On Mentorship

On Apprenticeship While I was attending acupuncture school between 1991 and 1994, it was still possible to get licensed in New Mexico by studying with a mentor. If you logged the requisite number of hours of didactic study and clinic, you could sit for the licensing exam. I believe the mentor was required to have a minimum of 5 years experience. (A ridiculously brief amount of time.) Of course, the mentor could have much more than 5 years, as well. Shortly thereafter, only a degree from a certified acupuncture college became acceptable. I was fortunate during my school years to rent an apartment from a practitioner with about 20 years of experience. The apartment was behind his clinic, and so, when not in class, I was helping him in the clinic by scheduling appointments, changing sheets, rolling moxa, and preparing herbal formulas. At the same time, I was able to be present as he was treating patients, where I took notes on the patient’s problems and the treatment performed. Since my mentor practiced a Japanese style, I became introduced to Meridian Therapy. School, on the other hand, was strictly TCM, to prepare the students for the national exam, which was also mostly TCM at the time. I left after two years, when I graduated and started my own clinic. One must make a living as soon as possible after graduation, especially if one has debt or a family. Now I look back and wonder what kind of treatments I must have given my patients, fresh out of school. On the other hand, I know I would have been totally lost without having followed my mentor’s methods. TCM school did not prepare me to give treatments to real patients, and I wonder how fellow students fared, who did not have the opportunity that I did. That being said, the concept of Master/Apprentice in the United States brings up many interesting issues. In China, Japan, and elsewhere, there still exists multi-generational acupuncturists and an abundance of acupuncturists who have practiced for 30 years or more. Here in the U.S., I doubt that there are many second generation acupuncturists, or that there is a large number of 30 year plus practitioners. At the same time, how many of those are willing to take an apprentice? How many of us are fortunate enough to travel to China or Japan, and have the language skills, to study with a good teacher? Yet, even with these issues, it might be best if a novice practitioner could spend at least 2 years with an experienced teacher, right out of school. The time would allow for honing one’s skills and perceptions in diagnosis and treatment under the guidance of experience, before treating patients entirely on our own. And that brings up another interesting question: when should the apprentice leave his master and start accumulating experience on his/her own? How long does it take to stop mimicking your teacher and act with inner understanding and intuition? One can learn technique and method without necessarily acquiring insight. Insight, I believe, can only come from experience. The very thing we want most from our teacher is the ability to do what he does, and that is a product of his experience. We need to accumulate our own experience. Being human, as much is learned from our failures and from our successes. A mentor can bring us to a certain level faster than we might have arrived on our own, but at some point, our patients become our mentors and our teachers can take us no further. Submitted for your consideration.