Interview with Clara Cohen | The Golden Cabinet Podcast Episode #2

If you don't know Clara then get ready for high energy! I know this wonderful lady from way back when we competed for top grades in our TCM classes! She is a force of nature and has many pearls of wisdom to share when it comes to practice growth. After 1 hour and 20 minutes we had to stop, but I guarantee she will be back as there was so much more that she is passionate about sharing! Be sure to check out her website below. ~ Spence Pentland

Email
[email protected]

Website
http://www.acuproacademy.com

Professional Profile
Bachelor in Science (France 1989)
Registered Acupuncturist with CTCMA in BC since 2004, Doctorate Diploma of Traditional Chinese Medicine (DTCM) from ICTCMV

Professional Achievements
Founder & owner of Healing Cedar Wellness, managing 14 staff including a Naturopathic Doctor, 6 Massage Therapists, an Acupuncturist, 2 counsellors and 4 assistants.
Speaker for the 2011 & 2013 BCNA conference: TCM and Fertility, TCM for Pregnancy.
Speaker for the BINM 2012 & 2016 Symposium: TCM and cancer treatments, TCM for Pain Management.
Speaker for the 2015 COMS: using the 5 Element Theory to grow a thriving practice.
Awards: Voted Favourite Acupuncturist in the Tri-Cities 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017
Healing Cedar received "Best Customer Service" award from the city of Port Moody in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017

Professional Experience
- Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine: Professor & Chair of the TCM department since 2009. Teaching TCM Foundation & Diagnosis, Acupuncture theory, point locations & functions, Acupuncture techniques and Food Cures.
- International College of TCM of Vancouver: Professor from 2009 to 2012, teaching the following: TCM foundation, TCM and psychology, TCM gynecology, TCM herbal Formulae, Herbal license exam preparation course.
- Founder, creator & owner of AcuPro Academy: online platform for acupuncture students and professionals, offering free and premium TCM resources, resources and continuing education.

Transcription (see full transcription at https://thegoldencabinet.ca/acupuncture-patient-experience-importance-grit/)

Interview with Clara Cohen
29/11/2017

Dr. Pentland: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Golden Cabinet podcast. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with the lovely Clara Cohen. I'm excited about this because we go way back, and I know you have so much energy and so much to offer in terms of just even speaking and teaching on the medicine as well as the business side of things, so we'll get into that. But just a little bit of housekeeping, first, if you haven't already done so, go to our YouTube channel, subscribe there, leave comments. This will be posted also on our iTunes podcast and on the goldencabinet.ca website. And yeah, leave comments and interact because we'd love to get your feedback as well, and maybe Clara would even jump in and answer a few things there. But without further ado, welcome, Clara.

Clara: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here with you. Like you said, we go way back. We went to school together!

Dr. Pentland: Now that we've got that formality stuff out of the way, we can just chat. Like you were saying, the idea of this podcast, to start this podcast is simply to help as much as we can with whatever we can primarily from our practice building standpoint, but as well as any other little pearls or things that might be in a Golden Cabinet that could help. Because I know I said it, I say it all the time, you teach and you've seen so many generations, and I just think that acupuncture industry attracts such a great group of folk. It’s just such a pleasure. We always learned throughout our education to nurse deficiencies. I think the practice growth business, that side of things is a place where our industry needs to take some tonics, and that is kind of what this is for. Why don't you give a little bit of rundown, I know Boucher and ICTCM has been your teaching platforms, you've created acuproacademy.com, which is a great resource for learning the medicine mostly and I think also some business tips of yours, because you have a clinic called Healing Cedar in Vancouver, or close by, that has been there for quite some time. You've been practicing since 2004. I know you're an acupuncturist, you've got a team of 14, so, I know you've got some HR tips and tricks. I'm sure you spoke at cons. I know you did a talk about using five elements as a way of framing a way to approach practice growth, which is really interesting, and I would love you to talk about that if you can remember that time. And, of course, I’d just love to hear a little bit about your practice as well, but could you expand a little bit on your story so everyone gets a good sense of who you are.

Clara: Oh, my goodness, how much time do we have?