We were lucky to catch up with Adam Cantor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.

After more than a decade in practice as a Licensed Acupuncturist, I reflect back and understand that as great as my training was in school, it was truly the teachers I chose after my schooling that influenced and shaped the type of practitioner I was to become.

I was drawn to those teachers for different reasons but there are two truly who stand out to me today– Tim Aitken and Tom Bisio. I was an apprentice of Tim Aitken and spent several years studying his methods of Classical Chinese Medicine according to the Ling Shu, I followed Tim to the Himalayan Mountains to do medical relief work in some of the most remote regions of the world. His clinical intuition and immense compassion helped him build a large following of patients and students alike.

Conversely, Tom Bisio is widely known in the Chinese medicine community having written several popular books, teaching classes internationally, having his own successful product line and of course being a respected martial arts teacher. Under Tom’s tutelage, I really felt my love of Chinese medical massage and osteopathic medicine come alive. Very few acupuncturists truly do orthopedic and osteopathic level work these days and the skills I gained studying with Tom have proven indispensable over and over in my clinic.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Of course. I am an NCCAOM nationally certified acupuncturist, licensed in New York State and the Chief Medical Officer at Mind Body Medicine Acupuncture.

Training in martial arts one day, I was injured. When Western medicine offered no solutions, I found myself in the office of an acupuncturist. Amazed at how easily he helped me, I decided to pursue a masters degree from the Tri-State College of Acupuncture, one of the oldest Oriental medicine programs in North America (honors). While still in school, I apprenticed the acupuncturist who healed my injuries and learned how to combine orthopedic bodywork (tui na) with acupuncture, structural mobilization and Chinese herbs to treat acute trauma, chronic pain and musculo-skeletal dysfunction. I later worked at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in Manhattan, one of the top rehab hospitals in the United States, and studied at the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine University, one of China’s top medical colleges.

For the past several years I have dedicated myself to advancing my studies of Classical Chinese medicine from the Jade Purity Daoist tradition of Jeffrey Yuen, The Water Course Method of the Ling Shu with Tim Aitken and continually refine advanced osteopathic and orthopedic techniques, cranio-sacral therapy, diet therapy, herbal medicine and mind-body practices from renown clinicians and teachers such as Tom Bisio.

I was drawn to Oriental medicine because of its effectiveness in treating the whole person instead of just suppressing their symptoms. The beauty of Chinese medicine is its inherent ability to treat the entire individual– body, mind, and spirit, together.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I’ve had many patients ask me why I didn’t become an MD. For a few years, that really got to me and I seriously considered going back to school (once again) to reinvent myself. Over the course of my tenure as an LAc (licensed acupuncturist), a few things became evidently clear as to why I needed to stay the course. My practice is full of people who weren’t getting relief from conventional/ allopathic medicine- including several doctors and nurses that I include among my patients. Cases ranging from acute and chronic pain to recalcitrant diseases and degenerative disorders are just a few of the many ailments I see on a regular basis; my case load never gets dull. I would choose acupuncture, herbal medicine and medical massage again and again.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

When I graduated and sought to hang my shingle there were very few jobs for acupuncturists. Sadly, many newly minted LAc’s never practice full time and even more drop off after failing to successfully manage their own practice. So many acupuncturists that fail to succeed are technically sound clinicians but simply lack the knowledge and perhaps the confidence to run their own business. Unless you’re working for someone else or have staff you hired, you need to be able to do it all- be the doctor, marketing team, office and operation manager and every other role you can conceive of. Everyone would benefit from taking a business class or two but more than that, self study in business management, marketing and basic accounting can go a long way.

All that said, I think burn out is another major concern and an area many people find themselves in. Helping others all day long and being more than just a clinician but perhaps a friend/ therapist/ coach and teacher all in one (when needed), can be difficult. I cannot overstate the importance of self-care in this field. Nearly all of the successful acupuncturists I know have an extensive self-care routine to ensure that they are not only practicing what they preach but living an embodiment of the philosophy behind Chinese medicine. Yin and Yang, Qi and Blood in harmony.

Contact Info:

• Website: mbm-acupuncture.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MindBodyMedicineAcupuncture