MVP 17 | Healing Business

Rachelle DeMichele L Ac, MAcOM, Dipl. OM owns and operates a healing clinic in Dripping Springs, Texas, called Hill Country Healing Haven. Her struggles with endometriosis, digestive disorders and depression/anxiety led her to seek help with Oriental medicine and meditation. Through these modalities, she found profound healing and realized her path included facilitating this healing in others. Her style of practice embodies a respect and reverence for the body, mind and spirit of all beings. In this episode of MVP Business we discuss her journey of healing herself and others, how she determines what modalities of healing will be most effective to her patients, and how she keeps her joy and passion active in her daily work.

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The Benefits Of Oriental Medicine And Creating A Healing Business With Rachelle Demichele

This episode is part of a local series focused on Wimberley Valley organizations in partnership with Wimberley Valley Radio and brought to you by Ozona Bank. Our guest is Rachelle DeMichele, Owner of Hill Country Healing Haven, a safe haven to begin healing emotional and physical pain with acupuncture, mindfulness, and herbs to stop suffering and start flourishing. Thank you so much for joining us, Rachelle.

Thanks for having me.

I’ve known you for a long time. I’m excited to talk about the business a little bit deeper and to share your story. Tell us a little bit about yourself before you started Hill Country Healing Haven. What got you there? What got you passionate about what you’re doing now?

What got me into acupuncture, in general, was receiving acupuncture. As with most people, I wasn’t open to that until I was in desperate pain and nothing else would work. I had endometriosis and kept having surgery after surgery in my early twenties. There didn’t seem to be a good solution with Western medicine, so I tried acupuncture. As I went through acupuncture, not only did it help with that. It also helped with many other unexpected things like gastrointestinal problems, mood stuff even though I’m still a little moody, and all kinds of unexpected benefits.

I kept going for stress relief because I had a very busy job in Seattle. I would get on the bus, run to the acupuncture clinic, get relaxed and Zen, run back to the bus, and go back to work. After a while of that, I thought, “I don’t even like this stressful job. Acupuncture is so amazing. How is it that not everyone knows about it and knows what it can do?” I looked more into switching over my business to doing acupuncture and then ended up going to grad school for that here in Austin. I didn’t want to leave Austin.

You came to Austin for education. That’s what brought you to this area.

There’s a very good school called AOMA School of Integrative Medicine. It’s a very well-known, accomplished, and thorough college for Oriental medicine.

AOMA was my first introduction to acupuncture. I loved it. From my perspective, they’re the only natural healers that I’ve personally been to, but the difference between that and going to a doctor is that someone sat with me for a long time and asked me questions, not just about the particular pain that I was having but about my diet, exercise, emotions, and all of that stuff that is more of the root cause and not attacking the problem. You went initially for endometriosis. Did it help you? How much should it help you?

I never had to have surgery again for endometriosis after that. I did have one more surgery to clear up scar tissue from all the surgeries, but I ended up getting pregnant, which is sometimes a challenge for those with severe endometriosis.

You had two.

I had two kids. It hasn’t come back. I’m 46 in 2022. It has been fun having kids. It has been a while. It’s very effective for hormone balancing. A lot of people don’t realize that it can work as internal medicine also, not just pain relief and musculoskeletal stuff like that.

What other common ailments does acupuncture help with?

Pain is probably the most obvious musculoskeletal issue but what isn’t obvious sometimes is that it modulates the central nervous system. It helps take you out of fight or flight and gets your body a lot calmer. It can help with anxiety, especially if you go regularly. It can help with depression. It’s there to balance hormones, the endocrine system, and moods. Regular treatment can make a difference in a lot of internal things. Balancing hormones helps with moods, hormones, and fertility.

A lot of people think their hormones are out of balance and they need to take a hormone, but acupuncture is one of many ways to look at how to balance your hormones naturally.

It’s different from hormone replacement therapy in a way that it’s stimulating. The objective is to stimulate your body’s organ function. Your body will produce more of the hormones depending on the organ you’re looking at, whether it’s the adrenal gland, the thyroid, or the ovaries. It will produce more of the hormones needed, and then your body can balance it. It’s hard when you’re taking hormones. There’s a place for taking supplemental hormones, especially once if you don’t have ovaries or your thyroid doesn’t function.

The objective of acupuncture and oriental medicine is to get your body to function better. It’s usually oftentimes a more balanced effect if it’s the appropriate type of care. If you have a thyroid, then you can improve its function. If you have ovaries, you can improve their function. If it’s the appropriate route to go, then it’s usually a more balanced effect than taking the hormone.

MVP 17 | Healing Business

Healing Business: The objective of acupuncture and Oriental medicine is to get your body to function better.

 

Maybe you could start there. If it makes you feel better, you start with acupuncture, herbs, and other natural treatments. Hopefully, it gets you to where you’re wanting to be if you’re not in crisis. Sometimes while people are in crisis, they have to start with bigger measures, but then once they calm down, they can go to looking at more holistic long-term treatment.

For endometriosis, I had gargantuan cysts in my ovaries. No amount of herbs or acupuncture was going to make those disappear. I needed to have surgery, but then to prevent it from continuing to grow over and over, acupuncture was helpful for that.

Talk to us a little bit about herbs and how they come into play with your treatment. How do you determine the treatment for someone, whether they are getting acupuncture, cupping, which a lot of people don’t know about, and herbal medicine? You do a lot of other types of healing beyond acupuncture. How do you determine what the treatment is? What’s necessary?

I like to start first with the least. Less is more. The more you can let the body do most of the work, the better. I usually start with acupuncture. It depends on what someone’s coming for. If it’s emotional, sometimes I’ll use Hakomi, which is mindful psychology using the body sensations to figure out where you may have stored emotional struggles. We can go that route if it’s a more emotional reason for someone coming or pain related to trauma or emotions.

If somebody has tennis elbow, then we will start with acupuncture. Sometimes if it’s not effective, then adding herbs in can help quite a bit. It all depends on each individual, what they’re presenting, and what they need. Acupuncture is good at stimulating, moving things around, encouraging blood flow, and calming the central nervous system. Oftentimes people come for treatment of neuropathy after chemotherapy. Their bodies are so depleted from having everything wiped out.

Acupuncture is helpful for neuropathy. The acupuncture itself is helpful, but you also need to start refeeding your body. Herbs will help. If there’s a deficiency of that type, then herbs will help quite a bit. Supplements will help. If your body doesn’t have enough blood, you need to eat food to get more blood. Similarly, if you’re deficient in something, you need to support your body with something external, not just acupuncture needles.

How often do people usually get treatment?

Typically, when someone comes, they will come once a week for 4 to 6 treatments. This depends. Some people have come in with back pain. It’s gone the next day. They don’t come back again for a year. That works fine, but a lot of people have something chronic. They will come in for about 4 to 6 treatments to see pretty dramatic results. Usually, you will notice a result in one treatment, but they build on each other.

It’s like going to the gym. If you go once a month, you’re not going to get a lot of results, but if you regularly go for a month, then you can back off and maintain the muscle you’ve built. It’s similar. You want to come frequently, about once a week. Some people want twice a week depending on what’s going on but usually, once a week or twice a week tends to be a challenge schedule-wise for most people. Oftentimes it will be every other week and then every three weeks. They come for maintenance.

What do you say to people who are scared of acupuncture?

Try it. I have had the biggest scaredy cats in my office. I would love to try it on them because they’re so shocked at how you almost don’t feel it at all. Find a practitioner that is gentle because there are practitioners that aren’t as gentle with needles. I am very sensitive in general, so I treat other people as though they are sensitive. If they want more simulation, I can give them that, but overall, it is surprising how much you don’t feel it at all. It’s nothing like needles when you’re getting blood taken or something like that. Try it. If you come into my office and you want a trial point, we can do that.

Most of the time, people have their eyes closed because it’s a spa-type environment. You are very relaxed already. The more you get into that relaxed state, the easier it is for you to do what you do and to accept the acupuncture treatment.

It’s a very relaxing setting. I set up my office, in particular, to be spa-like, relaxing, and nourishing. Most people come in. It’s surprising how laying there on a table with a bunch of needles in you is so relaxing, but it does calm the sympathetic nervous system. You tend to go in and out of sleep or in a meditative state. A lot of people fall asleep and then are so surprised and get hooked on that feeling of relaxation. It takes you to a different place oftentimes.

I always get into a lucid dream state. I don’t quite go to sleep. I’m lucid dreaming. It’s always something beautiful. I don’t think I’ve had any bad memories come up or anything like that. It has always been amazingly beautiful places or feelings of this in-between state.

It’s rather euphoric. That’s why I kept going. I went for hormone balancing and then kept going for that euphoria. We could all use a little euphoria. Life is so stressful.

It’s natural. You take the needles out, and you’re done. There’s no hangover.

One client went home. It was the first time she had acupuncture. Her husband thought she went out drinking because she acted drunk. She was so relaxed that he was like, “Are you drunk or something?” It’s exceptionally relaxing, which is odd and surprising, but it is.

It is wonderful. I suggest that everyone give it a try if you’re having any trouble at all or if you’re curious. How long have you been in business now?

Since 2019, this practice has been open for years.

You started right before the pandemic.

That was an interesting time to start a new business.

How have you gone about growing your clientele?

I haven’t gone about it very much. It has been mostly word of mouth. I wasn’t sure whether I should stay open or not during the pandemic, but I took precautions, used masks, and did all the things. Now, it’s pretty much back to life as normal. I’m in a location by Walgreens that people tend to drive by. People see that. There’s a significant need for alternative healing to add to the mix of Western healing out here in Dripping Springs.

There are a lot of people that google me or seek out acupuncture. I have been very fortunate not to have to do a lot of advertising. I did have a meditation group for a while and some group acupuncture. I did a community volunteer acupuncture at the senior citizen center. That all helped spread the word about my business. Luckily, it thrived slowly during the pandemic, but the past few years have been good.

Rachelle, how has your business lived up to the original vision of what you were planning to start?

I’m excited about that one because it lives up to it almost perfectly. I wanted to have a practice that was all my way. It was very selfish. I used to work in an IVF clinic and fertility acupuncture in Austin. It was busy. I would see people every twenty minutes. It’s hard to be present with someone who’s had a miscarriage or someone who is having a crisis or going through a lot when you only have a few minutes with them. I thought, “I want to open a general practice where I can be there for people, spend the time that it takes, and make them like family.”

When I see people, I go home and think about them. They’re in my world. They’re not just there for fifteen minutes. I wanted to have a practice where time allowed me to let it be that kind of practice. I feel like that is what it has become. I could be busier and make more money, but I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. I’m enjoying it. That is why it has thrived so much. The clients that come in feel that and want that. Who doesn’t want to be part of someone that cares about what their experience is and their healing process? I enjoy the feeling when I come into the office. I like doing it my way. It has been what I imagined.

Who doesn't want to work with someone who actually cares about their experience and their healing process? Click To Tweet

Part of what you do that is a little bit different from that previous experience is taking time to be with your patients. That not only gives you insights on how to treat them better and come up with ideas. When we were talking the last time I went in, you said, “Why don’t we try cupping? Have you ever done that?” That’s not what I initially went in for, but because you were able to sit, be with, and listen, there was the treatment possibility that came up but also, it’s different talk therapy. How does that play in for you? Did it come naturally? Is that something that you have experienced another practitioner doing? Did it feel right?

Every practitioner is different. I have experienced that with some practitioners as a client where there’s more talk going on. In acupuncture, the intake is so long that you end up going into people’s history. For me, it’s very natural to end up there because you’re going through someone’s life story to some degree, seeing how it all paints the picture of their current health state. With that, all kinds of stories come up and issues that are completely unrelated to their knee pain.

It’s so beautiful. I get so excited by people being willing to share more than surface things. That encourages people to share more of that with me. Sometimes people are there especially more for emotional reasons or trauma. We end up talking for a long time about that. They’re like, “You’re like my therapist.” That is not my scope of practice yet. It is something that comes up.

Sometimes a session will be 40 minutes of talking. I do offer a longer session of talking and sorting through. What comes up in that session will inform what acupuncture, cupping, or other somatic treatment we end up doing to help resolve whatever has come to light in the talking session. For me, it’s very natural. I pull that out of people probably more than the average practitioner. It’s that talking part of it and relating things to past experiences and emotions, but some people come for back pain, and then that’s fine too.

With those pains, someone might come in for back pain. They don’t realize that back pain is not necessarily caused by poor posture or the traditional physical. It’s caused by some emotional thing that they have been carrying around. By letting it out and talking about it where they might not have been comfortable going to a therapist or thought that they needed to because there’s no immediate thing that they have been through, they can start to talk to you about whatever it is. One thing leads to another, and all of a sudden, they’re crying.

For instance, someone came with digestive issues. I said, “When did this first start happening?” Everyone should ask themselves if they’re having a chronic problem, “When did it first start happening? What was going on in your life when that started?” I asked for every episode that she had because this problem would come and go. I said, “Is there any thread?” Every time her husband left the country, it would get bad. It doesn’t necessarily mean that there was no physiological problem to be dealt with, but there was also some connection with her husband being so far and gone. It related. We could relate it to emotional stuff and physiological issues.

It’s amazing asking those couple of questions, “When did it start? What else was happening when it started? What’s going on every time it happens?” It’s like opening a can of worms sometimes because life doesn’t happen just physically or emotionally. They’re always combined. Oftentimes when we’re looking for medical solutions, you only bring the physiological part with you and leave behind all the emotional stuff. It’s more effective to include it all.

Look at the whole system. We also have a habit, as humans or most animals might as well, of being in the right. Most people aren’t in the moment, but they think about the past few days, now, and the future. They’re obsessing about those three elements, but they’re not necessarily thinking about how the past months and years have affected where they are now unless it’s tennis. That’s pretty clear that you’ve been moving that one joint too much in the same way, but otherwise, you may be using that same emotion consistently in the same way. That’s causing the problem.

A lot of people say, “Stress and anxiety affect your digestive system,” which is true, but sometimes it’s because the way you carry stress and anxiety is by clenching, holding your breath, and squeezing your abdominal muscles. You’re anxious. I tend to do that. Everything is a little bit clenched. The more you clench your abdomen, the less blood flow is going to go through there. You’re impeding blood flow. You can relax. Your emotions control your body, which then affects your body, which then controls your emotions. It’s this interesting cycle.

MVP 17 | Healing Business

Healing Business: Sometimes, stress and anxiety affect your digestive system is because the way you carry stress and anxiety is literally by clenching and holding your breath and squeezing your abdominal muscles.

 

A couple of years ago, I was having problems with my back. My ribs would pop out of place. I went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor helped, but then different pains started coming up. I realized it was exactly what you’re describing, the stress and anxiety. I was clenching everything up. Therefore, all of my muscles were contracting in non-natural ways for too long. That caused my body to try to overcompensate and all these things. It wasn’t caused by physical trauma. It was caused by a long-term reaction to stressful moments or elongated times of stress.

Some people find it too woo-woo or out there to think, “My back pain is because of something I’m angry about.” It’s not that it can’t be the case, but it’s not always so woo-woo. There is a physiological connection to them because you’re clenching your body in a certain way.

Your emotion creates a physiological or physical effect. That physical reaction causes pain. They’re all tied together. It’s not necessarily woo-woo, “Your emotions live in your body forever,” which I believe to be true. Unless you release and let them out, they’re going to stay in there, but even if you don’t believe it, there’s also that physiological reaction that you can let go of, but sometimes you don’t, or it’s such a habit to do that thing.

I have a brother who moved to New Jersey to be an attorney. He lived there for way too long. Not only did his accent change. His posture changed. I went up there to visit him and I was like, “Why are your shoulders so close to your ears? That is not natural. You need to go to the country and drink a beer. You need to get out of here, dude.” He moved back. His shoulders are where they’re supposed to be. It was that reaction to stress. That’s how he dealt with it. It was a physical thing that, over time, would have caused a lot of pain.

I get so many people coming in for neck and shoulder tightness, tension headaches, and migraines. It’s so often for that reason, which is perfect because acupuncture can help release the muscles. Insight into why it’s happening and your sister telling you to go to the country and have a beer fixes the whole problem. That fixes the underlying root of the problem.

You don’t necessarily have to have a beer, but even if he didn’t leave New Jersey, he could say, “I need to go to the beach, chill for a minute, do something for me, and maybe get some acupuncture to help the immediate release and the ongoing for that first bit of how I release my shoulders,” but then knowing that it’s the self-care and the habit of how your body reacts. That can help change over the long term without having to get treatment continually. That’s part of the goal of holistic healing too. It’s to get your body to do what it was built to do.

Even for herbs, the goal isn’t to take an herbal formula or get acupuncture for the rest of your life. You can always come in and do tune-ups, but the goal is to get your body working in a balanced way so that you don’t need to keep coming, which is the way it should be.

Your body is a beautiful thing that’s meant to function optimally on its own if given the proper tools.

It’s so miraculous and powerful when you think about how the body can heal, how it’s born, and how it functions in such a perfect balance. There’s a place for medication but thinking that a medication could do it more powerfully than your body isn’t always true. A lot of times, utilizing your body’s ability to heal is extraordinarily powerful.

There's definitely a place for medication, but thinking that a medication could do it more powerfully than your body isn't always true. A lot of times, utilizing your body's ability to heal is extraordinarily powerful. Click To Tweet

Your body is extraordinarily powerful. A lot of times, the chemical medicines that we take are stimulating a chemical that we already produce or giving us something that we already do. It’s giving it more or blocking a particular chemical that our bodies already produce. Looking at all of your habits, posture, physical habits, and emotional habits and rewiring those is part of the healing process to not have to take those chemicals that your body can and should be when it’s working optimally and can create on its own or produce. You offer acupuncture and herbal medicine. You’ve had these workshops. You also have a sound bath event that you’ve been producing for a while. Is that something that’s still happening?

It is. We were trying to do it regularly, but we have families and lives. Having it every fourth Saturday doesn’t always work, but monthly, we are doing a sound bath. I partnered with Elizabeth Gergaud. Her business is called Dakini Springs. She does this beautiful sound bath. She takes you on an amazing sound journey. I’ll put acupuncture points in. We all lay there together for about an hour and a half and have this incredible experience. I get an opportunity to sing. It’s my other love. I get to sing with her and her singing bowls. It’s a magical experience for me, for her, and for the people that come. We do that usually once a month on a Saturday.

Describe what a sound bath is for those who don’t know.

It has nothing to do with bathing. Everybody’s clothes are on. I’m sorry to disappoint some of you. Instead of bathing in water, you’re bathing in sound. You get comfortable and lay down. The room is dark. Your eyes are generally closed. The acupuncture does help get you into that meditative zone of that lucid dreaming space. I am not a sound healer. I am more of a physical healer. I’m sure Elizabeth could say it better. You can feel the vibrations. It’s loud and all-consuming. It can be quite intense.

The sound bowls are beautiful. The different ones can correspond with different chakras in different areas. They will vibrate in your chest, your limbs, or your head. The gong also vibrates quite a bit. There’s vibrational healing that’s going on and experiential healing while you have your eyes closed. There’s a section where she uses different instruments. They’re not obvious instruments like the flute. You don’t necessarily know what is making that sound or what the sound is.

When you’re laying there with your eyes closed, it takes you on this internal journey. A lot of times, whatever you’re experiencing in life, you will make that journey what it needs to be for yourself. It can be magical and so unique even though you’re all sharing the same experience in the room. Each individual’s journey is going to be so different. Yet there is that combined community that you’re experiencing with other people. My office is fairly small. It’s a small group. It feels more intimate and pleasant. It’s a neat experience.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending. The feeling is beyond relaxation. It’s euphoric. It’s almost like you’ve consumed a drug of some sort. It’s consuming. The vibrations and the music are beautiful. That’s one thing, but it is taking over your whole emotional, mental, and physical experience because of the vibrations and then the acupuncture. It has an extra layer of the effectiveness of acupuncture because of the vibrations that help to stimulate the needles. Your singing is beautiful. You’re a trained operatic singer. That’s amazing.

It’s random.

I’ve known a few. It goes to the uniqueness and beauty of you, Rachelle, and all the things that are special to you in your life. What do you do to balance your life and your business?

When I was first starting this business, I was finishing up doing IVF and more full-on acupuncture. I had given up singing for a long time. I started singing again. I thought, “Which direction do I go? Do I put my efforts into acupuncture? Do I put my efforts into singing again?” I realized I didn’t have to pick. I get to be my whole self. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine are about the whole person. I don’t have to shove away a part of me. I’m finding ways to do all of what I love. I went toward opening this clinic, which I love. It brought me music in even different ways. I’m still singing opera sometimes. I get to sing with the sound bath and sing at Hudson’s for Open Mic Night. Everybody should go to Hudson’s.

You get to go two-stepping every once in a while because you are a whole person. You get to go swimming with your kids and play around with them.

Even my kids know about acupuncture. They like to come to the office. I try to include everything.

You utilize your herbs with them as well.

They like herbs and acupuncture. They will ask me for acupuncture. My daughter Peilah brought me a dollar. She’s like, “Mommy, can I pay you for an acupuncture treatment?” My treatments are generally more than a dollar, FYI. One of them likes acupuncture for sleep. It helps her sleep better. She will ask for it. When the other one’s tummy doesn’t feel good, she will ask for it. They practice. I let them practice putting needles in me in case in the future they want to do it. It’s fun. That’s how I find balance or how I attempt to find balance. I incorporate all the things that I love and try not to make any of them exclusive or push one to the side. They fall into the side sometimes because of the natural flow of life.

I tend to be a pretty go-intense-in-one-direction kind of person. I feel like every other episode, I bring up my coach, Bill Small. One of the things that he said to me was, “You are a human being. You are a whole human that is allowed to be in the world however you want to be. You don’t have to make a choice here or there. You can go in all of the directions at different times and balance that.” Rachel from The Leaning Pear said, “Work-life balance isn’t something that’s constantly in a perfectly balanced state. It’s teetering, tottering, and moving all around. The balance is finding all the directions instead of letting it sit in one.”

It’s being flexible and the movement.

What has been the hardest decision that you had to make? Was it hard to move to Austin?

Not at all. The big decisions in life have been easy for me like, “Let me move across the country.” I moved from Seattle when I moved to Austin. In moving from Austin to Dripping Springs, they all felt easy, right, clear, and obvious. It’s the smaller decisions that aren’t that clear and obvious that are harder like, “Do we have a second kid or not?” I got pregnant, and then we’re having a second kid. Sometimes it’s nice when life decides for you. I don’t know if I’ve found any decisions difficult. Evolution in general and parenting can be difficult at times when you don’t even know what lesson you’re learning. In hindsight, you’re like, “Oh.”

MVP 17 | Healing Business

Healing Business: Sometimes, it’s nice when life just decides for you.

 

“That’s what it was for.”

That’s vague, but it’s the small things that end up being a challenge.

I’m the same way. I don’t buy many cars, but when I have purchased cars, it’s like, “That’s the one. Let’s do it. This big check or the house, that’s it. Let’s do it,” but then I’ll be in Target and wonder, “It’s $15 for that shirt. Should I get it? I don’t need it.”

It’s like, “How much will I use it? Is it worth the money? What if it’s on sale?” It’s all the different kinds of things or the fifteen different brands of jelly that you’re trying to decipher and read all the ingredients out. That’s why I don’t go to the grocery store. My husband goes.

The small decisions are sometimes harder.

They’re way harder for me.

That’s why we’re friends. Would you do anything differently in the business or in your journey to get here? Is there anything where you’re like, “If I would have done that, this would be easier or it would be different in a better way?”

I don’t think I would do it any differently because I’m happy with the business as it is. The only thing I would like to be different in my business is that my rooms were more soundproof, that’s it, and maybe in a better building to make more money and to have an even better space.

Maybe that’s space somehow.

There’s no regret. There’s nothing I would change. That hasn’t always been the case when working in acupuncture or anything I’ve done, but this time, I made an effort to let it be authentically me and not try to be the type of acupuncturist that I’m not or to be what I thought I should be. I try to decide who am I and how I show up authentically so that clients have a good experience and I have a good experience. It worked well.

It sounds like you’re still passionate about what you do and how you’ve done it because you have followed your instincts and done it authentically. Would you say that’s true?

Definitely.

That’s beautiful. Good job. Well done. Thank you.

I’ll take the pat on the back.

What positive things have you learned or seen that you didn’t expect to learn, see, or feel through this process?

I didn’t realize how opening this clinic would give me access to the community. I see people from all over the Hill Country, Wimberley, and Dripping Springs mostly. It’s such a wide variety of people. I see the beauty in all of the variety and how interesting and amazing from ranchers to rodeo clowns to teachers to people that got here from California. It’s such a big mix and variety of people with different things going on in life, different backgrounds, different political views, and different everything.

There’s some commonality of all seeking wellness. I realized how cool of a place this is and how neat, interesting, beautiful, and amazing the people that live here are. I’ve grown to love this community more through all of my interactions with clients. I sometimes feel like I should be paying people to come to my clinic because I get a lot out of it. I always leave in a better mood and happier after a day of working.

If we could all have that experience of feeling like you would pay to be doing your job in your job, whatever your job is, I would pay somebody to do this. That’s the ultimate goal for everyone. It’s to feel like, “I would do it for free or I would pay to have this experience because it’s so enlightening and fulfilling.” That’s part of what this show is about. How do you find that workspace to be able to live your passion and be happy about it? You’re doing a fantastic job. You’re amazing in a lot of different ways. I love it. Do you have any ideas of what’s next for you other than on the horizon more soundproof with more rooms business?

I applied for another graduate program for professional counseling at Texas State. That will be a slow process because I don’t plan to close my clinic, but that will allow me as a professional counselor to officially have all the tools I need to meet people as a counselor, a therapist, and an acupuncturist because I don’t necessarily want to lose either of those.

That’s the direction I’m going. I don’t know if that’s where I’ll end up ultimately because I’ve learned enough in life to learn that you don’t always get to pick the endpoint. You can do the next thing that feels right, but that’s what feels right. That’s the direction I’m going. I’m excited even if I have more tools to help people that show up at my acupuncture clinic.

You don't always get to pick the end point. You can just do the next thing that feels right. Click To Tweet

It’s a better way to show up, ask questions or love that, to begin with.

Any learning that you take on is going to help in your business and your dealings with anyone.

We’re never finished ourselves. What advice do you have for anyone out there questioning whether or not they should take the leap and start a new business that they are passionate about?

For one, whatever you do is right. Doing it is right. If you learn that direction wasn’t a good direction because you don’t like the results, then you still learn what different direction to go. Don’t be afraid to take a leap. Two, make an effort to have it be authentic. When my friend was making my website, I was trying to make it look so professional and perfect and have this certain persona. He’s like, “That’s not how you are. That’s not your personality. You should make it fit your personality.” It didn’t even occur to me to do that.

Don't be afraid to take a leap, and really make an effort to make it authentic. Click To Tweet

I’ve gone with that in mind of how I portray who I am for real inside and not have a business persona but have me show up at my business. That would be what I would suggest. Most people want to connect with other people on a real level, not their superficial business self but their real self. That’s why your business is great. You’re trying to bring that into business. You don’t have to separate who you are from your business because it’s your professional life, not your real life. Don’t separate those. Figure out what you’re all about and what your business means to you. Go with that in mind.

Carve your path. I love that. That is the best advice. A lot of times, people will start with that and then go through, “That can’t be good enough because that’s me.” They will break that down and try to copy someone else. Years later, they end up doing their thing anyway, hopefully, but they had to go through this imposter place in the middle. If you can start there, stay there, and feel confident that you are beautiful and unique, it’s going to be successful with your unique path.

Your way will work better for you, whereas someone else’s way is not going to work if you try their way. For instance, I’m not very big on social media. I see other people, “You have to post every so often on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and this and that.” That didn’t fit me. I kept thinking, “I should do this,” but luckily, because I’m so lazy and good at procrastinating, I never did it. I thought, “I don’t want to do it that way. I want to advertise by offering free meditation classes. I want to do it in a different way.”

“I will probably fail, but I’m going to try it my way anyway. If I have to be someone else to make it work, I would rather do something different.” That’s how I went into it. It worked. I would also say to other people to try it your way. If all the experts around you say, “There is this way you have to do it to succeed,” that might not be true. There might be another way that you are going to carve out and figure out.

That’s why you are still happy, passionate, and excited about your business because you did it your way. Is there anything else you would like to say or share before we go?

Thank you for having me. It has been fun. Hopefully, I didn’t say anything too ridiculous.

Thank you so much for joining me, Rachelle. It has been wonderful. Thank you for reading. If you liked it, tell your friends and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn because we do social media. The mission of this show is to dig deep into the lives of true leaders so that others can follow, knowing that the path isn’t always easy, but the journey is worth it. Enjoy the day and live with passion.

 

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About Rachelle DeMichele

MVP 17 | Healing BusinessI am a mother, wife, musician and practitioner of acupuncture and herbal medicine; striving to give my all to everything I do. My practice is based on a strong belief in the inherent wisdom of the body to heal itself once gently brought back into balance.

My own struggles with endometriosis, digestive disorders and depression/anxiety led me to seek help with Oriental medicine and meditation. Through these modalities I found profound healing and soon realized my path included facilitating this healing in others. I feel immensely privileged each time a patient shares their story of pain with me and allows me to be a part of their process.

Along with my dedication to continual advancement and professionalism, my style of practice embodies a respect and reverence for the body, mind and spirit of all beings. I look forward to meeting you and being a part of your healing journey.

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