and individuals thinking about ecological and economic justice, international solidarity, art, spirit and play.

Opening Day

2007-08-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

We opened today. A great day, with lots of patients we already knew and quite a few new ones. Right now, there's a big left-over mist of good qi swirling up around the vaulted ceilings of the firehouse.

We are now taking appointments - come get a treatment in our new clinic!

2007-08-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

We are excited to announce that we will open our new clinic (on the third floor of the Firehouse, 50th and Baltimore Ave in West Philly) on MONDAY AUGUST 13!

You can make an appointment online through our web site (http://www.phillyacupuncture.com/) using our nifty, convenient online scheduling system, or you can call for an appointment (215) 729-2995. You may get our voicemail system while we are still running around getting ready to open, but we will call you back pronto!

Our hours starting on the 13th will be Sundays 2pm-6pm, Mondays 3pm-7pm, Thursdays 3pm-7pm, and Fridays 10am-2pm.

Introducing the Philadelphia Community Acupuncture blog!

2007-08-06T12:51:00.001-07:00

Here we will be posting announcements, news, and events about Philadelphia Community Acupuncture. In the future we would like to expand this blog into more of an online community where people can discuss all things related to taking back American health care, taking care of ourselves, and local resources and happenings.