We recently connected with Amy Homer-brown and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

I always used to think I didn’t want to own my own practice. I watched my parents run their own clinic my whole life and always thought business ownership looked so stressful. Unfortunately, in the acupuncture field, there are few clinics that offer employee positions for new graduates and I couldn’t find an independent contractor position that was a good fit at the time I was looking. In the end, I decided I didn’t have a choice but to start my own practice. As it turns out, I absolutely love being self-employed and running my own practice which has now grown into a multi-disciplinary clinic in just 5 years. It’s, of course, still stressful just as I expected, but it’s the kind of stress you (mostly) enjoy.

I started out in a small room sublet within another clinic, eventually moved into a larger room and took over a lease for a 300 sqft space and eventually which I initially shared with another acupuncturist. After the landlord there decided not to renew my lease (which I saw coming when he only renewed for a single year *red flag*), I found a wonderful new clinic space, closer to home and my family and required a build out. I don’t think I would have done anything differently as each transition showed growth and made sense for the space I was in.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up on the small Caribbean island of Barbados. There, my parents had an alternative wellness clinic that I practically grew up with, so I’ve seen first hand how more natural holistic medicine can be so helpful for people. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do in the wellness field so I decided to go to allopathic medical school and figure it out from there. I thought it would be good to have insight into that side of the medical field, because of course there’s like this great divide of allopathic/conventional/Western medicine vs everything else. And while it was a tough route to go it was one I don’t regret taking. I had my fair share of rough experiences and great experiences, and a great deal of interactions of doctors of all schools of thought. It was in my clinical years of medical school and as a working doctor in hospital medicine that I developed a passion for treating people with chronic illnesses because they are so poorly managed and too often dismissed. So, I knew that I wanted to pursue a type of medicine that truly looked at an individual and treated that individual in a very holistic way – I found that in East Asian Medicine.

Now, I have a busy acupuncture practice in Tigard, OR in which I see exactly those who have lost or have come close to losing things that they loved to their chronic illness (hobbies, activities and even livelihoods), and instead get to keep those things! My clinic now offers acupuncture & herbal medicine, hyperbaric oxygen therapy to support patients in their health journey along with craniosacral therapy, massage therapy and vibroacoustic therapy. My vision is to build a clinic that can continue to support those with chronic illnesses, regardless of where they are in that journey.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up in a natural health clinic in a small island meant that as a family, we had to maintain a certain appearance of being healthy with no faults. There was no eating fast food, or picking up snacks or too many sweets while grocery shopping in case we ran into a client, or we had to hide being sick as much as possible, that kind of thing. To this day, my mom still carries this way of thinking. Since starting my practice, I have had to unlearn this way of thinking and remind myself that it’s okay to also be human. It’s okay to catch a cold and get sick once in awhile. It doesn’t matter what my weight or size is as a provider – I can look healthy at any weight and any size (this one took a long time to overcome as someone who is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant). Furthermore, it’s okay to be vulnerable, honest and open with patients (to an appropriate extent) if you have a medical issue yourself. I’ve found that it builds so much trust and strengthen the relationships I have with patients because they know you’ve been in their shoes too.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I honestly wouldn’t do a single thing differently! I would take the same steps again. My experiences in medical school and being a hospital doctor for a brief time are invaluable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ikigaiwellnesspdx.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ikigaiwellnesspdx
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ikigaiwellnesspdx

Image Credits

Andrea Morris of Apis Photography