Why Colleagues Matter
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
I am blessed because every day when I wake up and think about going to work I feel happy about it. Yes, that is what I said... HAPPY. There are many reasons for this. One is the fact that I happen to have wonderful patients who enrich my life, humble me and teach me as much about healing as I hope I can teach to them. This, in itself is a reason to grin with delight as you get out of bed and go to work. But there is more. Second, I really, really love what I do. I have never for one moment since I started on this path had any doubt that this is absolutely the thing I am supposed to be doing. That really helps you get up in the morning (and I am not a morning person so I need all the help I can get). But the other reason, and one that is so rare and wonderful, is the other healers I have the privilege of working with. My colleagues. My peeps. My soul family.
I have the pleasure of working in a sweet healing centre in downtown Sarasota, Florida. For those of you who don't know Sarasota, it is a lovely place on the ocean, with world class beaches and full of spiritual people, yoga studios, acupuncture clinics, Buddhist meditation centres and metaphysical churches. It is sort of like the Shangri-La of Florida. I am amazed at the wonderful community of spiritual people, healers and other awesome human beings that I know here. Not an evening goes by when there isn't a kirtan, concert, meditation or documentary film happening to delight you. This is the place I get to work and live.
The centre where I practice is a very lovely space, that always smells of incense, is smashed with plants and anyone is always welcome to stop by the tea room in the back for tea and a chat. It is warm, inviting and friendly. We have a sandwich board outside which boasts different quotes every day to uplift the spirits of those walking by. We have an excellent relationship with our neighbours which consist of a tattoo shop (which is dangerous as we are all lovers of the ink), a catering company (where we often grab food throughout the day) and a sweet French restaurant and cafe where we are all on a first name basis with the owners and staff, who regularly bring over chocolate croissants which we never, ever refuse. Have you ever had a real French chocolate croissant? They are ridiculous.
One of the best things about arriving at work every day is that I get to work with two of the best healers and human beings I know. They are my colleagues. Now, I have worked in a LOT of clinics in my life, with a lot of different medical people, Western doctors, healers, you name it, which is why I know how lucky I am to have these two to work with. It is like the culmination of 10 years of working to get to the people you are meant to work with because everything is so harmonious. There is no competition. There is no jealousy. There is only respect and love for each other. Respect in each other's talents, and our unique abilities to help our patients.
This lovely image from GPyoga on Etsy.com
One is a massage therapist (who gives the best massages I have ever had in my life), a yoga instructor (whose class I have been enthusiastically attending since I arrived here) and reiki healer (who consistently blows me away with the things she sees without me having to say a word). She does each with expert skill and many years of experience. Most work a lifetime to master one of these complicated disciplines, she has mastered all three. She is going to kill me when she reads this. ;)
The other is also a massage therapist, with a completely different style and equal skill. He is also a martial artist (Aikido), meditator and medium (oh my!). He has lived in the spiritual world his entire life, and has been teaching martial arts and spiritualism and meditation for many, many years. I am constantly humbled by his wisdom and the selfless way he shares it with us. These are the people I get to work with every day.
The wonderful thing is that we all vibrate at the same frequency. We all like each other. We respect each other. We treat each other. We refer patients to each other. We go to each other's houses for dinner and hang out together on days off. We are friends. Family.
I always say that they are my health care. I get treatments from each of them as often as possible. Once a week if possible. I am a believer in preventative medicine, so I, and they need to make sure that we stay healthy so that we can be there for our patients. We treat each others families and friends. We take care of each other. Our health and well being is each others concern.
Once a month we do reiki share where anyone can come and everyone gives and also gets reiki. These are wonderful for us and for the community. Twice a month we have meditation, where my colleague teaches meditation techniques and we learn about spiritualism. Once a month we have a philosophy class where my other colleague, who started the path that eventually led to yoga with philosophy, leads the discussion. All of these practices build up a powerful energy in the clinic that helps build us up and floods the place with healing energy that washes over everyone who visits.
The cohesive nature of my colleagues and I is palpable and can be felt by everyone who comes into the clinic. It is calm, nurturing and most of all... healing to all who enter there. And that is because, we try to create that environment. Thankfully, it has happened organically because we are all in harmony with one another and have the same goals. This helps our patients heal and is a wonderful healing environment to spend my days in.
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Why Colleagues Matter : Chinese Medicine Living
How My Curse Became My Gift.
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
I was a sensitive child. I felt things deeply. But when you are little you don’t understand this about yourself.
I always found it hard to be in a room with a lot of people. I could FEEL what everyone in the room was feeling. It was overwhelming. Because of this, I spent a lot of time by myself. This wasn’t the only reason. I grew up an only child, and we moved a lot. I was good at being by myself. I could spend hours playing by myself, I lived in my imagination. The external world was intense and overwhelming for me, sounds always seemed too loud, smells too strong. When it came time for me to go to school, the experience was terrifying. I was painfully shy and had a hard time in crowded classrooms full of excited children. I begged my parents to let me stay home, but alas, I could not. I had to go to school. These reactions prompted some concern for my parents. I think this is why my father took it upon himself to try to “toughen me up”, which for most children would have been fine, enjoyable bonding perhaps, but for me bordered on brutality. They were worried about me and how I was going to survive in the cruel, harsh world.
It was at this point that I started to realize that perhaps something was wrong with me, or that I was different in some negative way. I started to notice my parents reaction to my sensitivity to things even though I didn’t know it as sensitivity then. Whenever animals got hurt, I would cry. I still can’t watch humane society commercials. I worried about the environment. I worried about my parents dying and where they were going when they did. I worried a LOT.
But, there were many things that were my solace from the worries of the world. I felt deeply connected to animals, especially my pets. I could feel what they were feeling and always knew what they needed. I loved being outside in nature and the gentle hum that came from the plants and the environment was comforting to me. I spent hours outside playing, building, walking. I was a daydreamer. I still am. I thought up entire worlds, people and complex scenarios where I would spend time in my imagination. This is what made me happy as a child, I had a rich inner life, but the real world and all its darkness, violence and death worried me deeply.
I think that my parents were really worried about how I was going to make it. Of course, they loved me and thought I was wonderful, but I suspect they wondered how I would deal with the harsh realities of life. I had heard them tell people what a “sensitive” child they had, and this was always accompanied by an expression of concern and received with a knowing look of sympathy. Being a sensitive kid was tough. My best friend's mother died suddenly in her sleep one night when we were 11 and I cried for a week because I was so sad for her and terrified my parents were next. When my pets died I was beside myself and couldn’t function. When I saw injustice or cruelty, I became angry and depressed that people couldn’t be more kind to each other. I worried about the state of the planet and the people on it. I still do.
Making it through high school was a miracle. As a shy, awkward teenager, high school is a special kind of hell. Thankfully, I went to an art high school and found a lovely group of people just like me, and we all got through it together.
Much later when I had a little more life experience and some more tools at my disposal I figured out a way to explain the way I was and why I was so easily overwhelmed by certain situations and felt everything so deeply. I realized that the bandwidth in which I take in stimulus is waaaaaaaay bigger than it is for a normal person - so, for most people parties with lots of people are fun and a place to relax and enjoy themselves, but for me, they are overwhelming, over stimulating and exhausting. For some people seeing an animal being hurt is sad but manageable, but for me, it is devastating and will haunt me for years.
Years later when I was in school learning Chinese medicine something amazing happened. In those years, you are learning to heal by first healing yourself, and it is an intense process that can take you to unexpected places. In second year we began our clinical hours in the student clinic treating patients. I began to realize that I was easily able to tell why someone wasn’t feeling well and what they needed. I could organize my questions around what I felt from them instead of following a protocol or instructions. Instead of feeling three levels of the pulse, I could feel eleven. I could tell within a few minutes when someone in the clinic was sad, or depressed or afraid and that this was the reason they weren’t well, often without ever speaking to them. I knew when holding a patient’s hand would do more than sticking them with needles. I knew when listening was far more important to someone's recovery than herbs or dietary therapy. I knew the problem and the reasons for it, even if the person's words were telling us something completely different. It was incredible, I knew what people needed without even trying.
It was while I was in school that I changed the way I felt about myself. Instead of being someone who had a weakness that needed to be overcome, I became someone with a gift. I just hadn’t ever known how to use it before. This thing I had, it turned out, made me very capable of helping people feel better. Figuring out why they weren’t feeling well and what to do about it. This sensitivity allowed me to feel on many deep levels and ascertain the root of the problem and how to correct it.
Now, after being in practice for many years, I have been able to hone my sensitivity which allows me to get to the root of a patient’s problem quickly and efficiently. I use what I “feel” from them as much as listening to the words they are telling me to diagnose and treat them. Because of this, I am able to resolve their problems because I know what caused them and how to best approach their treatment. What I love about Chinese medicine is that it is about the person you are treating, not the disease. The way they feel is just as important as what is happening inside their bodies, and being sensitive is the best tool I have to be able to help people rebalance and get well.
I am so grateful that I was able to find a profession that allowed me to realize that this thing that had always made life more difficult, actually made me a better healer. Accepting that being sensitive was not in fact a curse, but something incredibly valuable was very healing on many levels. The whole experience made me realize something else… that there are no such thing as curses, there are only gifts.
I urge you to find yours, and go out and use it to change the world.
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How my curse became my gift | Chinese Medicine Living