Clinic Reveal (Part 1)

For some reason unbeknownst to me, I still constantly meet people who know about my blog My Beautiful Adventures and know that I am a professional photographer, however they do not know that I practice Chinese Medicine. I find this so interesting, because to me those other careers are extremely important parts of my life, but first and foremost I am an Acupuncturist and for almost a decade I have had a Wellness Center named Healing Hands Acupuncture and Herbal Clinic. Its evolution over the years is quite a story!

In the beginning of my career as an Acupuncturist, I was young, naive, and thought opening up a clinic with my best friend was a smart move. We invested all of our savings and took out a small business loan on top of that. We built the clinic of our dreams in an amazing location from the ground up and it was a success. We even hired a feng shui master to help us with the construction. It felt like the best decision I had ever made, despite the fact that everyone in my life warned me that working with your best friend is not always wise. Then the recession hit and our patients started viewing Chinese Medicine as a luxury, not a necessity. There was a lot of stress and tension and since I was acutely focused on keeping our clinic alive, I did not see that my trusted business partner was actually not to be trusted at all. She had fallen in love with a man who brainwashed her into thinking that she would be better off on her own. Behind my back, she opened up another clinic on the other side of town and sent our hard-earned patients there. I eventually caught on and almost had to take her to court. It was a nightmare to say the least! I could not handle our huge clinic alone, thus I had to break the lease early and look for a smaller clinic in less than two weeks time; all while selling most of our furniture and calling every patient personally to let them know about the big change that was about to happen. I do not know how I survived that period in my life — but I did — and it made me a much more savvy and mature businesswoman.

As life would have it, I found the perfect place for my next clinic during those two very sleep-deprived weeks. It was a one room clinic inside of a large space shared with three other people. To go from managing six rooms to one room was a challenge at first. It meant many more hours in the clinic. However, now I was able to focus on one patient at a time, instead of multiple patients in multiple rooms. Every patient commented about how they loved that that they never felt rushed with me and that I always gave them my full attention. It was during that time, that I realized what a blessing it was what my ex-business partner had done to me. Of course, she broke my heart, but she made me a better healer and for that I will forever be grateful to her for that!

Three years later, I found myself in a similar situation as the last when the landlord announced she was not renewing our lease and only gave us two weeks notice. Again, I was faced with having to move my clinic to another space in such a short amount of time. Thankfully, since I had been through much worse before, this move was not as stressful. Once more, I found the perfect place and I have been working there ever since. Like my previous space, I am in a one room clinic inside of a large space shared with three other people.

Throughout my life, I have had some major ups and downs, however, as the saying goes, “when one door closes, another one even better opens up” could not be more true for me. Sure, there have been moments where I have questioned everything, but at the end of the day something amazing has always come from what I thought was a tragedy, especially in regards to my businesses. There has never been a time where I could not find a positive within a negative experience.

Being the Type A person that I am, I assumed that I would be working in my clinic until my water broke when I was pregnant with Joaquín. It never crossed my mind that I would have complications. Towards the end of my pregnancy, a friend messaged me about sharing my clinic while I was on maternity leave. Her offer was a godsend, because a week later I became ill and was put on official bedrest. She immediately took over my lease and all I had to do was focus on keeping my son inside of me for as long as possible and then taking care of him once he arrived.

There was never any question in my mind that whenever I chose to become a mom I would continue to work as well. Shockingly, I had no desire to return to work after having Joaquín. Every cell in my body told me to stay home with him. This threw me for a loop, as my world felt like it was being turned upside down. How could I let my beloved businesses go after everything I had been through with them? The answer was, no matter how badly I wanted to stay at home with Joaquín, I could not, for both mental health and financial reasons. What I could do though, was cut back my hours dramatically.

Thus, I started slowly back to work, while still sharing my clinic. I would work one day here, one day there. Then once a week and now twice a week. This is a dramatic change from seven days a week! This new schedule feels so right. What did not feel right over time was me still sharing a clinic. I needed my own space back and I needed to start from the beginning. So, I switched rooms inside of the same space in order to be on my own again. I was still using the same furniture and equipment that I had purchased with my ex-business partner all those years ago. It was finally time to have my ultimate Wellness Center where everything inside of it was handpicked and loved by me and free from any negative energy.

This is when I turned to Emma of Defined Designs to help me create the dream that I was envisioning in my head. She crafted the following vision board:

Once I had an idea of how I wanted my dream clinic to look like, it only took me one week to put it all together. Here is a sneak peek at the new and improved Healing Hands Acupuncture and Herbal Clinic:

If you are curious about Chinese Medicine and/or Healing Hands Acupuncture and Herbal Clinic and would like to learn more, please follow my Wellness Center on Facebook and Twitter for more information!

Andi Perullo de Ledesma

I am Andi Perullo de Ledesma, a Chinese Medicine Doctor and Travel Photojournalist in Charlotte, NC. I am also wife to Lucas and mother to Joaquín. Follow us as we explore life and the world one beautiful adventure at a time.

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