Today we’d like to introduce you to Henry & Meredith Nguyen.
Hi Henry & Meredith, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Henry and I met in acupuncture school and, as a husband and wife team, now operate Nguyen Wellness & Recovery, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic in the Oak Forest area. We like to joke that we are like yin and yang – we’re so different, yet we balance each other out. Not only in our relationship, but as business partners as well!
Henry was drawn to studying acupuncture, because alternative medicine was simply “medicine” for him, growing up in Vietnam. He remembers how his mom would treat their family and neighbors with cupping — not only for pain, but when someone was coming down with a cold or flu. It was simply the norm in his family (as it is for many Asian families) to take herbal medicine or eat particular foods to balance out certain ailments. When his brother decided to go to school for acupuncture, he followed soon after.
I was inspired to study Chinese medicine after living in South Korea. What started as a brief, 6-month teaching stint turned into a 3-year stay, because I absolutely loved it there. I fully immersed myself in the culture, eating the way many Koreans eat, experiencing a more community-centric way of living, getting acupuncture and visiting jjimjilbangs (or, Korean spas) regularly – all of which contributed to a complete transformation in my physical health! I had always been pretty sick as a kid, but seeing how much my health changed when I began to incorporate better foods, acupuncture, and more balance into my life, it just made sense for me to study Eastern medicine once I finally moved back.
A few years out of school, we were each working for clinics while holding onto our vision for opening our own clinic. We’d set aside a little bit of each paycheck, and bit by bit, purchased everything that we needed to get started. We found the perfect little space, and the week we were set to open was the week everything shut down due to covid, and we all went into quarantine… *womp womp*
Fast forward to five years later: We’re still here, so it all worked out!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Figuring out how to build and operate a clinic without a whole lot of support around us in the beginning was hard. And yet, we’ve always seemed to be able to find the next right step, even if just beyond that, it’s a complete cloud of uncertainty. We don’t really have backgrounds in business, so it’s been a lot of “figuring it out as we go.” That, and learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Entrepreneurship is not for the weak of heart. It’s just…really, really hard at times.
In the beginning, we experienced the typical kinds of ups and downs that most small business owners are familiar with. Thankfully business continued to steadily grow. I became pregnant in 2021, and about six months into my pregnancy, my mom passed away. That was an incredibly difficult time. Once our son was born, Henry was doing double-time, working in our clinic and elsewhere so I could stay at home. Henry worked his butt off to allow me to have time for our son, and to grieve. Looking back now, I’m proud that we chose to honor what mattered the most at that time, even though our finances and savings took a huge hit with me staying home longer. There was a lot of catching up to do after that, financially-speaking. But that year grew us in so many ways that smooth roads simply can’t.
We honestly can say that we practice what we preach. The tools we share with our patients are the very things that sustained us throughout that time: Weekly acupuncture, vitamins and herbs, lots of prayer and a whole lot of meditation, getting more sleep, being outside in nature, eating fresh, organic food. We really had to focus on simplifying our lives as much as possible to conserve our time, money and energy, and we became even more intentional with where we allowed our energy to flow.
We’re thankfully in a much more stable period now. We’re incredibly grateful that the right people have always shown up at the right times to help us along the way. Our patients are phenomenal and they are the reason we continue to grow. Word of mouth has been the primary factor in our business growth. We figure, as long as we keep our hearts in the right place, our egos in check, and we stay focused using the gifts we’ve been given to serve others, everything will unfold as it should!
As you know, we’re big fans of Nguyen Wellness & Recovery. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
As licensed acupuncturists, we are trained to treat most (non-emergency) health issues. What we typically tell people is that you can see your acupuncturist for just about anything you’d visit your primary care physician for. That being said, Henry specializes in pain management, neuropathy, Bell’s palsy/facial paralysis, and sports medicine. My areas of focus are women’s health, fertility/IVF support (for both women and men!), breech babies, migraines, and anxiety & depression.
We have so many stories of people finally coming to see us for acupuncture after trying everything else first – even surgery! – and still not being able to find relief. For so many, acupuncture is what finally works! It’s also amazing to be a part of so many couples’ journeys in building their families. I’ve even had quite a few patients come in after several failed IVF cycles, and upon working together to nourish their bodies and balance their hormones and stress levels, many finally get their success story. It just never gets old!
Something worth mentioning is that, while most people seek out acupuncture once they have an issue, it’s actually best utilized as preventative medicine. As the ancient Chinese discovered centuries ago, we are bioelectric beings, and the energy that flows through our bodies has a direct impact on things like our circulation, the functioning of our organs and even our metabolism. Before physical symptoms even appear in our bodies, the imbalances show up in our energy field — that’s what licensed acupuncturists are trained to assess and treat. We have many patients who don’t necessarily have any pressing issues, but they’ve made acupuncture a part of their regular wellness routine, just like going to the gym (and they fare much better during cold, flu and allergy seasons as a result!).
It’s also worth noting that acupuncture is different than dry needling, like what you might get from a physical therapist or a Western medical doctor practicing “medical acupuncture.” Acupuncture is performed by a licensed acupuncturist and is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, so it can be used to treat a wide array of issues holistically, while dry needling simply targets trigger points in muscles and is mostly used for musculoskeletal issues. The training to do dry needling is just 2-3 days, while it takes three to five years (and four board exams through the Texas Medical Board) to become a licensed acupuncturist in Texas. Both modalities can be effective, but ultimately their goals and philosophies are quite different.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
It’s been amazing to witness the shift in the public’s openness and acceptance of acupuncture and other Chinese medicine modalities, like cupping and gua sha, in just the last few years. It really seemed like covid was a turning point collectively, and many people started to take a deeper interest in their long-term health around that time. When I first started practicing, it wasn’t uncommon to hear from patients that their doctors told them acupuncture was quackery and that they were wasting their time. These days, more often than not, it’s the opposite: more PCPs, fertility clinics and even neurologists are starting to refer their patients to acupuncture — because it works!
As more Western doctors and specialists remain open to Chinese medicine with the understanding that it is a completely different way of looking at the body and health (but that that doesn’t make it wrong), they will not only broaden their own abilities to better serve their patients, but they will become the bridges we need to truly merge the best of Eastern and Western medicine in our hospitals, our wellness spaces, and in our society. And that will benefit everyone.
Pricing:
- Initial Acupuncture Treatments (80 min.) – $140
- Follow-Up Acupuncture Treatments (60 min) – $105
- Express Acupuncture Treatments (30 min) – $50
- Acu-Facials (80 min) – $175
- Infrared Sauna or LED Light Therapy – $40
Contact Info:
- Website: https://NguyenWellnessRecovery.com
- Instagram: @nguyen_wellness
- Other: wellbalanced.health (our TCM food therapy site)
Image Credits
Meredith Nguyen
