Qi, the vital force which permeates everything, also links us with our surroundings and other people. What better way to enhance the flow of qi than by volunteering your time and skills as an acupuncture practitioner?
What is Volunteering?
In its literal sense, volunteering is sharing your time and skills to help others without expecting anything in return like a financial reward. You volunteer for a community health project or a nonprofit charity organisation to make a difference in the lives of other people.
Healthy volunteers from across the healthcare spectrum in Australia are a valuable resource, both inside and outside the country. Whether you run a medical practice or specialize in traditional medicine like acupuncture, you can significantly improve the health of your community by volunteering your time and services.
What Are the Benefits of Volunteering?
Volunteering your time and resources for a good cause will give you a renewed sense of wellbeing. You will get a feeling of inexplicable happiness to see how an act of goodness coming from the genuineness of your heart can make a massive improvement in the lives of other people. Apart from making your heart smile, the act of giving to others will improve the personal and professional areas of your life by leaps and bounds as you get to enjoy the following benefits:
- Meet new people and build strong relationships
- Enhance your social skills
- Improve your empathy
- Adopt new problem-solving skills
- Increase your self-esteem
- Meet potential clients and expand your network
Why Volunteer as an Acupuncturist?
The contribution of volunteers is key to helping charities and not-for-profit organisations achieve their vision of a more caring and cohesive society. Also, many charity organisations lack the resources to employ professionals with the wide range of skills their beneficiaries may require. Providing acupuncture treatments is a wonderful volunteer experience, as it allows you to work with healthcare practitioners from a variety of fields, ranging from dentists and oncologists to those practising family medicine and community health services, to herbalists and energy healers, in the treatment of different ailments.
As a certified acupuncturist, you know for a fact that the benefits of acupuncture go beyond treating physical conditions. As well as treating chronic pain and blood stagnation, acupuncture needles can reduce blood pressure, treat dental pain and nasal inflammatory disease, and address a variety of mental and emotional problems.
In addition to demonstrating the efficacy of acupuncture, conducting free acupuncture sessions provides an opportunity to educate the public about the principles of acupuncture and how it helps with pain relief, blood flow, and a host of other health conditions. While a 30-minute treatment session won't earn you $30, at least you get to demonstrate this important component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and show everyone that it's completely safe, painless and effective.
What Does it Take to Become a Volunteer?
There are many opportunities to volunteer at home or abroad as an acupuncturist. Depending on the organisation you're volunteering for, the people you could treat may range from the homeless and indigenous to asylum seekers, who have experienced trauma as a result of persecution in their country of origin, and even young single mothers living in refugee camps. Many of these people don't have the resources to access quality holistic care.
All organisations will require that you have appropriate qualifications, experience and first aid training. In exchange, you will be supported by the organisation and given training, briefing on the people that you'll be working with, as well as the appropriate security.
The Rewarding Experience You Can Get From Being a Volunteer
Volunteering allows you to bring your experience and skills to people who need it the most, and in return, you are rewarded with new life lessons and an insight into the lives of people from different walks of life. Additionally, adding your experience to your resume will make it more attractive to potential employers and clients.
Nothing beats the sense of fulfilment you can get out of providing quality holistic care to others who are either financially incapable or not knowledgeable of acupuncture. The goodness in what you do allows positive energy to flow freely within you and around you, hence improving your overall wellbeing in the process.
Originally published on Mar 10, 2021
