Marc Luber: Hey what's up everyone. Welcome to Careers Out There. I'm your host Marc Luber
and we're helping you find a career that fits. Today we're talking to Sarah Vosen - she's
a licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist amongst other things. She's gonna talk to
us about careers as a holistic health practitioner. You're watching a short version of the interview
with Sarah. If you want to learn more about being a holistic health practitioner, you
can see the full interview at Careers Out There dot com. You'll see we had some Skype
issues - some technical issues on this day so it kind of looks like a kung fu movie where
Sarah's lips aren't moving but the words keep coming out - but it's just as informative!
Alright, let's meet Sarah! Can you explain for us the difference between Chinese medicine
and Western medicine?
Sarah Vosen: I would say that the main difference between Chinese medicine and Western medicine
is that Chinese medicine really steps back and looks at the whole picture and looks at
the whole body holistically. So we're very much interested in how all of the systems
of the body are working together and if one is out of sync with the others we understand
why and how to put everything back together and get them working synergistically. Whereas
Western medicine, often they look deeper and deeper and look at smaller and smaller pieces
and often forget to step back and take a look at the whole body.
Marc Luber: So how does that happen? Tell us what you actually do as a practitioner
of holistic medicine?
Sarah Vosen: So in the course of a treatment, when somebody comes to me with some specific
symptoms that they're experiencing that they don't want to experience any more, I acquire
information not only about those symptoms but also about all of their systems in their
body. So if somebody's coming to me because they're having trouble sleeping, I don't just
talk to them about their sleep. I also talk to them about their energy, their digestion,
their other systems: their urinary, bowel, everything. So I want to look at how your
whole body's working and how those other systems are affecting your sleep. And then once I
decide what the diagnosis is for you, then we choose what tools, what methods of treatment
are best for your condition. So perhaps acupuncture would be better. Sometimes herbs and supplements
are better. Sometimes we focus on nutrition. Sometimes it's more about changing your lifestyle.
And more often than not it's really all of those things that end up to be useful. But
certain conditions are more suited for different tools. So we would give you treatment and
send you on your way, send you home with some homework or some herbs or some different things
to work with in your lifestyle that compliment the treatment. And then from there, usually
you have a course of treatments. Say six or ten treatments and then a re-evaluation, a
re-diagnosis, and then decide from there where we go. More often than not, people are coming
with symptoms that they've had for quite a while or have been in development over a course
of time. And in those cases, it takes longer to treat and to help get your body back in
balance. So, depending on what we're treating, different lengths of treatment are necessary.
Marc Luber: Walk us through a typical day. What's a typical day in the life of a holistic
health practitioner?
Sarah Vosen: I have clinic hours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So I get myself ready and I go to
my clinic and I set up my room, which means I've got a massage table set up and I use
sheets to cover them up. I set up my needles, I've got alcohol to sterilize, I've got different
massage oils, I've got a biohazard container to make sure I put the needles away in the
proper disposal. So once I'm set up I see patients usually in one hour or 90 minute
time slots. Those are most common, I would say for acupuncture and or massage. And in
that time I'll see five or six people in a day most often. As a part of my day I often
do some kind of physical practice that allows me to feel good so that my chi and my body
is functioning in a balanced way so that while I'm facilitating a treatment I don't get in
the way of their healing.
Marc Luber: And what's the most fun and rewarding part of what you do?
Sarah Vosen: I think the most fun and rewarding part of what I do is really seeing the effects
that my work has on people. For the most part I'm helping people get out of pain or reduce
or relieve symptoms that really are getting in the way of their lives. So when they leave
from seeing me, they more often than not have a smile on their face and they're just more
relaxed in general. And that warms my heart.
Marc Luber: Hey everyone - if you want to learn about being an acupuncturist and a holistic
health practitioner, you can see the full interview at Careers Out There dot com, where
we help you find a career that fits. I'm Marc Luber. Thanks again for watching and we look
forward to seeing you there.
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