Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosalind Bullard.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Rosalind. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
As a child, I knew with certainty I wanted to be an artist. I enjoyed the creative outlet, pattern discovering and problem-solving of creating artwork. I went to college for painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. My painting has a major focus in biology and anatomy, and I have always been interested in health and medicine as well, particularly natural medicine.
My first career after college was teaching art and photography to children through a social work agency in RI for children at risk for school failure. The schools were in neighborhoods where most people had immigrated from Central America, South America, and Cape Verde and were struggling to find work and steady income here.
During this time, I became increasingly interested in nutrition and began receiving Acupuncture. I found the diets of the children to be very unhealthy. Lack of education and financial resources around nutrition were creating more behavioral problems than I had ever seen. This made teaching harder and made me feel like I wanted to do more to help educate people about their health and its impact on them and their children.
To teach that through simple changes we can make a huge impact on our lives. I began to work on my own path of healing and realized that studying and practicing Chinese medicine and nutritional healing would satisfy the same part of me that needs to understand patterns and creatively problem solve. It also fulfills that part of me that wants to work with people and help them on their own paths of wellness.
Now almost 20 years later after completing my studies and training at both New England School of Acupuncture and Pacific College of Oriental Medicine New York, I can see how the connection of all my interests lead to where I am now. I practiced Community Acupuncture in NYC before moving to Los Angeles almost six years ago at City Acupuncture New York.
The owner of the franchise, Rob Benhuri and I were friends in school and often spoke about making acupuncture more affordable to everyone. After school, he opened the first City Acupuncture, and I began working for him. It was the perfect way to build a practice while having my kids. I was busy and learning so much.
We moved to LA six years ago for a variety of reasons- more space, my sister is here, and of course the weather. I worked privately for a little while, but my passion for making acupuncture affordable is the driving force that was my desire to open my own City Acupuncture. Rob and I worked out the franchise details, and I opened the first City Acupuncture outside of New York.
Our clinic treats patients with various types of Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Functional Medicine, Nutrition and Massage. To get well and stay well requires consistency and when that is not affordable, we can’t maintain it. In these uncertain times, I feel as though providing people with affordable healthcare and helping them achieve their optimal wellness is my goal.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenges I have had throughout have been financial. From having to work less early on because I couldn’t afford the childcare, sacrificing family time so my husband and I could juggle the kids around his freelance/work and my patients and not pay childcare to having to get very creative to find the funds to open City Acupuncture.
I borrowed small amounts of money from a variety of places to be able to open the clinic and opened it on the cheap. There were times when we weren’t sure if we would have to move in with family due to the economy crash in 2008 in NY and after moving to LA when jobs didn’t work out initially. The day to day challenges of owning a business and being a full time working mom has also been a struggle.
City Acupuncture Silver Lake – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
City Acupuncture’s mission is to provide affordable acupuncture, massage, nutritional and herbal medicine at a price where people can come regularly so they can get well and stay well. The cost of healthcare keeps rising, and there is not enough emphasis on prevention of disease- our goal is to change that.
We treat a wide range of conditions from injury, to musculoskeletal issues, to digestive health, women’s health, fertility, emotional wellness and more. Each acupuncturist has their own style and treatment skill set, but we all can treat any conditions that we are presented with. I am most proud of the fact that people almost always have their issues improve or completely resolve when they come in and follow the treatment plan prescribed by their practitioner.
On a personal level I feel proud to be able to educate people about their health in all aspects- physical and mental, because in Chinese medicine its all connected so when the body heals it’s all aspects. I like to see people take charge of their health and affect change in their own lives. I feel proud to be a part of that.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I think making it to the year anniversary of opening City Acupuncture has been my proudest career moment. I could look back and think of all the patients we’d helped in just one year.
I realized that we were afloat and that we’d had so much positive feedback that at that point I thought although there are many challenges to owning a business I’d gotten through what I am hoping was the toughest part.
Pricing:
- $39 Introductory Acupuncture
- $69 Introductory Massage
- $55 One hour Acupuncture Session
- $59 Electro-Acupuncture
- $75 Nutritional Consultation
- $30 Herbal Consultation
- $69 Extended Session (includes second set of needles or adjunct therapy such as cupping)
Contact Info:
- Address: 2945 Rowena Ave Los Angeles, CA 90039
- Website: cityacu.net
- Phone: 323.522.3822
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: cityacupuncturesilverlake
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rosalindbullardacupuncture/
- Twitter: https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-acupuncture-silver-lake-los-angeles
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-acupuncture-silver-lake-los-angeles
Image Credit:
Alicia Chandler
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