The Case for Working with Our Hands

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

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

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?

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

Acupuncture for Prison Inmates in Baltimore

Here's the Philly Enquirer article.

Acupuncture Thoughts

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

Spring Asserts Itself

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.