This is not a Fugazi T-shirt

I am not a Millennial, I am Gen X! I am the home-alone latchkey kid and I’m uncomfortable talking about myself. I have probably taken five selfies my entire life and then never posted them to social media. In my day it took serious courage to ask someone to take a picture because –“No, I only have three left on the role and want to get something better or saving them” was often a reply.  Sure, I was a kid in the hair metal days of the eighties and loved early Madonna along with the the fashion that came with both, but by the time high school hit, it was early nineties. It was an era for the collective groups like Green Day and Offspring (pop punk that all sounds the same), shoe-gazers bands like Jesus and Mary Chain that played with their backs to the audience or Sonic Youth perpetually looking down.  Everyone was dressed in the same flannel grungy shirt or pants ten sizes too big.  My favorite T-shirt was an old Nomeansno “Stay Home and read a book” mockery of Henry Rollins “Search and Destroy”.  I fell in early with the straight edge crowd and loved Fugazi and (loosely) adopted their straight edge, no merch or self promotion, affordable, DIY attitude that seriously may have saved my life as a teen (forever indebted to your influence Sam, Mike and Kevin) but now may actually haunt me.  Showmanship and sensationalism was dead or underground- There was no GG. Allin and this was not Alice Coopers best days. It is not shocking that anonymity comes naturally to me.  I have zero problems wearing a medical mask; if I could do my job wearing a balaclava like Barrier Kult or the band the Netwerk I would.

As a small business owner this trait of anonymity does not serve me well.  Also I work in a field where it is against regulatory advertising standards to use any testimonials (let it be known if it’s on a third party site like Google or Yelp that I can’t control access to, I can only inform you of this policy, I can NOT enforce it) because it may imply similar results are achievable. On your first appointment pages of consent forms are signed stating no guarantee of outcomes has been made, but seriously I think I am pretty hot sh*t. When you do a Google search on my profession it links up Wikipedia that calls what I do  a sham, along with many Quack MD siting all acupuncture as placebo effect.  In Ontario, the majority of insurance companies for extended health benefits reimburse Physiotherapists and Chiropractors who took a short course on dry needling and do painful trigger point needling and don’t recognise a three year acupuncture program based of five thousands plus years of history in the east seeing the body as a complex circuitry reflecting the five elements (fire, water, earth, metal, wood) and sees the body as a whole. Seriously Traditional Chinese Medicine in Ontario is not an easy business to be in. 

In Japan, I feel like the opposite is true.  Acupuncturist or Healers and notoriety is standard. Lineage of tutelage is the first thing mentioned when describing your work: I do Hashimoto Sotai, Manaka Acupuncture, Yamamoto Scalp Acupuncture. Toyohari method, Masunaga shiatsu, Keiko Mastumoto style. They are Rockstars, they are Sensei’s – Masters and Teachers. Leaders of their respected 5000 plus year craft.  They are also specialised: yet another thing against the Regulatory College in Ontario. In Ontario you may note if you have received extra training in certain areas but you may never call yourself a specialist and the initial training is very a very global overview of Traditional Chinese medicine. In the east are either a Bodyworker doing shiatsu and moxa or an Acupuncturist with a little cupping or an Herbalist and nutrition specialist- not all three. In Ontario after three years of Chinese Medicine school that includes Bodywork (tuina and qi-gong), nutrition and lifestyle counseling, moxibustion, cupping and acupuncture and passing board exams you are bestowed the provincially acknowledge, but rarely covered through extended health care coverage, title of Registered Acupuncturist through the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Ontario. To have the full title of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner you need another two years of study in Chinese Herbs pass another exam, it provides one more base skillset, but it doesn’t provide any extra weight in the eyes of the Insurance companies and it in no way makes you a Master in anything. British Columbia recently added the Doctors designation that would be the closest to Master status you can get in Canada.

Recently I have been taking marketing workshops and applying for business grants all focussing on branding yourself- Who are you?  Technically I’m titled as a Registered Acupuncturist and Registered Massage Therapist but that really doesn’t say much. So here is my brand- I am Rebelene Acu-Punk-turist extraordinaire. Stay tuned “in the waiting room” for what that really means.