Feature -- by Berenice Gargus

Sharon FitzGerald is a physiotherapist specializing in sports medicine just shy of 25 years. She now incorporates acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM] into her treatments and is finding great results.

NextSteps met with Sharon at Calgary's Integrative Medicine Institute [IMI]. IMI specializes in complementary healing and houses conventional doctors alongside naturopaths, a biological dentist, psychologist, TCM practitioners, a massage therapist and more.

Sharon FitzGerald complements physiotherapy with acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

nextSteps: What is your background?

Sharon FitzGerald: Most of my career was at Lindsay Park. I have the highest standing for a sports physiotherapist, which allows you to travel internationally with athletes to the Olympics or to really high-level competitions.

Things change, of course, when you have a family so I started to wean myself away from the travel with the teams and the work with the high level athletes. I also think the change in Alberta Health Care was a bit detrimental, because people started having to pay for physio.

nextSteps: Why did you change your practice to incorporate eastern practices?

FitzGerald: I must admit I was feeling frustrated. There would be people I was treating...I knew no matter what I did they still wouldn't get better. And there were lots of complaints about how people felt with the weather and how they felt worse when they were under emotional strain. Western medicine and mainstream medicine didn't really give [me knowledge] as to why.

Then I started doing the acupuncture and was just amazed at how much more I could help people find their own path to healing.

nextSteps: So now you use a combination of treatments?

FitzGerald: Yes. Let's say you've been working so many hours this week and last week for a deadline and your neck is really sore and you are overwhelmed and exhausted.

nextSteps: Sounds familiar.

FitzGerald: Not only could I treat your neck with physio manual therapy, getting all the joints moving and making sure all the muscle and tissue is working fine, but [I can] also use the acupuncture to boost your energy, to boost your immune system, to help diffuse some of the stress.

[Perhaps] half of my caseload right now are musculoskeltal cases. (Car accidents, repeated strain injury from too much computer use, tobogganing accidents.) But then I also have a lot of clientele that have chronic disease like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis. It's a huge variety.

nextSteps: Do most practitioners just do physio or acupuncture?

FitzGerald: You'll find a lot of physios now are combining acupuncture in their treatment. They would use it much like they use ultrasound, electrical current, ice, heat--as a modality to release pain, to improve blood flow, to release muscle tension.

A lot of physios prefer a certain style of needling which is called IMS, [or] intramuscular stimulation. And it's a different approach completely. They actually needle right into the trigger point of the muscle [which] helps to resolve the muscle tension.

[In] the other style (TCM), I would look at your tongue, your eyes, your ears, take your pulse. [Check] the sparkle in your eyes. Look at your whole body, not so much just your muscle tightness. I would needle all over to help your body find the balance that we're looking for.

Each way of needling has an enormous benefit.

nextSteps: How is laser and electrotherapy used with acupuncture?

FitzGerald: [Electro-acupuncture] is something I would use if someone were really deficient or depleted. It's great for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia. Plus chronic systemic diseases.

nextSteps: So what's your typical day like?

FitzGerald: I see an average of about 14 to 17 people a day. I book on the half hour. If it's a new patient then I would have a full hour with that patient. I start at 7 AM just to get people in before work. Calgary's an early rising city so those are usually favoured appointments. I generally leave by three so I can pick up my little girls.

nextSteps: Are there certain personality types better suited to this type of work?

FitzGerald: I think those who have a real genuine interest in people. If you don't, when you're working with the public all the time it can be demanding. If you get one sick person after the next or one unhappy person after the next it's tough. Like [any kind of] customer service, right? You have to be able to be with people throughout their day and not take on a lot yourself. Compassion is another attribute that is very important

nextSteps: Is that one of the hazards of the job?

FitzGerald: Yes, very much. When you're working with the public you do take on those energies of other people and it's not always good. I think for anybody that's working in the medical profession that's something that you have to really watch for.

Overall you have to really like being with people.

nextSteps: What's the most difficult aspect of your work?

FitzGerald: In the past, working with someone not listening or taking your advice. Let's take for example a knee injury. [I'd] tell them at least three months, [no] directional change sports or any stop/start. Then they come in two or three weeks later and their knee is huge. Then they come in again and have fractured their wrist or sprained their ankle because they were playing with this knee that they shouldn't be and their balance was off. Eventually you just go, (shrug) that's OK, that's your choice. I work with completely different people now.

nextSteps: And the rewarding aspects?

FitzGerald: How people change. And how people start making different choices in what they do and looking at life in a broader sense. Again, it's not me that's doing the healing, I just create a space from which healing can happen.

With the type of work I'm doing now, I really sense that I do make a difference for people every day. If you have a job like that--wow.

nextSteps: You studied TCM under Dr. Stephen Aung at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

FitzGerald: His program goes throughout the year part time. It's for physicians, physios, and dentists. It was a really a unique group of practitioners, 12 of each. It was just a wonderful experience. Then I did more training after that, a lot with Doctor Cheng Xia [here in Calgary]. She is a wonderful practitioner, and very knowledgeable, very academic in how she teaches. She's hoping to open a school of Chinese Medicine [here soon].

nextSteps: There is one operating in Calgary already.

FitzGerald: Yes, there's one in the Market Mall Professional Building and then there's an online program from Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton. And soon, [hopefully, Doctor Xia's] program. So, those are several options close by.

nextSteps: Would you recommend one of the schools in BC?

FitzGerald: Victoria's got a very good reputation. There are two schools in Victoria and one is significantly more successful than the other. So, for those applicants you need to really go and look at the school and [judge] intuitively as to whether you think it's going to work for you. Because it is expensive to go away. The school is three years, it's a big commitment.

nextSteps: Financially too. The Alberta College of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine here in Calgary lists its tuition fees as $9,000/yr+. That's at least $27,000 to finish your education. How do you decide if it's the right career for you?

FitzGerald: Yes, that is a lot. It would be really important [for aspiring practitioners] to experience acupuncture first hand, see if they like it. Other than experiencing it, [people could] shadow a practitioner.

There are also lectures for lay people. Dr. Xia has public lectures on diet, nutrition, different philosophies on TCM. She's at the Bodymind Synergy Health Clinic. There are a lot of books out there on Chinese Medicine. [Be warned that] the philosophy can get a little heavy.

FitzGerald demonstrates electro-acupuncture. This is the most powerful point in the body for pain relief, especially for the upper body and face.

nextSteps: Any recommended reading materials?

FitzGerald: A Web That Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuk and The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine by Maoshing Ni. (See links below.)

nextSteps: When you're investing that much for an education, are there any pitfalls? Do you have to be good at marketing yourself to be successful?

FitzGerald: When you first get out [of school], finding a clinic that's busy is really important, just to build up a caseload. If you go out on your own and nobody knows who you are it's a little bit more challenging. [It's great to] get into a clinic that is multi-practitioner...with either chiropractors or naturopathic doctors, to get a referral source and to learn from other practitioners.

The other option is to go out on your own and create exactly what you desire. Starting a clinic takes a lot of cash, too. Being a practitioner in a clinic works out really well for most people starting.

nextSteps: How do the fees work?

FitzGerald: Depending on where you are in the city, most clinics charge anywhere from $50 - $80 a treatment. (For estimated yearly earnings in this career, see the OCCinfo link below.).

There are several different financial arrangements that people make. Generally it's a certain percentage of what you bill [that goes to] the clinic. [IMI] would take a management fee for providing me these beautiful rooms and reception people and telephones and all of that.

nextSteps: Any other words of wisdom or advice to young people interested in this career?

FitzGerald: It is very important to experience physiotherapy or acupuncture, or to tap into your own healing abilities, whatever form they take. This ability is within all of us. For many [it is] waiting to be discovered.

Links

For more information on this career, check out the OCCinfo site:

Acupuncturist

Physiotherapist

For a Westerner's guide to traditional Chinese healing, read Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition. It's clear, detailed, and includes great recipes.

Details on recommended books: www.amazon.com