Posted on by angieng67

Acupuncture for Balanced Wellness Featured in VoyageChicago Magazine

We are excited to share that Acupuncture for Balanced Wellness has been featured as an inspiring story in VoyageChicago Magazine.  The article from VoyageChicago Magazine has been copied below.  The original article can be viewed here http://voyagechicago.com/interview/meet-angie-ng-acupuncture-balanced-wellness-loop/.

Meet Angie Ng of Acupuncture for Balanced Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Ng.

Angie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I didn’t realize it, but my interest in Chinese Medicine began as a child growing up in a traditional Chinese household, where food and herbs were commonly used to address everyday ailments. My family members were always talking about the energetic properties of food, and how certain foods could be useful in alleviating discomforts like belly aches, toothaches, fever, and sniffles.

Despite having an early fascination with natural healing methods, the practical side of me decided that I should study business as an undergraduate and eventually join the corporate world, first working in banking and then in IT. While this provided a stable income, I never really felt fulfilled in my work, and I knew I had to make a change – I just didn’t know what. I spent over a decade sitting in cubicles and performing at mediocre levels at jobs I didn’t really enjoy. It wasn’t until I had my first acupuncture treatment that something clicked and I realized my calling.

I had always been a proponent of healthy living and a believer in the body’s innate ability to heal itself if given the right resources. I just never realized I could make a career out of this belief until I witnessed the power of acupuncture first hand. I started seeing an amazing acupuncturist for some chronic pain and stress I was experiencing.

My acupuncturist helped reduce my pain and calm my emotional stresses by painlessly and strategically inserting tiny needles to help stimulate the natural healing processes in my body. The treatments were relaxing, rejuvenating, effective, and had no side effects. I was hooked! Within months, I had enrolled myself in acupuncture school and began the long and arduous journey to becoming a Licensed Acupuncturist.

13 years later, I can say that I feel more fulfilled in my career than I have ever been. I recently moved my acupuncture office to a beautiful space in the Chicago Loop, where we help people with pain problems, fertility issues, stress, anxiety, and much more. We use not only acupuncture, but also adjunctive therapies like cupping, tuina, guasha, and herbal supplements, as well as dietary and lifestyle advice to naturally assist the body’s healing processes and restore balance back to the body.

Having come from a corporate background, I know all too well the struggles and stresses of balancing work and life that many of my patients experience. It brings me so much satisfaction to be able to help them in any way I can to feel better physically and emotionally.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to becoming an acupuncturist was long and not always easy. Having a mortgage and other bills to pay, I continued to work full time while going to acupuncture school on nights and weekends. It was a very tiring 3 years. Additionally, while in acupuncture school, they focus on teaching you how to do acupuncture. What they don’t teach you is how to start and run a successful acupuncture practice.

My background in business and IT definitely came in handy here, but it was still a struggle nonetheless. Marketing, finding a good location and office space, negotiating a lease, hiring help, billing, budgeting – these are all things essential to running an acupuncture business but were barely mentioned in acupuncture school. Making the transition from full-time computer programmer to full-time business owner and acupuncturist was one of the most challenging things I have ever done, but also one of the most gratifying.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Acupuncture for Balanced Wellness story. Tell us more about the business.
Acupuncture for Balanced Wellness is an acupuncture and wellness practice in the Chicago Loop. We treat a wide range of health concerns, but we most commonly provide treatments for pain problems, fertility issues, stress/anxiety, weight loss, and facial rejuvenation.

We truly understand the struggles and stresses of work/life balance, and we pride ourselves on providing safe, natural, holistic, and highly individualized treatments to our patients. Our office space provides a relaxing oasis, where people can receive acupuncture and other natural therapies to help restore health and balance back to their bodies, amidst the hustle and bustle of Downtown Chicago.

In addition to offering acupuncture services, we also offer other natural healing therapies at our wellness practice, like massage therapy, chiropractic services, and Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT).

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
It’s difficult to say what aspects of my life and business can be attributed to luck. You can say I was lucky to have a background in business and IT (specifically web development), and that those skills may have given me an advantage in starting a successful acupuncture practice. Many highly skilled acupuncturist have little or no business skills and subsequently have a very hard time starting and staying in business.

You could also say that I was lucky to be born ethnically Chinese so that I had exposure to the healing powers of Chinese Medicine from a very early age. Additionally, I was lucky to find a very good acupuncturist (Dr. Leon Chen) to give me my very first acupuncture treatment and inspire me to pursue a career in acupuncture. Whether these factors can be attributed fully to luck is questionable, but I do know they played a big role in leading me to a lifelong and rewarding career in acupuncture and holistic medicine. I do feel very lucky to be where I am today.

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