Practicing Acupuncture at Festivals!

I’m inspired to write about practicing acupuncture at summer festivals as I’ve had so much great feedback that I feel I must be doing something worthy of being in print!

Since the 90’s I’ve had many fantastic experiences being treated in the healing areas of festivals such as Glastonbury. Shiatsu, Cranio-sacral, Reflexology, Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Shamanic journeying, Homeopathy, the list is endless. More than that though, it was also like stumbling upon an Aladdin’s cave of personal growth, an endless sea of interest and potential to learn and experience for someone like me. They’re also pretty great for someone who may just be curious, being set close to nature with beautiful specially designed gardens and rich nurturing ambiances.

By 2005, and whilst studying at CTA, I had sufficiently developed some of my own healing skills enough to be accredited and insured to do Energy Work, primarily just using my hands, and took the plunge myself and booked in to work at Buddhafield, a smallish festival of about 4000 people, but with a beautiful healing garden of about 60 therapists, and I had a great time.

By 2008, having now been qualified for about a year, and I couldn’t help but find myself thinking about wanting to practice the skills I had put so much effort into developing on the course, and which feel inherent to me, into practice at a festival. Although the healing area’s had long been a source of inspiration to me, in more recent years, I’d find myself wandering through them, thinking less about what I could get from them, and more about how much I feel I’d have to offer them! My natural inclination, instinct, was to feel to contribute in that environment so wandering through them without being set-up to practice myself I’d feel like a finely trained musician on stage with a band and being told I couldn’t play!

So I decided to go for it. I had seen Acupuncturists practicing at festivals, before, so I knew it could be done. With Health and Safety considerations utmost, I contacted the BAcC then the local EHO, arranged an on-site visit for me, and much to my delight, they were suitably impressed and it was all go!

To mention here, I have every sanitary measure I imagine you would ever have in your practice and probably a few more on top. Portable sink, swabs, handgels, gloves, anti-bac wipes, anti-bac sprays, bio-hazard bags(!) and a mop and bucket ready to roll. Patient notes and sharps can be locked away at night in a case then a secure lock up. And how many other practitioners put the interior of their workspace through a washing machine?!
(I filmed my set up from a practitioners perspective, with narrative at a recent festival which you can find at www.youtube/richardbrookacu.com)

Since, I’ve continued good feedback from every EHO who’s visited, not to mention other therapists, healing field coordinators and patients who’ve included Acupuncturists and a GP! Some local authorities do ask you register, including the fee, however most waive it or charge a nominal fee instead.

So how does it work at the Festival? You have an appointment board and information outside your space, people just come along, put their name down and there you go! Some festivals payment is on a donation, or suggested donation basis, or there’s a set rate agreed between practitioners beforehand.

As a recent graduate (2007) it’s been fantastic for me. I attended 4 festivals last year, 3 this year, where I’ve seen approx 20 people each time, about 5 or 6 per day.
As a CTA graduate, I’ve found it very useful in developing my CF skills, continually seeing new patients my senses have to be sharp, and I find seeing them in succession close together allows me to keep a greater sense of perspective of the Elements. This contrasts to my regular fledgling practice where I can find myself endlessly ruminating over the CF of the one new patient I’ve acquired all week!

Obviously of course, only having an hour or so with each person, in a one-off situation also forces me to think on my feet, as well as sharpen up my practical skills, (It used to take me forever to do an A.E Drain, now I’m right on it!) And it’s just precious time with patients. I can see as many new patients at a festival as I can in weeks or months in these early days of my own practice. You generally also get the opportunity, if you would like to, to hold a workshop or talk during the festival, of which I did my first this year, which was great experience.

And the dynamics of treating in a one-off situation? I guess there are pro’s and cons, but my opinion is that just because I’m not doing a series of treatments doesn’t mean it will detract from what can be a very powerful and healing one-off treatment in itself! I know from personal experience the effects of a one-off healing experience can reverberate for a long, long time, and importantly, prompt further growth and exploration.

I’m also minded there are lots of ways to practice. I recall one practitioner recounting his experiences practicing in Bosnia and how powerful he found it could be just doing an A.E drain and Source Points. Or my favourite anecdote about the practitioner in China who had massive queues and a fine reputation who only treated KI3, on every patient! So I realise that thinking outside the box isn’t just allowed, it’s often necessary!

And arguably, the healing energy patients are experiencing doesn’t depend on me as the Source, I’m more just the vehicle at the time. (Although that notion is probably a whole other article!)

Also, especially given the lineage of acupuncture I’ve been taught, and perhaps most importantly it resonates with me that what’s most essential is whether the Spirit’s are in alignment and smiling on you! Which I do mean in a serious sense, because the way the great mystery or Dao can work is often of course beyond our understanding, but given the right circumstances, fantastic things can happen in that one-off treatment. It’s also important to remember that no-one is being mis-guided, the patient knows it’s a one-off treatment, so comes with a mind set accordingly, and therefore with the belief that something can happen in that one-off treatment, which is all important for the bodies own self-healing mechanism to also kick in.

Practically, patients being more relaxed and having more time after treatment to integrate is beneficial. I also think the extra time and space can allow a patient to consciously engage more deeply during treatment itself, and perhaps to absorb, assimilate and balance qi more deeply than when they’re often dashing off back to work or busy home life. I think the Body, Mind, Spirit can self regulate what ‘dose’ from a treatment it can handle!

Every patient takes away my details so can contact me with any questions, and obviously I’m on site for any immediate queries. I offer to source local acupuncturists to them, or recommend if I know any in their area. I often give details for ACMAC (formerly Affordable Acupuncture) as I support making Acupuncture as accessible and affordable as possible and every option that enables patients to return. Of those I treat, the majority are first timers. I hear so often ‘I’ve always wanted to try acupuncture!’

And the setting? I like to think I’m perhaps tuning back into the essence of what acupuncture, or even the original barefoot doctors may have been all about, or getting as close to it as possible in this day and age. Practicing in an accessible way within a natural setting, where people can spontaneously follow what they are drawn towards. As well as those who book, often I’ve met people I later treat from just walking around and striking up conversations. I also find it special that often, particularly at smaller festivals, you will see your ‘patients’ again later out and about which has never been a problem to me, after all we are all human! And perhaps when they see me at a Yoga workshop struggling to fit into a pose that they may find easy, or I see them cooking the most fantastic food, or singing a beautiful song it can just remind them (and me) that we are all born with our different gifts, and whatever theirs are, they are as special as how I feel about my practice.

And you get to see first hand what affect treatment may have had. One of the nicest things a patient has ever said to me was on finding a musician playing at an open mic night, with a huge grin, and on seeing me he called out that he probably wouldn’t be there if he hadn’t seen me and how much better he felt!

I’ve also bumped into patients again at subsequent festivals, or socially, or email me or know a mutual friend, and again have received really Heart warming feedback.

The collective healing energy some of these events create also make them a great place to practice, at Buddhafield, the event is virtually drug and alcohol free and you practice in a field of 60 healers, next to huge Yoga and meditation domes, with great workshops like Ecstatic dance and Chi Kung going on around the site and Organic food on offer, the energy is just pristine! Also how great it is to integrate these other wellbeing practices into the schedule of your own practice day! Unfortunately you cannot practice at Glastonbury nowadays which is a shame, as their healing garden is great, but apparently the organisers (not the local authority) won’t allow it!

And the future? At the moment just doing a handful of festivals each summer is great for me, but I do often look at the way the Travelling Homeopaths Collective work and think how great it could be if there was an acupuncture equivalent. They take the same mobile structure to various different events, and qualified Homeopaths volunteer to man it at each event, so each time there may be a different crew.

An added bonus for those they treat is their motivation is not for profit and for the further promotion of homeopathy, so the treatments are administered for a donation, which is very low cost. I’ve also cast an eye from time to time at the Medical Herbalist I often see at festivals and the mobile caravan he works from. I’m not advocating here practicing from a caravan (unless of course it was up to standard!) I just value the freedom he has to practice his trade.

So I’m not sure of the logistical constraints of either of the above possibilities regards Acupuncture practice, but I’m not naïve enough to think that just because the various authorities and red tape involved would likely make it a difficult process, doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be an effective way of working and practising this amazing therapy!

When I have a bit more disposable income, I’d also like to upgrade my working space, to a nice big bell tent or enclosed marquee style structure.

I feel acupuncture has a place at these events. Firstly, although I understand the need for the greater degree of regulation, Acupuncture is in essence a Natural Creative Healing Art like the other therapies and has a place alongside them. Not least as this also promotes the perspective that it can be as accessible and familiar as the other therapies out there.

Secondly, it’s tremendous that Acupuncture is now considered being so well regulated and researched that it has the capacity to be part of the NHS and considered in people’s minds alongside conventional medicines. But these events are also essentially a showcase and introduction to the ancient healing arts which are designed and gifted to us to keep us healthy, well maintained and in tune with nature in the first place. And that's also got to be worth promoting!!