You can earn a good living as an acupuncturist but it is unwise to assume that this will happen automatically when you qualify, because that's when the work begins.
When I first developed an interest in acupuncture over 20 years ago I saw it as a vocation first and as a career second. Frankly, I still see it that way and I think many acupuncturists do. Almost every one I know has some additional source of funding or income and does not rely solely on the practice of acupuncture. When I was a student I did not give that much thought to the practical realities of how I was going to turn my years of study into a job and simply assumed that when I qualified I would start treating patients. The reality then as now, was that when you finish your studies you have to start your own business. Employing skills of strategic planning, marketing, networking, accounting, patient management etc. The letters after your name are not much help and what many colleges would rather not talk about is that the majority of students who finish their courses are not in practice a year or two after they graduate. Although this can be a disappointment I don’t see it as a bad thing necessarily because I know that the development you do on an acupuncture course is always worthwhile even if you don’t use it to practice. But I would not shy away from this reality and always encourage my students to think about what they will do when they finish the course and then how and where they will develop their practice if they plan to do so. I encourage students to start treating as soon as they have insurance during the final five clinical weeks of the course. This means that people can have a couple of patients on-going before they finish with us so that they can progress smoothly from student to practitioner.
Building a successful acupuncture practice seems to require a positive attitude more than anything else and probably the first question to ask yourself in order to understand the needs of patients is "what do I want and expect from my own practitioner?". I have observed that it is the people who are either already practising as a therapist of some kind or who are already successful in business who tend to do well. If you are coming to acupuncture with no experience of either and expecting it to make you rich....... forget it. Only a very few people I know of are genuinely wealthy from acupuncture and they are almost all involved in other things as well as acupuncture practice. Like managing clinics and suppliers, writing and selling books, giving lectures or in well funded research for a university or drugs company (if you can call that acupuncture). There are rarely jobs advertised for acupuncturists in this country and when they are you are usually expected to generate your own patient list.
But please don’t let me put you off! This is a wonderful job and I earn a living from acupuncture and teaching and so can you. There is no shortage of people who would benefit from acupuncture, so the challenge is to communicate with them and help them to understand that. The satisfaction is in doing something interesting, uplifting and inspiring and to see how worthwhile it is for those you are treating. Acupuncture also allows you to practice part time and plan your practice to suit yourself and your patients. You can also stop for a while and then resume your practice should you need to break for life events such as maternity, illness, moving home etc.
Jamie.
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