Finding an Acupuncturist/TCM Practitioner When looking for an acupuncturist, many people simply look in the telephone directory under Acupuncture. Although this will work, you wouldn't want to base your choice of Acupuncturist/Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner just on proximity. There is no guarantee that the person you end up with is going to be effective. Some people look for a Chinese name, but of course this does not mean that the person was well-trained, or even trained at all. One of the most common ways to fnd a Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner is by word of mouth. Ask around to see if one of your friends or acquaintances has experience with one of the local practitioners. If they have had a good experience with someone, perhaps they will be someone who can help with your problem. However, you might want to check to see if the problem your friend had is the same one you want to have treated. If not, you don't really know if that practitioner has any skill in the area you want addressed. Also, your friend may have had a good experience, but that doesn't mean that you will have good results. Traditional Chinese Medicine has evolved over centuries of time, but there are regional variants, and research into the best approaches is just beginning. How do you know that the person you are dealing with is using techniques that are considered effective within the community of Chinese Medcicine Practitioners? Recently, British Columbia has created a College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners.and Acupuncturists, and other provinces are planning to follow suit. Checking to see if the Acupuncturist/Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner is registered with the BC College or your provincial College is helpful for a couple of reasons. First, it will tell you that the person has met generally accepted standards of training in the field. Second, it means that the pratitioner has not had serious complaints against them that would cause their registration to be withdrawn. Individuals using a particular TCM practitioner may have experience with one or maybe two people, but their experience is limited. If you can find out whether people who have more experience with a variety of practitioners refer to this person, that is likely your best measure of effectiveness. Some family physicians have experience with more than one practitioner, and they can be a good source. If insurance case managers refer to a particular person, this can be a very good indication that the person has been effective over time with a variety of people. You can obtain this information for free on the zappointments.com online appointment scheduling website. When you look for a listing of local Acupuncturists/Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners, click on the "number booked" link. This will tell you how many and what types of referrals a practitioner has had in the past. Finding an Acupuncturist/Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner is easy, but finding the right one for you is more difficult. You can find a local practitioner quickly by looking under your province and city on zappointments.com, but be sure to look at the "info about" link to see what the person says about her- or himself on their website, as well as looking at the "number booked" link to see what types of referrals they have had in the past. Practitioners who have had a large number of referrals through lawyers, insurance, police, military, or government agencies are probably doing a good job for these referring agencies. Finally, you can contact the practitioner by telephone or secure messaging system on the zappointments.com online appointment booking website. You can register for free on the website and them use the secure messaging system. If you do not register, the Acupuncturist/Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner will not be able to reply using the system. Do not use email, as it is not secure and the practitioner is not likely able to reply using email without violating confidentiality rules. Clients and Third Parties: Please feel free to contact zappointments.com to inquire about Acupuncture Traditional Chinese Medicine Counselling Physiotherapy Chiropractic Treatment Naturopathic treatment Occupational Therapy Medicolegal (IME) assessments Psychovocational assessments Rehabilitation programs Psychologist appointments

Marketing your TCM practice Having trouble marketing your Traditional Chinese Medicine practice? Try making contacts with family physicians. This is the first and best source of referrals for many Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners. Likewise, other professionals can be sources of clients. Psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dentists, lawyers, and multidisciplinary clinics can all be sources of referrals. Leave a stack of business cards or brochures with these people. They will likely pass these along to people asking about Traditional Chinese Medicine. Your business card or brochure should indicate very clearly the areas of practice and ways to contact you. You should discourage people from using email, as this is not secure and you could be violating ethical principles by using this method. Many practitioners are not aware that email is not private, and should probably be left off your business cards so that you do not violate ethical standards. Internet chat has similar problems. You can use a secure messaging service such as that available through zappointments.com. Also, the zappointments.com system allows clients and third party payors such as insurance case managers and lawyers to schedule appointments with you immediately, which can make the difference between getting the referral and having the client delay and possibly forget about your services. You likely have thought about using the Internet to market your Traditional Chinese Medicine services, and since you are looking at this site, you are certainly aware of the power and reach of this medium. Getting a website is an inexpensive way to market your services. If you are a zappointments.com subscriber, you can build a simple web page in minutes for free on the system. A more complex web site can be completed for a nominal fee. No matter where you get your website, it should contain all of the important contact information that you have on your brochures and business cards. Leave your email address off the website, though, otherwise you will be encouraging people to communicate using an insecure channel. Also, spammers can gather your email address using automated programs and start to send you large amounts of unwanted email, making it difficult to get to your important messages.

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