We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Cowley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.
Sarah, 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.
One of the most significant risks I’ve taken is opening my Chinese medicine practice immediately after finishing school. The reason the stakes were so high for me were because a) it was still in the immediate “post-pandemic” climate and b) because I decided to open my practice in a city where I truly only knew a few people, most of which were my classmates who were also students of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. I had only moved to Denver a few years prior specifically for school from a small town 6 hours away. So community and connections were far and few between. I honestly owe a huge thanks to my mentor for taking the risk in the first place. As I scrolled through posts online in search of hiring people she stated to me “You can do this, sublease my space a day a week and just see what happens”. Bless her honestly, because it was the push I needed to pursue my goals. Two years later, I am so proud of what has become of my space. I am no longer operating in someone else’s office on their days off, I have my very own treatment space in a collective with other women business owners running full time operations!
Sarah, 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 Sarah- I practice Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Denver Metro area. I embarked on my Chinese Medicine journey years before studying the medicine as a patient. I was goofing off with friends while camping and did, in all honesty one of the dumbest things I’ve probably ever done- which is attempt to pull myself up from a make shift pulley rope my friends and I were using to raise and lower camping gear from a decently large cliffside campsite. Of course the rope worked fine when it was utilized to pull the cooler with sandwiches and hot dogs inside, but under the weight of carrying me it snapped. So what I thought was a hilarious prank turned out to cause quite a significant spinal injury. Thanks to whoever it was looking out for me that day- my spinal chord did not suffer any trauma. Long story short, I was basically unable to perform any normal tasks without excruciating pain and significant loss of range of motion to my neck and mid back for days. So I decided to seek help and found an acupuncturist nearby and figured I was desperate and would try anything. After one appointment I could move again, the results were unimaginable! As I continued to return for treatments I noticed significant improvement in other aspects of life, my test anxiety for one. I was in! Cut to years later, I decided it was time I continued my education, and the first thing that came to mind was nursing school. My application was accepted, I was all set to go, when something came over me and I realized- Wait, no, I want to study Chinese medicine. The lightbulb moment was a very significant memory that I look back on with gratitude. I knew I wanted to help people with their health, but helping them from a perspective that I value and utilize in my own life felt so important. I knew both learning and sharing this medicine would be exactly how I wanted to help others maintain health. So after 4 and a half grueling years of Chinese Med school I came out the other side ready and excited! Currently I have several things that I do professionally with a Chinese medicine. The first and foremost is my private practice where I offer acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, cupping, gua sha, and moxabustion. My main specialties in private practice are auto-immune disorders and pain, which tend to go hand in hand. I also work at a non-profit adaptive gym where I get the opportunity to practice acupuncture with people with spinal chord injuries under the Colorado Spinal chord injury waiver. It’s a wonderful opportunity because the waiver is currently researching how preventative and alternative can help maintain and improve quality of life, reduce risk of health complications, and combat chronic pain. So we’re able to help individuals with care at no cost to them, as well help create a data base for research to eventually provide more funding and visibility in the future for all the benefits from Chinese medicine. Another important focus of mine for providing health care is the make it affordable for everyone, and the way I’m able to facilitate that is by offering community acupuncture. Once a month I participate in a gathering of multiple practitioners where we provide our services for low cost to members of the community that may not be able to afford care at full price. It’s an amazing space and I somehow leave feeling like I’ve gotten more out of it than I’ve given. It’s honestly wild to think that what started out as an idiotic prank with friends turned into this life!
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Compassion! Without a doubt. It would be nearly impossible to provide care for others without having compassion for what they’re going through. We spend a lot of time with people whose health concerns have been somewhat of a mystery to their western doctors. They’re fed up, tired, in pain, and truly just want their life back. Luckily in our profession we’re able to offer that gleam of hope, and answers they’ve been looking for due to the nature of what we do. We get to restore balance for people who have felt off for some time, and without compassion I don’t think this medicine would be as juicy.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
The most cliche answer of all times- not in a million years- I would go through the whole process and choose this path every time. I still wake up and ask myself “Is this my life?” “Wait, THIS is what I get to do today?” I’m beyond grateful for being in a career that requires perpetual learning, discipline, and connection.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://sc-acuwellness.com
- Instagram: sc_acu_wellness
- Facebook: Sarah Cowley Acupuncture and Wellness
- Other: TikTok @sc_acu_wellness
Image Credits
logo credit Robert Kerrigan, Some photos from Morgan Ramirez