“I believe art is a healing force and I’d love to inspire a wave of Asian healing art.” – Laurie Morse, LAc
Art can inspire learning; so what better opportunity to bring an artistic learning environment to PCOM, than moving into a fresh, new building? Just in case you didn’t hear the news yet, PCOM has expanded its doors…to right next door! The new PCOM building has an artsy Asian vibe, created in large part by the artwork of PCOM Alumna Laurie Morse, LAc, which the school hopes will bring out creativity and mindfulness in students.
Located adjacent to the original Main Campus building (Main Building 1), the new building (Main Building 2) is now officially a part of the Pacific College Main Campus and there is no longer an Annex 2. We’re excited about our new space, so let us give you a tour!
To start off, when you enter the new building you will notice right away the unique art pieces hanging on the walls, created by Laurie. The pieces are all for sale, so if you would like to purchase one to add to your acupuncture or massage practice, or would like to commission a special piece, see Laurie’s “Acquisition of Art” instructions hanging in the hallway. (90% of proceeds go directly to Laurie and 10% go to the PCOM scholarship fund.)
Laurie believes that healing can come from all different avenues. “I’d love to infuse our culture with Asian art to inspire healing from yet another angle (other than acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, etc.),” Laurie said.
The inspiration for her work is simple: “First and foremost, Chinese Medicine. Also I love the characters, they evoke something ancient in me. Using an ancient character in a mixed-media style reminds me of an “ancient wisdom in modern times” idea,” Laurie said, and isn’t that idea exactly what Pacific College is all about?
Moving on, the artistic wave continues into the “mindful meditation” room on the right. This room is not open yet, but soon! Here, students, faculty, and staff will be welcomed to come and enjoy a few moments of respite in the midst of their likely more chaotic day. Peace, rest, and mindfulness are what this room is centered around. This room will also be available as a massage practice room.
If you come out of the mindful meditation room and go to the left, you’ll pass a classroom, and come to our “comfy commons” room. Complete with oversized, cushy chairs, high tables and bar stools, students can relax and read, or plug in their laptops and study in a “comfy commons” environment (not a classroom…).
You’ll see that our new classrooms are not just ordinary classrooms however, two are fully equipped as science labs for our bio-medicine and nutrition hands-on learning classes. There are four classrooms total in our new building: 100, 101, 102, 103.
The hallway furthest to the left leads to some of our staff offices including the Symposium Department, HR, President and Vice President of Operations, Marketing, and IT Departments. And that about sums it up!
PCOM Campus Director Jaime Kornsweig says, “We are really excited about the new building. With its proximity to Main Building 1, it allows us to have more of a traditional campus feeling. Community is really a big underlying theme, with our new study space, break room, and massage room open to the whole community. It’s not just a relocation, it’s an improvement and expansion of our community. The layout of Main Building 1 is more intuitive with all of the departments having a sense of togetherness within the greater PCOM family. We’re also excited about our improvements to the clinic and Campus Information Center coming in August!”
We’d love to hear from you about your favorite aspects of our new space and what your favorite art pieces are too! How does art inspire you and bring healing to the world? Let us know at: media@pacificcollege.edu and the person with the most creative answer will win their very own print by Laurie Morse! (Hint: using pictures, video, and other creative mediums is encouraged!)
See how acupuncture, massage therapy, and Oriental medicine can benefit you! Pacific College of Oriental Medicine’s fully integrative clinics in San Diego, Chicago, and NYC offer affordable, holistic treatment plans personally tailored to fit your needs. Check out our video!
A recent fad has been sweeping the country: ionic foot detoxes. You may not recognize the name, but you probably have seen the infomercials about foot patches or foot baths that pull all the toxins out of your body through your feet, leaving you with a patch or bath full of brown liquid (aka the toxins). But is it all just a scam? Or is there actual scientific proof to support these claims?
I decided to try it out for myself with Pacific College Alumna and Oncology Specialist Christine Adamo, LAc, and see for myself what the scoop is all about. Christine is a supporter of “true” ionic detoxes and uses them in her practice, particularly with her cancer patients to help with the side effects of chemotherapy.
First off, I say “true” because Christine warned me upfront about the many false companies out there who claim that the brown water produced in their bath or patch is the result of toxins coming out of the body. “This is NOT true,” Christine said. The water changes color naturally because of the chemical reaction between the electricity and the salt water, not because of toxins. So, don’t be fooled by the infomercials. It’s actually, the debris that begin to form in the water that are the toxins.
Don’t just take Christine’s word for it; the scientific evidence speaks for itself. “We can do a test and you can see for yourself if you’d like?” asked Christine, before we began the detox.
“Why not!” I said. Afterall, what better way to determine a treatment’s efficacy than with a scientific experiment?
We decided to do a urine pH test before the detox and then another pH test after the detox to compare the results. My first pH test showed to be more on the acidic side of normal. I was ready to see if this detox would really change my pH level in just 30 minutes.
The main point of these detoxes is to make the body’s pH more “alkaline,” but what exactly is the importance of being alkaline?
An alkaline body is crucial to a person’s health. Diseases thrive in an acidic environment. So basically, the less acidic your body is and the more alkaline, the less prone you are to contracting a disease, such as osteoporosis or cancer, according to Christine.
The Center for Disease Control reports that up to 85% of all illness are caused by toxins and pollutants in our bodies. The human body functions best when the ions are balanced at 80% negative and 20% positive. So how do we achieve this?
What we put into our body, such as the foods we consume, have either acidic or alkalizing properties. Check out the food charts for yourself here. The more of the higher alkaline foods you can incorporate into your diet the better. An ionic detox, helps to facilitate the alkalization process through the process of ionization, which removes “free radicals” from the body.
How do ionic detoxes fit into Chinese medicine?
Traditionally, we think of acupuncture and herbal medicine as being the main components of Chinese medicine. The ionic foot detoxes we see today are a more modern invention, but magnetism itself, has been used to accompany traditional Chinese methods medicinally in China for over 2,000 years.
Acupuncturists use a variety of modern tools now adays, that weren’t invented yet back in ancient Chinese times. Tools besides the ionic detox machine, such as the electrical stimulation machine work to accompany acupuncture. Both of these tools work with acupuncture to clear heat in the body.
“Every physician has a set of tools in his/her tool bag; sometimes you have to branch out to find more tools,” Christine said.
So, the crucial question: Did it work?
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Pacific College Academic Dean Bob Damone shares his experience with us from the desert this past weekend, where he studied nature’s herbal medicines with fellow colleagues and PCOM students!
In the early 1980’s, a few years before it ever occurred to me to pursue a career in Chinese herbal medicine, I became interested in “Western” herbal medicine. I read everything I could get my hands on, including “The Way of Herbs” by Michael Tierra. I immediately devoured it, and immersed myself in its fascinating descriptions of plant-based medicines. My kitchen cupboards quickly began to overflow with tinctures, powders, and poultices of various herbs. The rich earthy fragrances, tastes, and colors of various flowers, barks, leaves, and seeds became a part of my daily life. Valerian, White Willow Bark, Chamomile, Saw Palmetto, etc., became allies in my search for health and wellness. I was hooked.
This past weekend, I had the excellent fortune of sharing with several Pacific College students a medicinal plant study excursion to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park led by Sylvan Botanical Institute. Sylvan—a company co-founded by PCOM alum, accomplished herbalist, and author Thomas Garran—is devoted to teaching knowledge of herbal medicine in part by empowering practitioners to locate, identify, and harvest local medicinal plants. Among the several knowledgeable and approachable herb teachers on the trip, were Christopher Hobbs and Michael Tierra. I had not met Christopher before, but found him to be a veritable walking encyclopedia of ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, and botanical identification. As I mentioned above, Michael Tierra—whose book I had cut my teeth on in my herbal infancy—was also in attendance. If I have any heroes, he is certainly among them. What a thrill to meet and hang out with the man who had initially inspired my interest in herbal medicine!
My interest in Western herbal medicine eventually expanded to Chinese herbal medicine. Yet, I never lost my fascination with Western herbs. A number of Western herbalists in fact have followed a similar path. Many regard the solid empirical and theoretical foundation of Chinese herbal medicine, with its unbroken historical and textual record, as the most viable model for an integrative and globalized modern form of herbal medicine. This has sparked a very interesting dialogue, which was palpable during the duration of this desert trip: How can the theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine be applied to the study of Western herbs? Is there a benefit to using Western herbs according to the principles of Chinese medicine?
The resounding response to the latter question from the Western herbalists present in the desert this weekend was undoubtedly yes. And I tend to agree. I had the clear sense this past weekend that the zeitgeist now indicates a heightened readiness to engage in this important and necessary dialogue. I look forward to more trips with Sylvan and I hope to inspire the Pacific College community to engage in communion with the beautiful and rich natural world around us, which teems with medicinal plants.
Check out the video slideshow here!
You graduate with your acupuncture or massage therapy degree and are ready to take on the world. You are skilled and enthusiastic to make a name (and some money) for yourself in a career that helps people to feel great. But how do you put your education into practice? What steps do you need to take now that you’re out of school and in the workforce? How do you get clients in the door (and keep them coming back)? Pacific College is here to help you flourish even after you leave our campus. Here are a few tips to get you started.
Set up your website. Think of your website as the first sign that you’re opening shop. It should be created before you ever open your doors. A website will lend you credibility. A prospective patient browsing your website has the opportunity to get a feel for who you are before they even meet you in person. The quality of your website can make the difference between a “just looking” patient and a getting an appointment. Having a website provides you with the space that a brochure, business card, or a newspaper ad cannot. When people are shopping for a practitioner online, the more information they can access about you and how you practice, the better. We’ve talked about this a bit before here, in our article “12 Reasons You Need a Website” The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) provides free websites for diplomats at http://www.nccaomdiplomates.com/
Talk the talk. Self-promotion is not something that comes naturally to most of us. But it’s time to set aside any reservations you have about talking the talk. It’s not bragging, it’s advocating. And if you don’t promote yourself, how can you expect it of others? You don’t have to shout your name from the rooftops to get attention, but you do need to get creative. David Fireside, Owner of Urban Decompression a massage studio in Chicago, has an interesting suggestion. Fireside says, “When someone asks you what you do for a living, don’t reply ‘I am a massage therapist’, tell them you are a ‘relaxation specialist’ or you ‘facilitate the healing of soft tissue injuries’ or ‘help people deal with chronic pain’.” The key, says Fireside, is to say something about massage therapy and your skill that will engage the other person in a conversation.
There are two halves to the equation: you must get out there and meet people, but you must also be memorable when you do. The Massamio Blog has some great advice on getting creative when it comes on places to meet your potential clients, “Get involved with groups where your target market is hanging out. Is your ideal client a well-to-do stay at home mom? Where’s that mommy hanging out? At the salon, the library, neighborhood cleanup day, the gym, 5K walk/runs? Yes, there’s always joining the chamber of commerce, but we know you can get more creative than that!” Wherever you make your connections, make sure you always leave the potential client with something to remember you by: your business card. The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) advises, “Always be prepared with your business cards and a 30-second “elevator speech” regarding the benefits of massage therapy.” The same goes for acupuncturists. A business card is imperative for getting your information out there in an effective and professional manner. If you’re a massage therapist, you can build your credibility and become a member of the various massage organizations for support, CEU information, and advice on opening your practice. Many even offer members the use of their logos and other images to put on your business card.
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