An 11 minute Video Interview with on of our students of Traditional Chinese Medicine at CSTCM
To learn how to become a student at CSTCM to learn Acupuncture and/or Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) please visit our Admissions Overview page or call us at 303.329.6355.
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Q: What brought you to CSTCM?
A: So I was I was looking at CSTCM and another school up in Boulder for schools to transfer to from San Diego and I really liked the community feel that I had when I walked into CSTCM.
Yeah, everyone just kind of seems like a little family here and that was really different from the school that I transferred from where it was a much more the setting was more clinical and it no one everyone was kind of on their own mission. Here it feels like everybody’s working together and it’s really supportive so, yeah I had a good vibe when I walked in.
Q: Where are you in the program?
A: I’m all over the place because I transferred. I think I’m somewhere between six and seven so I have about a year left I think. Yeah, TCM all the way yeah um I feel like I feel like you have to learn the herbal well I think you get a lot more experience and exposure to D&E; when you do the TCM program because you’re forced to go over everything like a second time with learning the herbs and the formulas, and yeah I just I feel like something’s missing if you don’t do both.
That’s just my personal opinion. I’ve heard other people say the complete opposite like no they’re completely separate but to me it felt felt incomplete without herbs. I love herbs. It’s fun and challenging.
Q: What has your experience been with faculty, staff and administration?
A: Really great, um that was a huge a huge part of me transferring, it was kind of like allowing it to take a natural process to where if I had to force it I wasn’t gonna do it. So I started the process with contacting the administration here Chris and the deans and just trying to see if it was even an option to transfer and they they were so accommodating and they helped me with getting all the transfer credits that I could which was huge – you know you’re paying a lot of money to go to school to learn Traditional Chinese Medicine, and it’s a lot of time so they’re really great with it I got I think almost everything that I needed transferred over, and yeah they really allowed me to come into the program and take classes from different trimesters so that I was able to have a full schedule while I was here, and still be fully immersed into the program. Yeah it was great.
Q: What do you like best about CSTCM?
A: I like I like the small community. It feels like a family which was huge because I was transferring from a state that I didn’t know anyone here. I knew one person – I knew my boyfriend and so coming here and being a part of a program where it didn’t feel competitive with each other and it truly feels supportive. This is my first term in the clinic and my partner is amazing. I love her and that’s awesome not feeling intimidated by everyone else, and yeah it doesn’t feel like a competition – it feels like a very supportive community.
I also really like the building. things in San Diego don’t look like this. It’s so cool in here. I love it.
Yeah it’s homey and comfortable, yeah I really like that it smells good – it smells like Moxa.
Oh, wait one more thing I love the Herbal Pharmacy. That’s so cool having access to all of those different lines of products is unbelievable. At my old school we just had granules which is awesome and then raw herbs but so many people are even like I can’t take those when it comes to the granules so so having access to all the different patents is pretty phenomenal and because they’re cheaper.
People like that so yeah, it’s kind of the world we live in where it’s easier to pop a pill than boil herbs every day. Yeah so I love access to that. It’s fun it’s easy to learn from.
Q: What do you like about the location of our school?
A: Um so I live I live a mile and a half away which is great it’s really convenient.
Colfax is an eclectic mix but I love it and I think that I don’t know – I feel good here. I think any walk of life can like find a find a niche here and like feel good yeah it’s a welcoming place. Yeah I like this area yeah – it’s fun in that you are only 20 minutes from the mountains – Boom done.
I love it I mean I I get I go into the mountains every weekend because it’s convenient. It’s easy but then like I’m still young so I like having a life, and being down here it’s fun it’s a good mix.
Q: Have you been to any of our events such as the Chinese New Year Celebration, bowling or our barbecues?
A: No, I missed the Chinese New Year celebration but there’s a barbecue in the summer and I honestly like two weeks ago I said to my boyfriend I was like we’re going to that I need to be more involved, so he was like okay so yes.
Another thing that I love about this school is the sundeck upstairs – that’s incredible. I love it you have like the nice hum of the traffic but you like full sunlight all day – it’s beautiful. Yeah good views ah the views.
Q: Are you working while you are attending school?
A: I’m a Massage Therapist so yes, but I work for myself. It’s super flexible so right when I started the program in San Diego I had the opportunity to like work under an Acupuncturist out there and I asked her what she would have done differently if she could go back in time and go back to Acupuncture school to learn Acupuncture and she said I would have gotten my I would have gotten licensed to massage because A: It goes great with acupuncture and B: It’s a way to kind of help keep yourself financially afloat while you’re in school. Then when you first get out of school and you’re either trying to start your own practice or find a job or waiting that lag time sometimes with getting licensed and it’s also a good way to kind of get patience and then maybe transition them over to being your acupuncture clients eventually so I did that and it’s been great.
I mean the more bodies you can get your hands on and get experience with the better practitioner you’re gonna be.
I think that I can tell a difference between somebody who does massage when they’re draping their acupuncture post rinse or even trying to manipulate their bodies on the tables to get them in certain positions – you just get more comfortable with touching people and not making it weird or uncomfortable for anyone, so yeah that’s been great.
Q: How do you find work/life/studying balance while attending school?
A: Um, balance. You think I’d be good at answering this because that’s like what the entire medicine is about right balance. Everything, but um I don’t know I don’t overthink it. I know what I need to study and I do it and I know and I need to take time for myself and I do it. I would never say that I don’t get stressed but I think that I I don’t know you just deal with it. You do it if you’re committed to learning this and you want to do it then you just do it.
You know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel you if you want to practice this medicine I think all of our instructors have told us you’re going to be studying for the rest of your life so you better learn to love it and get used to it.
I’ve learned to love it and just do it and do the things you love and then if you love studying and you love learning the medicine then that’s part of your balance.
It’s gonna feel good to do it it doesn’t have to be this huge burden in your life. You know I think that when you come to school they they want you to know that you need to be committed so they you know they really tell you like hey listen you’re gonna have to make some sacrifices this takes a lot of time and it does but it’s it’s fun I don’t know you know you’re learning a trade that you’re hopefully gonna be doing for the rest of your life.
It doesn’t have to be so burdensome and if it is and get out -I don’t want you to be my practitioner. I don’t.
Yeah. tests are stressful but I don’t know.
Find time to do what you love. Study and don’t get behind in studying that’s the first thing they’ll drive you insane.
Q: Would you recommend this school to anyone wanting to Learn Traditional Chinese Medicine or Acupuncture?
Yeah, I um absolutely yes let me think of something with more context.
Yeah I’d recommend it, I think it’s a great school it’s a great location if you want to be near the mountains. But you also want sort of like an urban feel to your life.
The school is beautiful I think has really great faculty staff and administration. I haven’t met anybody I don’t like yet and I mean that genuinely.
Everyone’s been really really welcoming. I’m I didn’t come in with you know ten other new students where we all get to form an opinion together. It’s just me. I came in I knew I had something to compare it to and every because I came from is a much bigger school and maybe has like more more people have heard of it even though no
one’s really heard of these schools. In general you’re not what but um I feel like everybody that asked me or that I told oh I transferred from another school.
Why’d you do that I’m like what do you mean why this school is it’s awesome. It’s right up there, and you know every school has its perks and its flaws and I’m sure we’ll all find something that we don’t love but it’s a great school.
I really like everybody here – the clinics awesome and you’re busy which is huge you’re getting a ton of experience and I genuinely feel like if I needed help with something or I was struggling with something whether it’s academic or not feeling comfortable in my surroundings here I could name like ten people I could go to and I’ve only been here for four months so that says something.
Maybe that’s just me.
Right I really do feel welcome which is cool.