Today we’d like to introduce you to Harry Park.
Hi Harry, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I graduated from the American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in 2017 with a master’s degree in Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. I then went on to graduate and earn a degree of Doctor of Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in 2019. I started my practice from 2018.
Looking back, my dream once in my youth was to become a doctor. With forgetting it, I started my career at the largest corporation in South Korea where I worked under the very busy business schedules traveling around the world. Actually, in my very early days at the company, there were talks with my colleagues about going back a school to study what I wished, However, I could not do that way as I was financially responsible for my family. Thereafter, I continued to work for the company in oil and gas sector and one day, suddenly, I found myself working there for 30 years long. I moved to the United States and joined a US based company where no frequent business trips and uninterrupted time after office hours. This made my submerged dream of my teen age emerged and I decided to study the acupuncture and Oriental medicine in Houston at the age of 55. I was the second oldest student in the school and I completed the master’s degree of acupuncture and oriental medicine from American College and Oriental after four and half a year and sent on to study and earned a degree of Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in 2019. Now I am a practitioner and owner of Spring Green Acupuncture and Herbal Clinic since 2018. I feel especially grateful to be an acupuncturist as it combines my profession and my personal passion healing others.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It is a long story, but to make it short; the choice between the even road with staying at the good rewarding company I worked for and the challenging a new road less taken was my biggest task especially in the financial aspect. My first attempt to quit the company and study acupuncture was 25 years ago in South Korea and resulted in failure because every family member opposed it as I was financially responsible for the family. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to work with a US based company in Houston, Texas in 2012, and I could start acupuncture study with the evening classes in 2013 which I had long cherished the secret dream in my heart. To meet the requirements of both the school and the company was very tough. The inevitable restrictions on my business trips and other business activities for the company was very difficult and an obstacle for me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I treated a female patient with terminal cancer as volunteer. She was told by her doctor that she would live for fewer than three months. I wanted to help her in her daily life with less pain and fatigue as much as possible during her last few months of the remaining life. She was in bed all the time complaining pain and fatigue combined with severe edema on the face and legs. And most of the time, her eyes were closed. After a number of sessions of acupuncture treatment, she smiled at me with her eyes open on my visits and could go to the restroom on the wheelchair. Her conditions were, of course, back and forth. She lived more than nine months. I thought it was worthwhile to share this case with other acupuncturists and terminal cancer patients. To share this case, it was published in an Acupuncture magazine as a case study, “Acupuncture as Palliative Care in the Terminal Cancer Patient”
I am also proud to do acupuncture volunteer at Atria Cinco Ranch Senior Living Center from March 2018 until July 2019 on Saturdays. I started educating the senior residents about TCM and acupuncture and how they can actually get benefits on their daily lives.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I went out to a suburban field to feed a cow with friends in my elementary school days, and we baked cookies while the cow was eating grasses wondering around the field. One day, I lost the cow and reported to my father. My father and other neighbors searched all evening the area with the lanterns in hands of them. successfully. However, the cookies were delicious.
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