We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Peacock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2019 I was working as a Clinic Director for a large acupuncture practice with 3 locations in different neighborhoods around New York City. It was a dream job in many ways. I had a wonderful team. I had supportive leadership. I had a decent salary. I felt very lucky to even be working in an industry with such a high attrition rate.

While I was happy and fulfilled for the most part, there was still something pulling at my heart that I couldn’t ignore. Many of the people in my community couldn’t afford the treatments that I and my team were providing. I was seeing a lot of well resourced executives but barely any artists, queer people, service industry workers, laborers, or people of color. There were plenty of community acupuncture clinics in the city that provided affordable treatments but most of them were staffed by new acupuncturists who would work in these clinics for a year or two before they moved on to private practice and higher fees. There wasn’t a low cost clinic staffed entirely by experienced acupuncturists. That’s when I started to dream about such place with my future business partner, Stephanie Dixon.

Stephanie and I spent about a year talking, planning, and dreaming about a collective clinic that was sustainable for both patients and providers. A place where practitioners could make a living while also providing accessible treatments to populations in New York City that otherwise might not be able to afford experienced acupuncture care. We came up with the concept of a tranquil healing space with beautiful plants and thriving aquariums. A practice where we could all make a living wage as independent providers while pooling resources to make sure our services could be accessed by the people in our city who contributed so much to it’s culture.

We began looking at spaces. We thought we had found the perfect space in early March of 2020. In fact, we had nearly signed a lease but paused to see what was going to happen with this novel virus that had begun circulating. By mid March it was clear that the COVID-19 virus was going to throw a wrench in our plans. We shelved the idea and hunkered down with the rest of the city.

We resumed the search for a space in June, 2020 just as the real estate industry was opening up again. We quickly found the most perfect lovely storefront in our home neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens. We were nervous about starting a new business in the first leg of a global pandemic that was raging unchecked in the absence of a vaccine. It was possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, or at least the most risky from a business perspective. The economy was tanking, people were getting sick, political movements were brewing and it became clear that we were in for a bumpy couple of years. The thing that we kept circling back to was that this was actually the time that we could be the most useful. Marginalized communities had trouble accessing care before the pandemic and it was likely to get worse during the pandemic. We decided to forge ahead and follow through with our pre-pandemic plan during the first year of COVID.

The rest, as they say, is history. We are now in our fourth year at The Rooted Refuge. We’ve created a refuge for the community and a place for all of us to heal, provider and patient alike. We’ve treated thousands and thousands of patients with acupuncture and Chinese herbs. We’ve implemented programs and fundraisers to direct resources into community care. Well resourced patients often contribute more so that other patients with fewer resources can contribute less. This is an important piece because we had a hunch that if we provided the opportunity for people to show up for one another, then they would. I’m especially proud to say that our little acupuncture collective is one of the most experienced and most accessible acupuncture clinics in all of New York City.

Christopher , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine with a decade of clinical experience using east Asian medicine. Most of my patients come to me with internal medicine complaints. I deal with all kinds of imbalances and ailments in my practice but a big chunk of my work is hormone regulation and reproductive health. Like any acupuncturist, I also see a fair amount of musculoskeletal pain along with anxiety, insomnia etc.

I started my career in the medical field as a licensed massage therapist in my 20’s. By the time i got to my 30’s, I knew I wanted to pivot to a less physically intense career so I spent 5 years getting my masters degree and then doctorate degree in Chinese medicine.

Other than our level of experience, one thing that sets us apart at The Rooted Refuge is that we have a check-in / consult with every single treatment. Many similar clinics put patients right on the treatment table and have little (or no) talking. We believe that the best way to make people feel heard is to actually hear them. This brief intake allows us to review progress, make changes to the treatment, and incorporate new and secondary health issues.

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

What I’ve learned from working in a dozen acupuncture clinics in my life is that the most successful people strike a perfect balance between confidence and humility.

If you are overly confident, you seem egotistical. If you are overly humble, you seem incompetent.

Striking a balance between humility and confidence will help your patients trust that you know what you are doing, but it will also communicate that you are compassionate, curious, and open to bettering yourself.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I think this answer is different for everyone but I’ll speak from my personal experience. Right from the beginning, I’ve refused to do any major advertising for my practice at The Rooted Refuge.

My reason for this is based on my experience working in clinics that did do advertising. What I found is that patients would book and show up but since the connection wasn’t organic, it often wasn’t a good fit. People would come in because they googled “what is the best acupuncture in NYC?” instead of asking friends and family for a personal recommendation.

While it may have taken a little bit longer to build a thriving practice, we’ve always relied on word of mouth at The Rooted Refuge. What you end up with is a business full of people that have connections with the practice and with the community. We just sort of sat back and let our work and reputation “rumble through the underground”. That isn’t to say that advertising doesn’t work but we wanted to let our practice evolve and grow organically. In hindsight, I’m so glad we did.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therootedrefuge.com
• Instagram: @therootedrefuge