This month I catch up with my dear friend, Vida Woods, who after a successful career in Finance, decided to follow her lifelong dream and retrain as an Acupuncturist. Here she tells me just what acupuncture is and why becoming an Acupuncturist was the best thing she ever did.
Tell us about your career background
Having completed a Business and Spanish degree at Cardiff University, I worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. After 3 years, I left to go travelling around the world for six months which was incredible. On returning to the UK, I started working in Investments at Old Mutual Wealth. Throughout the next eight years I moved around the company in varying roles ranging from managing external relationships to negotiating commercial terms with fund managers.
What made you decide to change career?
As cheesy as it sounds, as an early teen I knew I wanted to wake up every morning and enjoy what I did for a living. Quite what it was, I didn’t know. Six months before my 30th I realised that enough was enough and I committed myself to making a radical change in my career before my birthday. I was tired of that weekly Sunday feeling.
I began doing reiki and practiced it on myself regularly. This is when I started to consider traditional acupuncture. I’d had it from a young age and the results were very positive. I discovered the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine in Reading – so not too far from home – and the rest is history!
How did you make the transition into business? what steps did you take?
Having a background of working in the corporate world was helpful. It gave me the confidence to know that I could start my own company. Having said that, previous experience isn’t paramount and shouldn’t deter you from it. I found being organised and practical were useful attributes.
Some of the steps I took:
Asking other people who had set up a business for advice, what were their experiences?
Via the Gov.UK website under “Working for Yourself”, I completed the documentation required for becoming self-employed.
I registered as a member of the British Acupuncture Council, the UK’s largest regulatory body for traditional acupuncture.
Researched other clinics to gain insight into their fees and chose mine accordingly.
I had professional profile photos taken for my website and Facebook page. Portraying the right image is important.
My husband is an accountant and he has shown me how to manage my accounts, it’s not as scary as it sounds!
Other regulatory requirements were necessary in order to practice appropriately. E.g. gaining a licence from the local council, putting a waste contract in place.
What were the biggest challenges you have faced?
Making the final decision of when to cut the cord from the corporate world and a regular income! It took months of deliberating on the right time to go from part time to full time acupuncturist. My conclusion was that there is never a “right time”. Unless I made that leap of faith in pursuing my passion that I’d worked so hard for; I’d never know. After I’d done it; I felt an instant weight lifting from shoulders.
What does traditional acupuncture involve?
Traditional acupuncture is an evidence based therapy of natural healing, offering a holistic approach to treatment that has been developed and refined over 2,000 years. Holistic means that your body, mind and spirit are all engaged as the acupuncture re-establishes your energy balance along the meridians (pathways of energy that run through your body).
Energy flow is stimulated along the meridians via one or more of these therapy techniques:
Insertion of very fine, pre-sterilised, disposable, stainless steel needles into acupuncture points through the skin. There can be as few as 2 to 4. The needles are either retained for approximately 20 minutes or removed instantly.
Applying warmth of a dried plant called moxa, on or near the skin
Applying glass cups to the skin, where local suction is created
Chinese massage call Tuina
Gua sha, an instrument assisted technique of press-stroking a lubricated area of the skin
Tell us what traditional acupuncture can be effective for
Traditional acupuncture enhances your general wellbeing by focusing treatment on you as an individual, with emphasis on identifying the root cause of any issues.
Conditions it can be effective for include: allergies, anxiety, asthma, depression, fertility / gynaecological issues, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, pain such as musculoskeletal or menstrual, poor sleep, pregnancy discomforts such as morning sickness or labour induction, stress and skin conditions such as acne or eczema.
My patients often comment on having increased vitality and feeling better in themselves after treatment. These are some of the other great benefits of the holistic approach of 5 Element and Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture that I carry out.
What have been your biggest achievements to date?
Being at one with a patient. When an individual lets you into areas of their lives where they may not have felt able to go to with anyone else, it’s an extremely humbling experience. I don’t think I’d call this an achievement as such, more an incredibly fortunate position to be in. It’s one of the many reasons why I love my job.
Obtaining a 1st for my dissertation and acupuncture degree felt amazing. I’d put everything into it right from the start and these final marks really were the icing on the cake.
What advice would you give to anyone considering retraining and changing career?
We are all entitled to happiness and deserve to wake up feeling great about the day ahead. If there is a vocation that you think could be the right one for you, then start doing some research about it.
I spoke to other acupuncturists to find out exactly what the training was like, how much time it would take up, the rewarding and challenging aspects of it. Choose someone you trust as honest feedback is vital.
I attended an Open Day held by the college, this helped me gain a feel for the institution as a whole – as well as obtaining important information about the degree. You want to know you’re going to feel comfortable in your learning environment.
I worked out how I could finance the training. There are always options so don’t let this block your way.
I talked it over with my husband. When you’re considering such a change, it will temporarily affect other areas of your life and so having the support from close family is helpful. For example, not being able to spend as much time together before big deadlines or exams. However – don’t fret as retraining doesn’t mean that you can’t have a life – we got married in the middle of it and managed to go on a few holidays!
The main thing that kept driving me to my goal was my passion for becoming a traditional acupuncturist. There will always be some people who like putting doubts in your head but if you really want to do it, then go for it!
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For more information on Vida's work visit her website here: http://www.vidawoodsacupuncture.com/