Welcome to Working Class Acupuncture's Substack!
Introducing our newsletter, Acupuncture Can Change the World
Welcome to Working Class Acupuncture’s Substack!
Introducing our newsletter, Acupuncture Can Change the World
In 2002 Working Class Acupuncture started out as one sliding-scale clinic in the Cully neighborhood of Portland, OR, run by one acupuncturist (me). At that time, it was the only acupuncture clinic in Cully, even though there were hundreds of acupuncturists in the city.
I had no idea what I was doing running a small business, but I wanted to make a living treating patients like my working class neighbors and my working class family by using a low-cost, high-volume, patient-funded model. Today, Working Class Acupuncture is four clinics with an acupuncture school attached. WCA spawned what’s generally known as the community acupuncture movement.
Before the pandemic, WCA was providing about 60,000 affordable acupuncture treatments per year. In 2020 it was a shock to go from extremely busy to locked down for months; before that, we’d never been closed for more than a week. But strangely enough, COVID provided WCA with an opportunity for a reboot, which we desperately needed. Like a lot of other businesses, we came out of the pandemic different than we went in.
In 2022, as part of our reboot, WCA engaged social impact consultant Camille Trummer to help us figure out how to make acupuncture accessible to more people by developing strategic partnerships with organizations. I met Camille when I was volunteering for the Cully Boulevard Alliance and I knew she understood both small businesses and Cully in a deep and loving way, so I thought maybe she could understand WCA too -- and I was right.
Like a lot of small businesses, WCA survived by making our own world and then living inside it.
Like most of our patients, we know how to make do with limited resources. We’re experts at scavenging, repurposing, building from scratch. And as COVID demonstrated, we’re adaptable. The downside of making your own world, though, is that you can find yourself in a bubble -- not sure how to connect to the world outside.
There are reasons for WCA’s bubble, of course. In 2002, virtually nobody thought sliding-scale affordable acupuncture in a community setting was a good idea. One knowledgeable person told me flatly, “Affordable acupuncture clinics don’t grow.” There were very few people I could ask for help; learning was primarily a matter of trial and error. I often wondered: this thing I was trying to do, was it even a thing? In 2015, Self Magazine wrote an article about us and tweeted, “Hold up — group acupuncture is a thing?” and despite the question mark, I thought with relief, OK -- I guess it’s a thing!
How to grow this thing outside of its bubble, though, still wasn’t clear. But surviving COVID made me think that maybe we can figure it out, and we should definitely try. Because WCA was built to address a lot of the stressors that COVID brought to light. This newsletter is an outgrowth of the work that WCA has been doing with Camille. It’s about connecting WCA with other organizations and other community development initiatives in Portland and beyond.
Back when we came up with our logo it was kind of, sort of, almost a joke.
By then we had gotten quite a bit of indignation from other acupuncturists about how a low-cost, high-volume, sliding-scale model would devalue/debase/degrade/destroy the acupuncture profession. Some of them had directly questioned why I would want to treat working class patients in the first place since clearly the only reason they can’t afford acupuncture at market rates is that “they spend all their money on beer, cigarettes, and cable TV”. Go big or go home, I thought, except I already was home — I live in Cully — so fine, how about we put a five foot red fist on the side of the building with the words Acupuncture Can Change the World. That’ll make everyone happy!
But it wasn’t really a joke because acupuncture did change my world, and also some other people’s worlds.
Sometimes acupuncture can do amazing things, if people can afford to get enough of it, in a setting where nobody is shaming them for their lifestyle or their resources.
The world has changed in lots of ways since 2002, and it’s still changing. WCA for its part has been through a lot of trial and error. Now seems like a good time to see if the ways that we think that acupuncture can change the world can line up with other changes that are happening. So that’s what this newsletter is for.
Since we’re hoping to make connections outside of our bubble, please help WCA by subscribing!
It’s free and easy to do. If you’ve already signed up as a subscriber, please share this with anyone you think might be interested. WCA has always grown through relationships, so thank you for helping us grow some more!