We Still Have a Lot of Work To Do.
Posted on March 19, 2008 - Filed Under General |
It occurred to me to think about the fact that most people who come to see an acupuncturist for the first time have had the problem for a very long time. It’s unusual to get a new patient who just had a car accident, for instance, unless they saw another acupuncturist elsewhere or they have a chiropractor who insisted they also use acupuncture or some scenario like that.
While it is well known and documented that acupuncture can treat back pain, often the patients in the acupuncturist’s office have had back pain for years, tried everything, including surgery and are still in pain and are finally getting to try acupuncture.
I started talking to people about this fact. Why do they wait so long? What would have made them try acupuncture sooner? I admit that currently my pool of knowledge is small. I hope to continue expanding it.
However, I was startled to find that most of them didn’t know that acupuncture could help them. Even those people who had pain, like back pain didn’t realize that acupuncture could help them. They suggested articles in magazines where I have seen articles on back pain might help. It occurred to me that obviously these articles were not catching people’s eye.
I talked to a long term patient who has lots of pain and her response was less that she was afraid of the needles (although she is needle phobic) but more that acupuncture was so strange to her she felt intimidated about seeking it out. She only came to me because she knew another patient of mine who assured her that I would take her concerns and fears seriously and not push her to do more than what she was comfortable with.
I realized that our marketing materials and articles have a tendency to talk about research studies and statistics showing that acupuncture works or we tend to focus on educating our patients about our “jargon”. We tell them what qi is and about yin and yang and the balancing of energies. Maybe we need to focus less on the “how” of acupuncture and more on the “Acupuncture Works”. Maybe we need to focus our energies on teaching people that we helped ordinary people like them feel better rather than try and teach them HOW we help them feel better.
Right now our language of “how” is strange and foreign to people. I wonder if that’s why they aren’t getting the message when something is written about acupuncture. Maybe we need to teach them that the language and cultural barrier doesn’t matter. We can help anyone, even peope just like them, who prefer Folgers to Expresso and who don’t eat granola or know anything about yoga or tai chi.
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3 Responses to “We Still Have a Lot of Work To Do.”
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You are correct. In a market that is unfamiliar with acupuncture, our “jargon” leaves folks thinking we are “new agers”. The substance of what we do gets lost.
The language we use to patients and other professionals needs to be updated. This should start in our acupuncture schools and the materials used there in.
Thank you for your comment Kathy. I thought I had come by and commented earlier, so my apologies!
You are right–it does need to start in school! We shouldn’t be so attached to our terminology that we can’t talk about healing without it.
I had chronic lower back pain for several years. Probably from sitting down so much at the computer in a not so comfortable chair. I went to a chiropractor on a consistant basis and received temporary relief. He suggested also going to an acupuncturist. I was very hesitant as I am really bad with needles. When I finally went to my first visit it took twice as long as normal…I told you I am really bad with needles…but I am really glad I went. I now use both chiropractic and acupuncture to keep the pain under control and feel better now then I have for a long time…I recommend it to everyone I talk too.