MY ORIGIN STORY: HOW I BECAME AN ACUPUNCTURIST
Written by Jennifer Logue
A corporate banker turned acupuncturist? While it sounds like a plot from a movie, it’s actually Dr. Susanna Satten’s real life story.
Despite growing up in a family of physicians and therapists, Susanna pursued two different undergraduate degrees at Washington University in St. Louis — one in fine arts and one in business. “I was a little different than most people. I studied printmaking and finance because I was creative and loved making art, but I also loved working with numbers.”
While her parents got acupuncture while she was growing up, Susanna didn’t try it for herself until she visited China with her family in her early twenties. “My mom was interested in getting acupuncture over there and I said, ‘That sounds fun. I want to get it too.’ I went with her to the Chinese doctor with an interpreter and it was a crazy experience in a good way,” Susanna remembers.
“I was familiar with the concept of ‘Qi’ and what acupuncture was supposed to do, but I wasn’t going for any specific issue. The doctor put needles in me and he got to a point in my left elbow and I started feeling this intense sensation from a huge blockage. I initially wanted him to take out the needle but the interpreter had stepped away so I couldn’t communicate with the doctor. However, a few seconds later, the most amazing thing happened. The intense sensation at my elbow increased and then disappeared as a huge rush of energy swept through my arm, and the pain was gone. It was pretty amazing and unlike anything I had ever felt.”
After that experience, Susanna made acupuncture a regular part of her wellness routine to treat migraines and other issues western medicine wasn’t clearing up.
“I had a lot of cool experiences with acupuncture in my early twenties and I considered going to graduate school for it back then, but I was so ready to be done with school so I put it on the back burner. It wasn’t until almost 10 years later that I finally decided to go study acupuncture and East-Asian medicine,” she says.
Susanna spent nine years working as a corporate banker and despite her success, she never felt like it fit. “Everyone else around me loved banking. They were lifers that couldn’t imagine ever leaving the industry. For me it was fun, I liked it, but it wasn’t my passion. I joked that it was like playing dress up. Working in banking never felt like the authentic me.”
When Susanna left the world of finance, she took time off to do some soul searching and acupuncture kept calling her. “I told myself I’d try it for a term and see what I thought. I ended up going to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York and two weeks into it, I was hooked. It felt like I was home. I was overwhelmed by all the things I had to learn, but it was so interesting and so fascinating — I just knew acupuncture was the right thing for me. And I never felt that way before in my life about anything. Which is great, because acupuncture school is really hard.”
After studying in New York for four years to earn her master’s degree, Susana stayed on for an additional year to get her clinical doctorate in acupuncture.
Flash forward to today and Susanna couldn’t be happier with her life as an acupuncturist.
“I was always interested in making things, using my hands and being creative but I was also into numbers and science and they seem really separate. Acupuncture has been a cool way to combine all of these things. I get to really problem solve creatively. People give me a bunch of what seems like random symptoms and then I have to figure out: what’s the root of this? What’s the internal imbalance? What’s the treatment that will help balance that? It’s a lot of creativity and problem solving which I love.”
And the most gratifying part of her job? Being able to help people.
“Nothing makes my day better than when someone comes in and tells me a story about how they’ve changed as a result of their treatment. I love the human connection.”
If you’re ready to begin your healing journey with Susanna, click here to book your first session.
Dr. Susanna Satten, D.Ac, L.Ac. is a licensed acupuncturist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specializing in the treatment of emotions, chronic and acute pain, fertility, and women’s health. She loves sharing her passion for natural approaches to improving health through her online articles and at her acupuncture clinic on 17th Street near Rittenhouse Square. Call 215-469-1750 to schedule your appointment, or book online at www.susannasatten.com
