How did you become an acupuncturist?

This is a question I get asked frequently so it seemed fitting to address it early in this blog. Actually, if you ask most acupuncturists this question you will usually get a pretty interesting answer. It's often not a first choice of career, so how we got here tends to have some unusual twists and turns.

In my case, the shortest answer is divine guidance: some power/energy/being greater than myself steered me toward this path, knowing it was the work I was meant to do. ....The longer answer has a more circuitous route and can go back as far as 1973, 1986, 1989, 1992 or 1995 - depending on how curious you are and how much time you have to listen to my tale.

Okay, I'll try to keep it as concise as possible, but hopefully still interesting. Apparently, I wanted to be a doctor when I was about 5 years old (1973), this is evidenced by scrapbooks and notes that I wrote in mementos books for school. But as I got older I found myself less and less drawn to the Western Medicine model, and not knowing that there were any other types of medicine to choose from, I put that dream aside and forgot about it. During college I started out as a French major/German minor and then switched to Anthropology. I transferred to UC Santa Cruz in 1989, where I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology in 1991. Later that year I accepted a position with a Human Factors and Ergonomics company where I researched and analyzed personal injury, products liability and wrongful death cases that were going to litigation. I also co-authored, with our company President, several research articles on biomechanics and injury mechanisms, which were published in prominent safety journals. All these paths were fascinating and interesting, but not quite my "life's work." So, the search continued....

On a personal level, I was always interested in alternative healing methods: herbs, flower essences, energy work/Reiki, vitamins and supplements, etc. This became even more important to me in 1992 when my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. We researched different nutritional supplements that might help her - not to cure the disease, but to possibly improve the quality of life she had left. After my mom's death, I continued to be intrigued by alternative medicines - not as a replacement of Western medicine, but as a compliment. Both medicines have their strengths and finding those, I believe, can give patients even more tools with which to heal. ....In a few short years, I became the person my family and friends would ask, "what can I take for.....? what herbs would be good for......?" ....I recognized that I was being guided in this direction and if others were going to continue asking me for information, I had best get a degree and license in some alternative therapy. So, I started researching schools in Naturopathy, Chiropractic, Western herbal medicine, and one night while studying I heard a voice whisper in my ear, "Acupuncture." A call that night to one of my dearest friends confirmed that this was the modality I needed to investigate.

The Pacific College of Oriental Medicine is one of the largest and best known schools for acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine - and it's located here in San Diego! A few days after my epiphany I contacted the school and arranged a meeting with one of the admissions counselors. I toured the school, sat in on a couple classes, met with one of the school's founders, and within minutes knew that I had found my home and my path. I began my training in January 1997 and graduated with my Masters of Science degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine in April 2001. After successfully passing my California licensing exams later that Summer, I started my practice in La Mesa, California. As one of my classmates and colleagues summed it up when I told her I decided to become an acupuncturist instead of an anthropologist: I decided I wanted to BE the Shaman, instead of studying the Shaman.

So that's what brought me to acupuncture. I love my work, I love my patients, I love being able to help others and see the benefits of that help. Every day I am grateful to be doing work I love and to the energies that guided me to it. It's a blessing that I do not take for granted.


In upcoming blogs I will write about ways to take care of yourself as we move toward the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall: how to keep your immune system strong as we get ready for the change of seasons. If you have questions or topics that you would like me to address, you can email me at PjacksonLAc@aol.com. From time to time I will pick some "readers' requests" topics to write about.

Peace and good health,
Pat