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AFFILIATIONS

Terry Barnett's
Integrated Arts

British Combat
Association

Terms and Conditions

Being in the alternative and complimentary health business for the past three years has taught me many things.  A lot of these things I have found my 16 years of martial arts training has taught me as well, which is nice that there is that integration.  Herein I want to share with you, through the eyes of a Registered Acupuncturist, what I see in my practice and how I try and apply it to my daily life

Kenton Sefcik

Kenton R.Ac is a Registered Acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine Practitioner.  He graduated from the Alberta College of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine with a diploma in Acupuncture and an honourary diploma in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Practicing in Nova Scotia, Canada, he enjoys treating all conditions but feels drawn to helping those who suffer from anxiety and depression.  When he is not practicing acupuncture, he is teaching for the Acupuncture Diploma Program in Halifax.  His other passion lies in Chinese Boxing (Wing Chun Kung-Fu), Western Boxing and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu.  He is also a proud husband and father. ’

More information on his acupuncture at Harbour Health

More information on Chinese Boxing at
Dark WingChun

Let go of the outcome – No matter what happens, I have to remember that I am just influencing the body to heal itself.  I can’t MAKE it heal itself.  I also have to remember that there may be outside influences at play that may be hindering the healing process (external stressors, lifestyle choices, etc).  The same can be said with all interactions with people.  Many patients tell me how disappointed they are that they can’t get their spouse, friend, relative, etc to come with them to acupuncture.  I remind these patients of the age-old saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’  This is why I have a small group of friends and family that I can depend on and anyone outside that circle, I don’t expect too much.  Actually, I don’t expect too much from anyone except myself.  This helps me manage expectations and let go of the outcome.  Letting go of the outcome has helped me put things in the past and keep moving forward.

Listen to your intuition – Intuition is a big one for me.  You’ve got to listen to your gut/heart/inner guide.  If you feel in a confrontation that someone is going to tee off on you and you feel the urge to pre-empt the strike, I’m all for it.  In Wing Chun Kung-Fu, we often talk about sensitivity training and how it is faster than the eye.  But what is faster than the sense of touch?  Intuition.  The same is true for when I’m practicing acupuncture.  If my intuition leads me to believe that I should use a certain acupuncture point, I won’t balk for a second.  I feel that we should use our intuition more often and that it serves its purpose well in daily life.  I even have a bookmark that says, ‘I listen to my intuition.’

Keep the passion alive – Burnout – it’s everywhere.  We’re all on the treadmill to some degree.  Working long, hard hours – even when it’s your passion – can burn out that once-flame of excitement you had for your profession.  I know because I’ve been there and I’ve been there more than once.  Sometimes after all the stress of making money has me feeling like there’s no point to it all – I try and remind myself of what it’s all about.  Al Peasland uses it as his tagline: Have fun.  I try to think back to the early days of when I was just finishing my practicum or the days of when I was just starting to grow my practice.  I picture what it was that lit up my life and try to find that passion again.  Sometimes I can tap into it, lay back, relax and just enjoy the ride.  It’s those small glimpses of light that remind me that the passion is still there – I just have to find it again.

Live in the moment – Living in the moment or from moment to moment is hard but the way I approach my acupuncture helps to solidify this in my daily life.  Many patients come in with a history – some good and some bad.  Many life experiences can amount to where a patient finds themselves when they come to the clinic but, at the chance of sounding harsh or cold to make a point, I don’t really care.  I don’t need that information of the past to formulate a good diagnosis.  I just want to know what is going on RIGHT NOW.  Colton Oswald, one of my clinic supervisors taught me to ‘Treat the patient as they present themselves in that moment.’  If a patient is coming in for their Irritable Bowel Syndrome but today they have a bad cold, I treat the cold.  So for me, it doesn’t matter what happened in the past or what may happen in the future.  Where are you?  Here.  What time is it?  Now.

Do something, ANYTHING! – There are times in small business where I find myself without the amount of clientele (and therefore the amount of money) I need coming in.  Fear starts to set in and often times it paralyzes me.  And then I remember: do something, anything!  So I send out a marketing e-mail.  Or I put up a referral incentive notice on the wall.  Perhaps I just even write an inspiring message on my whiteboard in the waiting room.  No matter what I do and no matter how small it is, I start to feel better for getting the momentum going again.  It might be because those marketing efforts are working or perhaps the whole negative energy surrounding the situation starts to dissipate, but I always find that not only do I start to feel better but the situation starts to improve.

Don’t take things personally – Just recently, I had a patient leave me a message on my voicemail.  She told me that she wanted to cancel her upcoming appointment and that she wouldn’t be returning.  She made sure it was known that she wouldn’t be coming back because my acupuncture hadn’t helped her.  Of course my pride wanted to call her up and tell her that she was wrong.  My mind started spinning, ‘I have here file notes right here!  They distinctly say that her hot flashes due to menopause had decreased from every night to just once a week!  Wasn’t that progress?  How could she not see that we were making headway even after just eight acupuncture treatments?  Don’t my patients listen to me when I tell them that it takes between eight to ten treatments to squash 80-100% of their chief complaint?”  But I let it go.  I deleted the message and reminded myself not to take things personally.  In fact, I recollected how her husband was such a skeptic about acupuncture.  She told me on one occasion about how he was trying to sway her away from coming as she was wasting her money.  There are many times things are said about me or to me.  Remembering that the problem has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the other person helps.

It all comes down to good bedside manner – Registered Acupuncturists, Registered Massage Therapists, Doctors of Chiropractic, Naturopathic Doctors – there are a lot of us out there offering alternative and complimentary health options to the public.  But in my mind, what truly sets us apart is one practitioner’s ability to connect with their patients.  Knowing how to hold my posture, how to control my tone of voice, what I say and when I say it are all important in making the patient’s healing experience top notch.  Sounds to me that bedside manner is almost like diffusing a bad situation in a club when I accidently spill someone’s drink.  Bedside manner isn’t just reserved for practitioners and their patients, but in all facets of life.  There are many times when I’m walking through downtown and I feel uncomfortable with someone coming in my direction.  With a nod or a smile, I immediately diffuse the situation.  Lastly, we’ve all experienced that with just a change in our bedside manner, we can make a bad customer service situation turn good again.  So get out there in the world and shine ‘em on.  You can influence the outcome of your person-to-person interactions with better bedside manner.

Kenton Sefcik R.Ac

More information on his acupuncture at http://www.harbourhealth.ca
More information on Chinese Boxing at http://darkwingchun.wordpress.com

I'd like to extend a massive Thank You to Kenton for penning and then allowing me to share this article with you.

I particularly love the fact that Kenton has been able to draw attributes from his specialism of Acupuncture and translate them info life lessons. This parallels my own attitude to martial arts and this is why I am pleased to be able to offer you this article.

Kenton generously offered me the opportunity to write an article for his blog - which, obviously I took full advantage of and sent something requiring it to be split into 3 parts in order to post it.

You can read my contribution and all of Kenton's other blogs from this link

Translating Sports to the Street

Thank you for reading

Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al x