Purpose in Motion: When Your Why Fuels Your Mission

What happens when your purpose stops being an idea… and starts moving?

In this powerful episode of The Blinded Truth Podcast, we sit down with Katie Clifton, the visionary behind the Wellness Wagon — a mission-driven movement that brings real support directly into the community.

This isn’t just a conversation… it’s a wake-up call.

We’re talking about:

•  Finding your why in the middle of pain, purpose, and pressure 
•  What it really means to walk in alignment
•  Turning passion into purpose-driven action
•  The truth about burnout vs. assignment 
•  Building something that actually impacts lives

If you’ve ever felt stuck, disconnected, or unsure of your purpose… this episode is your confirmation to move.

Because when your why is strong enough, your purpose will create its own path.

🔥 This is bigger than motivation… this is movement.

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Your engagement helps us reach more people who need healing, truth, and transformation.

🎧 Listen. Watch. Grow.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Blinded Truth, a podcast where we uncover real stories about addiction, trauma, healing, and other life-defining moments. I'm your host, Destiny Vance, and I'm so grateful you've joined us today. Today I have an incredible guest by the name of Katie, who is the executive director of the wellness wagon, now called the Calm Clinic and Caravan, and also an acupuncturist. Katie, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

I love the concept of this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I'm excited too. Like when we were looking at scheduling and I had nobody so far for 30, and you sent over, I want to say it was one of your events that you were coming up doing, and I was like, oh my gosh, let me see if she would love to do the podcast. So I'm glad that you're able and was willing to come.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yes, absolutely. Anytime I can share the spread the message about the Calm Clinic and Caravan, I say yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, because we were just talking about, I don't think a lot of people know what the van was. Hence, my mom. Thanks, mom, for I'm not gonna say on the podcast what you said, but just know that she was not thinking that it was an acupuncture. And I was like, that is crazy. But the name at first, Queen Pen, was something that even I didn't even know. And I just, you know, I didn't even know what it was. And I think a lot of people don't know. Like I was reading through your story that you sent, and um at first, I love your why. Okay. The why behind the deep motivation befinded choice, and the fact that this was all birthed from losing a close friend, Adam, in 2013, right? And then you started offering $10 five needle protocol acupuncture treatments in your waiting room. You didn't ask any questions, and you and if they couldn't pay, that was okay. Like that's service right there that a lot of people don't get. But when you're when you're moving in your purpose, like in serving others, none of the other logistics matter, right? Um, and then this five-needle protocol was actually developed in the 1970s to combat hair on epidemic, which I don't think we talk about that. We talk about the hero epidemic, but we don't talk about what methods were used, which is crazy to me. Um, and then you asked a former coworker, Sue, who was a retired physician, to um help you get your clinic started, and you named your first bus after her. I have a Sue in my life, and I love my Sioux. Um's are great. Listen, when we first started, sidebar, when me and her first started working, actually at Anderson Associates, I was like, I'ma like you. And she was like, I'ma like you too. So I love my Sioux. Yep. I love my Si. And then in December 2021, the wellness rodeo, you started doing those events. Um, and you would go to colleges, sheriff offices, car dealerships, city agencies, um, and you will offer this service all around to those agencies. And then in 2023, the wellness wagon became a 501c3, and in 2024, you sold to a private practice, which is now the comp clinic. Yes. Did I highlight everything?

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yes. A little bit, it's a little bit how we like we started under my private practice, which was Queen Pen. Yes, which was um that was a private acupuncture class practice, but you know, people had to pay cash to come to that, and so that's why I instituted, started using the five needle protocol and offering it for $10 or free, whatever, whoever needed it. And then um, and then in I sold Queen Pen, which now is Appalachian, it's owned by uh Zach Hurt and it's Appalachian Integrative Health. And um, because I really wanted to focus on the bus and on making acupuncture more accessible to everybody so that everybody can do it. And the model of a cash-based practice, the reason why people do that, acupuncturists do that, is because um for many acupuncture practices, billing insurance is really difficult for them. It's very expensive to do it, and you know, it's just time consuming and all this. So they become cash-based. But then, if you're cash-based, a lot of people cannot get acupuncture. Um, and also in Southwest Virginia, we don't have as much coverage for acupuncture as um as people in other states do, or people even in northern Virginia, um, it's covered a little bit more than than here. Um, but we're working on that. We are working on trying to get that expanded right now. It's going um before the an insurance committee in the state legislator legislature. And um, if you're interested in acupuncture, follow us on um social media and I'll keep you posted about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

But um, so that's how it all started. Yes. And so um in my practice and my, you know, my why, it did start with Adam, but it also, you know, I have definitely just like so many of us in Southwest Virginia, I have family members, I have um friends, I have, and and my patients, my private practice patients also pri, you know, were so quietly suffering with their own addictions, coming to me and talking to me about it. And um, I just saw so much suffering. And I have seen acupuncture do amazing things for people. It is such a beautiful form of medicine that treats the body, the mind, and the soul. It treats, you know, it treats everything. And so um, it was really maddening to me that not everybody could could have access to that.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So yeah, yeah. And it's like a whole ecosystem of like treatment where it's just not like we've always talked about, you know, addiction is not treated in mental health, it's not even treated in one way, like there's other avenues, and we just have to open people's minds up to what that looks like for you know individuals that's wanting to recover. Yes, but it's true, like what people don't know, they kind of like shy away from and they're kind of like, oh, I I'm not, I don't think that. But if you don't know, you don't know. Yes, and we actually had a conversation about my own personal experience with acupuncture and how it, you know, it just relaxed me so it brightened like my eyes open to like, oh, when can I get this again? Because, you know, I do suffer from mental health. And for me to be able to calm down and not have to take an anxiety med just from getting acupuncture, yeah, I'm down. Okay. Yes. So listen, and I love when you put it in the end where you was like, we believe in bringing holistic healing to the people who need it most compassionately and consistently. And I think that's beautiful because you can just hear like this is not a money-driven thing for you. You're all about the service and servicing the ones who are suffering. And that is what our city and our nation needs. It's not like I'm a true believer that success comes by doing what you love. I was taught that at a very young age, my aunt taught me like you don't follow the money. The money will follow you. Like, if you're doing what you love, it will come, like you will be compensated. And I truly believe that that's actually what you're doing. Um, I want to start, go back to your why. And the first question I have for you is um, what did discovering your why teach you about yourself? And how did it shape your vision for what healing could look like in your community?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Um, you know, I actually did the Simon Sinek like exercises of finding your why. And my why is actually about empowering other people. So I think that what happened when I felt so disempowered and I watched so many people feel disempowered, it it like ignited this fire in me that I was like, I'm gonna figure out how to do this. Like, I am gonna figure out how to um to make this accessible for so many people. So um, oh my gosh, I got so into my answer. Tell me the question. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

And that's how I know you would what did discovering your why teach you about yourself? And how did it shape your vision for what healing could look like in your community?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Okay, thanks. So first we'll do myself and then we'll do my community. Yeah. Um, so first in myself, I think that it for me, it did make a lot of sense for me because I was like, oh my gosh, I've always been, I was a teacher for 10 years. And then, so you know, that again is like this empowering young people. And then um, with acupuncture, I mean person by person. What acupuncture does is uses the body's own system to heal the body. So it it works with the body. There's no medicine on the needles there, you know, like it is it is so cool. So in that way, it is super empowering for people to be like, oh my gosh, my body can do this on its own. It just needs a little direction, you know? And so that empowering, when I discovered that for myself, I was like, oh my gosh, I I have to be involved with this. And then I going into the community, um, I I want that I do see in the especially the older I get. I'm I was born and raised in Roanoke. Um, and I've been very lucky that I've been able to travel and I've seen other places, but um, I'm a I'm a Southwest Virginia girl. And I and I um and I the older I get, I kind of do see the disadvanta, you know, the the disadvantages that we do have. I feel like we are often ignored um in um the in legislatively that we are ignored. And um, and I that disempowerment to me, I was like, I want to, I need to go out into the world um and teach people that they are powerful, no matter no matter where you are. If you are an unhoused acupuncture can show you you still have this power within you, you know, and um um if you are addicted, you still have this power within. If you are, you know, financially insecure, you still have this power within you. And even though it might be only the power to reset your system for 24 hours, it's still it's in there. And so I because I do think the um, and you know, taking that to I really this treatment was actually started in in revolution. I mean, it really was. It was um so acupunct. I'm an acupuncturist. I went to school four years postgraduate to learn how to do acupuncture for the whole body. But this treatment is five points in each year. It was started in the 70s to help people get off heroin, but it was started by the young wars, the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Army. Matoulah Shakur was a real leader in this. Matoulh Shakur, who who was um a political prisoner in the United States and not released until um, oh, I wish I knew the exact date. I think it was in the 2020, but it was he had compassionate release. But he um became an acupuncturist out of, you know, this feeling like to empower his community through healthcare. And um, and so what happened was these organizations, members of these organizations came together because they saw how black and brown people in the Bronx were suffering from um heroin addiction and they and they and meth and methadone, which I'm not anti-methadome, but just like they just felt like they were like something neat from the people needs to come in and lift people up.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

So they took over a hospital, the Lincoln Detox, and created the Lincoln Detox Center. And in that time, they created this treatment, these five points, you know, these five points that come together. They were helped by um a physician named Dr. Michael Smith. Um, but um they, you know, Matoula Shakur was a real leader in this. And he just, I just read a book that where they just talked about how big his heart was, his he did it for love. He did it love of his community, love of everyone. I mean, it wasn't just like a black, brown, white. It he was like, everyone should have access to this. And so what we are doing is trying to carry that message on with these five points, you know, and um, and I they made it very simple so that you didn't have to go to acupuncture school to learn these points. In Virginia, we're very lucky a couple of years ago, we had a bill passed where you could expand this treatment, not this treatment, but you could expand who could give this treatment. So now everybody can be trained. If you um are a part of an organization that is dealing with people who are struggling, you can do this. If you work in an office where you feel like people are very stressed and you want to be able to provide this, you can do this because it's just five points in each year. And um, and it is about it's about love, but it's also about revolution, it's about giving the power back to the people.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

And I think that's so important, like giving someone back their power because at some point something or someone took that power away. And you have so many people that they feel hopeless, they feel powerless. And you know, as a peer, that's one that's my mission is like letting you know, like, no, you can advocate for yourself. And if you can't advocate for yourself, call me. Yes, I I I don't have a problem going to the doctors with you, I don't have a problem speaking up for you and showing you that it's a way to, you know, conduct it and do it. So that gives you a little bit of power back, you know. And I think everybody needs just a little bit of that, you know. You think of like moms or anyone who's been in domestic violence relationships, they're just trying what they can to get back that little bit of power. And if anytime it feels like they don't have that power, they you know feel helpless or they they go back into that state. And like who would have thought in the 1970s that that's what you this what they don't talk about? They talk about everything else. Yes, but that's yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

I mean, this was this was a huge community um rising up to saying we are taking back control of our health care in this in this sense, but also it was a lot about educating, you know, citizen education on how people could make change, how people could, but first they needed some support. And so um helping people get, you know, get off heroin, helping, but by members of their community. It's so much. I was talking to my husband about that, about how it's so much like the peer recovery services or 12-step groups where they, you know, where the it's it's where, and it's how churches also do like there's so many different community, successful community organizations where people of the community support people in the community. And that's what we're trying to do with the five needle protocol is that we are training people in the community to provide for people in the community. And I am lucky. I mean, I am I I am a person who is very privileged, you know. I'm a white upper middle class woman. And um, and so my what I feel my role is I was able to do this, you know, I was able to create this bus, but this bus is not mine, it is for everybody. And when we train people, we have them come work off the bus with us. Um, so that again, it's a community, it's a community thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

And what way, like, I think that's one way that they try to take away our power is education. Yeah. Because if what people don't know, how would they get better? Yes. If you don't educate them. Um, so you mentioned losing Adam in 2013. Um how did Adam's passing shift your understanding of addiction both personally and professionally?

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Well, you know, I I actually have um I am no stranger to addiction. And I um had been around the 12 step 12 steps of a long time since I was a teenager. Um, I my kid's dad is in recovery and um has struggled with addiction. And um I think that what happened with Adam is it was such a a it was such a shock to me. It was such, it was such a um it I knew that he had struggled with a addiction, but I think that the how fast it happened to me the opioid epidemic and um the use of opioids is such a speedy, sneaky snake, you know? And um when I have had members of my family that have been affected by that or friends, watching them go from such a bright light to really moving into that fight survivalist. They become so, you know, they can only operate out of their survival mind. Um that that really was an eye-opener for me. And I think that Adam was the first. It was like when when that happened with Adam, it was like my eye opened just a little slit, you know. But you and I were talking about before is that I still was kind of like Adam. Well, he had addiction issues, you know. It was still an us and and them. But he was the first, the first time that I was like, oh, this is like really getting big, you know, this like this um addiction seems to be really growing. Um and then he was just kind of the first thing, but then just so many, so many um people, so many things that I learned, that I read, that I met, that I lived, you know, all of that. And I was just like, oh my gosh, this is everyone, you know, this is affecting everyone. And so um, I guess Adam was profound because he was the first um eye opener, but he was not, um, it has taken me a long time to be like, oh my gosh, this is all of us. This is everywhere, this is a this is a social issue, this is not a person issue.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And and I think what people don't understand is like once it hits close to home, because like like you like I've always been around people who were suffering with addiction. And then when my brother passed away, and he wasn't even like someone that was constantly using, it was like a recreational thing, right? And so once it hit home, it was like a shock of not how did this happen to me, it was more of a shock of like, oh, this is really happening. And and it has no age criteria, like no, like it's not defined to a certain culture, it's not defined to a certain age group, it's not it's it's like everywhere. And then like once you see it, you can't unsee it, meaning you can start seeing uh in other people what other people are not seeing in that person, and you're like, I know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

So yeah, and it's scary, yes, it is scary, and I think also when you start or you stop blaming uh the the issues, whatever issues they are, on the people and have to take that wider view of like what is happening in our society that is uh not only allowing this to happen, but driving this. And um that I think is very scary too. And um, you know, we've all learned, excuse me, that uh, you know, we are powerless over addiction. We are that's what we learn all the time. Yeah. But we are not powerless over what is happening in our communities. And we um we uh I think we feel like we are because um things feel so big and out of control. But what I'm Finding is with um the Calm Clinic and Caravan. So we don't have a clinic yet, but we're hoping to open one in 2025. Excuse me, I got a cough. But we um the Calm Clinic and Caravan is that we do do rodeo, these wellness rodeos, and we bring together um a lot of organizations. So I just send out an email. I'm like, here are the rodeos this month. We go into um medically underserved communities or communities that just need a little support. Um, and so we go to Newcastle, we have a stop at Melrose Library, and we go to the rescue mission once a month. We're there the same time. Every month we do free acupuncture. But while we're there, we have partners like Chip of Roanoke Valley and the United Way who've who have funded these stops. And they the CHIP sends us with tons of supplies and um resources to give out. We can sign families up for chip, but also the health department might be there and they might be doing sexual health have resources for that. Or um Aetna might be there teaching people how, you know, just informing people how to they can sign people up for um Medicaid. So we try to have a lot of like resources that are wet rodeos at one time because that was another thing. People are like exhausted, you know, like just trying to get to all the resources. Yeah, you are working or you don't have transportation. I mean, it is exhausting. And that was another thing. I saw, you know, people in my life who were who were recovering, but oh my gosh, it was so hard. It was so hard. And so that was another motivator for me when I started the um the calm care van, is that I was like, we got to get into communities, but not just us. Like, we need to partner. And that is one thing that I'm seeing is that organizations are coming together to support each other, to make resources available to each other and make resources available to the people. And when we take that, um, you know, so people come get five NP, five needle protocol, which what that treatment does is take the body out of fight or flight. Take your body out of fight or flight, it operates better. You can think more clearly, you can your, you know, a lot of times pain will go down, you know, you don't have cravings for um for substances. So so they come get a treatment from the wellness wagon, and then they're like, oh my gosh, but while I'm here, I can learn about signing up for Medicaid and let me grab these condoms over here, and let me get these diapers over here, and let me sign up for um chip. And, you know, so it, okay, so they get all that taken care of. Now they might be able to have a little more brain space to think about the larger picture and how they can contribute to making the changes. But I mean, we our culture is so overwhelmed by um the things that we have to do and getting what we need that people are nobody wants to do a bunch of like public service or write to their congressmen or make all these changes because they are like survive just trying to survive. Yeah. So we're trying to help take people out of that.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yeah. I think the frustrating part about helping individuals is that sometimes we also live in a community that don't want to help them. And I can remember working with re-entry, and I have called many employers because you're telling me you hire felonies, and then they I have my convicted felon come apply. And um, then you tell my client that you cannot hire him because of what's on his record. And I'm like, make this make sense to me. How are they supposed to thrive? So you want them to get out and you want them to get a job. I have probation telling my client they have to get a job, but they can't get a job because you're saying you have individual felonies, but you want to set a criteria of what kind of felonies, or you pick and choose who you want to hire. And I'm like, how are we supposed to have a community that thrives, but you don't want to help them? Yeah. Or you set jobs out where the bus does not go, but you expect them to get there. Oh, but you're hiring, but you're hiring night shift. Yes. How is my client don't do well on night shift? I'm sorry. I have a I have a client that is in recovery and night shift does not work well for him. Yes. I'm like, make this make sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yes, yeah. It is like, it is maddening. And I think that for me, like what we are trying to do, and it, I mean, I'm sure it sounds like kind of Pollyanna-ish, you know, so naive. But we believe that, you know, through the five needle protocol, what we are doing through compassionate care, through treating people like human beings, through empowering them, through calming their nervous systems, all of these things, that it's kind of like we're preparing them just to fight another day. Yeah. You know what I mean? And and uh because it is there is so much to battle against once you open your eyes in the morning, especially if you're suffering from substance use disorder, or if you uh do not have um the resources you need to feed your family, or if you are working, I mean, who was I talking to the other day? They are like working three jobs, you know, like it's it is uh so yes, our so in the most simple way, and it sounds so silly, but we are making change through compassionate care. Yeah, you know, and just like letting people be human beings, taking bringing them back into their bodies to be a human being so they can go back out and deal with that, which on another day, which is so crazy.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Yeah. So you actually, you know, hit on one of my questions I was gonna ask you of how you know the five needle protocol is such a powerful tool. But how do you help skeptics understand the impact of the modality, especially in underserved come, you know, communities? Because when you think to me, when I think of acupuncture, um massages, even though those are not the same crowd practice, I'm thinking, oh, that's money. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't, I can't, I just went to my first massage ever. And yeah, I spent some money. But you know, how do you help other people understand? Like, this is this is what we need to have in the undeserved communities.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yes, that's a great question. Um, so really the way that we do it is word of mouth has been huge with the um calm caravan. I mean, just people, and I need to give a shout out here. My my office manager, Mike Holcomb, he he, when I was running my private practice, he really, for the first like two and a half years, he really ran the bus and he built such a community of trust um just by going out in the community and doing five needle protocol and the word spread. And so he really was like such a good ambassador for the for the bus. And um, he when I sold my practice, he stayed on full time with um Zach, who bought the practice. So it was a huge loss for um the calm caravan. But he definitely left a great impression with the community. So um part of it is is that is that um we get skeptics all the time. But people are like my friend told me to come do this. I do not believe in it, you know. And um, and so we just we make it available to everybody. But even if if people don't want it, we're like, well, you can watch, you know, you can watch us give a treatment, you can ask us all these questions, you can't, it is the five-needle protocol, but we also will say, um, if you just want one needle, because that's another part of the treatment, is teaching people to listen to their intuition, which we have really been taught to silence that that internal voice. And so when you're working with people, um, is to say, okay, this is five points in each ear, but if you get to point two and you're like, I think I'm good, we're gonna, we're gonna honor that. We're gonna listen to that. And so I think that giving people choice, giving them information, but also giving them choice. We also um have beads and seeds. So we have, we can tape on um these little magnetic beads on the point, and you can just get them and go. And so we do that. So it's not all, it doesn't have to be um acupuncture needles, it can be acupressure beads that that we can put on. So what we really try to do is give people choice. And if people don't want it, that's okay. You can come get resources. You get sometimes people come, they just want to talk to us, they want to tell us about, you know, because it's acupuncture, they want to talk about their body pain. They have questions about like, what do you think about this? And so um we do not diagnose because um now I am an acupuncturist and I I could diagnose, but I try to keep it simple. Oh, I just we just do five needles. We do five needles in each year, and we know all the resources when you when you want something else. So um, so we do so sometimes we just listen to people or provide a place for them to sit. You know, the bus has uh two tables in the back where people can lay down and four chairs on the inside. And so sometimes people will just come come sit. They'll sit with a friend um while their friend's getting it. And we just we just and we don't make anybody do it that doesn't want to.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

And that you said something that made me think too, that's also giving someone their power back and that's listening to your inner voice because you know, a lot of times with individuals in recovery, we don't trust our inner voice because that inner voice has told us to do some pretty stupid shit if we're being honest. And so the fact that you're like, trust your gut, you know, you're kind of like to me, I'm like, girl, do you not know the stuff I used to do? Trusting my gut. Um, but that's giving them the power back to say, like, I I can do this, like I can make good choices and I can make the best choice for myself. Yes, and especially when it comes to my health. Yes. You know, you that that is so powerful right there because you're not telling them, well, five is what you need. You're like, well, how does that feel? You know, or would do you want to continue, which is big for people who have been taken advantage of, or you know, they've been in vulnerable situations where they did not have that choice. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

And I also think just this is a little bit on a different vein, but I was thinking about this woman. We went to uh the Melrose Spring Festival, which was like so fun. And we um we were so busy all day. And this, and so then we were at Melrose the next week at the library was our stop, and we um so we were at the library, and this woman came on and she said, I was so she was like, I did not want to get this treatment, but my friend told me I really should try it. She said, I have not had pain in 12 days. Oh, wow. And um, from that treatment, from just taking her body out of fight or flight, from just, you know, and so it's kind of like that's what makes people trust us, is that people are having good, good care, good results. And so, and that, and that is what spreads the word.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Yeah. So you talked about that one instance. Has there ever been a moment where someone's transformation on the bus like deeply moved you or changed you?

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Oh, I mean, I I acupuncture is not um, it's not a miracle, it's not magic. Right. It is a physiological, biological, lots of stuff is going on. It is backed by science, blah, blah, blah. We've got all that. But we see miracles all the time. And it is, you know, my I I trade with another acupuncturist. We treat each other, and even when we treat each other, we're like, oh my gosh, this medicine is so beautiful, you know. And um we we do, so we go into businesses hire us to come in. The wellness wagons, wellness rodeos are free. Businesses hire us to come in. We go do festivals. We we do a lot of different, um, a lot of different parts of the community. But even at, you know, I was at a festival. So I went to a recovery festival in West Virginia and we did it, we did it off the bus. Oh my gosh, so fun. Healing Appalachian, it was so good. It was recovery driven, it was like so amazing. And we the the weight of grief from people coming on the bus, family members who were volunteering, um, who had lost people, people who were recovering, you know, the weight of grief. You could you could feel it coming off people, and it that was expected. But then on the next um event we did was uh a yoga festival, and we did that, and the weight of grief at that yoga festival was the same, you know, and the people be putting needles in and people just allowing themselves to relax and cry. It was um, I actually think at the yoga event, it was more people were so um had been holding so much in, you know, and that uh happens. And then again, you know, two weeks ago I was downtown with the sheriff's office treating um on people who are in the house and um the same, the same, you know, where you put the needle in. It's all these different connections of people having the same experience but feeling so separate. Yeah, you know, and so um, and that's another thing about being the way that we do acupuncture, it's community-based. When we open our clinic, it will still be in a room, people um experiencing this healing together because we are sharing this experience together. And um, and so that's another thing that happens on the bus. It's very community healing. Yeah. Yeah. And we treat, we don't separate, even those those examples were all separate, separate. We treat the staff at the event, we treat passers by. You know, we don't care. You're walking down the street, want to know what we're doing, get on the bus. You're unhoused, get on the bus. You're an active addiction, get on the bus. But everybody's together, we don't separate it out.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Yeah. And and to me, that's big because I am someone that from my past experiences, I don't allow myself to be in vulnerable situations like that. So if for me to come and allow someone to complete a service on me, I'm like because when you've been through some of the things I've been through, I I'm not gonna let my guard down. I've always been taught you don't let your guard down. And um, so I've I have always been in that survival mode. So for me to actually get on your van that time when we was talking about, and like I said, I was stressed, I was to the max. Um, and allow someone to one, touch me, and two, be in a setting where it's I'm not in control. That to me was healing because that was a step for me. Because, and I'm pretty sure if my counselor was listening, she'll be like, oh girl, yes, because I am not that person. So the fact that you're creating a space like we do on The Blinded True, for healing for individuals that are like me, and you're like, come on, you don't want to get it done, just sit and be in the space because sometimes people just want to be in the space. Yeah, they're where they love and they feel like this is calm for me. Yeah, you know, yeah, it's I love it.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

I do, I love it too. I love it, I love being a part of it. And all of our staff are, you know, the buzz phrase, you know, trauma-informed care. But we are we are all trained um in trauma-informed care, and we assume at that everyone, everyone has had trauma. And so we try to um support that with compassionate care and providing a safe space where they can come and just have a moment.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yeah. So we're you all are going out and providing all of this. What are we still missing as a system when we talk about accessibility?

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh, we're gonna have to have podcast number two. Um wow. I um well, I talked about the fact that insurance companies in Virginia, a lot of them don't cover uh Medicaid, does not cover it. Um Medicare does not cover it. And um, so we that's that's like a whole thing. Um so we do not have that. Um acupuncture education to become an acupuncture, actually, that isn't very accessible. It's it's pretty expensive. It is um, and when you get out of school, if you are a super duper hustler, you can make pretty good money being an acupuncturist, but it not a lot of acupuncturists don't make a lot of money. They really go into it because they love the medicine. So um that part, I really wish that acupuncture was schools were more accessible, and I'm where I'm working on all this, y'all, but at schools, and that how you know it was more um insurance-wise, was more accessible. In Roanoke, um, you know, what we are trying to do is open a community clinic that is is pretty much like the bus, but it's in it's a place where people can come. And um, that community clinic will have be staffed by acupuncturists. And so um I will be on the staff. We have another um acupuncturist who is gonna work with us, um, maybe two more. And so we would provide full acupuncture treatments in Roanoke. If you want to um support the community acupuncture clinic, you can go to our webpage and we're fundraising right now to get that started. Okay. That will be self-sustaining, you know, within a year because it's um it's so popular. That will be a sliding scale fee. People can come in and pay um $20 to $40-ish and um and no questions asked. They just come pay their and get a full acupuncture treatment. So um, that's what we can do and then educate, educate, educate, you know, just like educate people on acupuncture and just when somebody says that's weird or we don't want that here, or that's not important, is just um remind them that it is important. Health is very important. It is, it it's part of your wellness. Yes, yes, I know, and we want to do preventative health health care, not just sick care. We want to be able to when we open our clinic, right now we do a lot of a lot of sick care because we're working with populations who are undercared for. Um right now, that is so many of our populations, up to burnt out health care workers, you know. Um, so but we would like to be able to be in a position where we do preventative care. Come get acupuncture before you get sick.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

So talking about prevention, um, which your story definitely sits at the heart of um prevention, from your perspective, what does prevention mean beyond just Narcan or clean needles?

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Oh we Am I hitting it? You know, and I know. I mean, you know, I just really our society right now is so fractured. And um, you know, when we in in when we treat substance use disorder, people who suffer from addictions from food to phone to porn to you know, drugs and alcohol, whatever it is. Because everybody has an addiction. Yes, I know. We are all headed in that direction. Um but it is a heart. We treat the we treat the energetic heart, you know, and um and for me, I just feel like we our society needs to keep moving away from blaming the individual and moving towards working together for um for solutions that we the people come up with, that the people who this is affecting that we come up with. And so just continuing to um move forward as a community to um to really look at what is going on in our healthcare system. What is going on, why is you know, just childcare, all the things. minimum wage, all those things. This is why people's hearts are broken. And um it's not gonna get better until we start really trying to to fix those the heart of the heart of the nation.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Yeah. And I think it also goes back to what you said in your story, the why. Yeah. Stop looking at like what the person is doing and look at the why they are doing it. Everybody has a why. Yep. And I love the fact, you know, that I can actually I'm like this I like I call myself the little FBI because I want to know like the underneath layers. Yes, yeah. Okay. So you started using at the age of 12. What was the why? Yeah. Because I think if we look at the why then we can better know the who. Yes. Yes. And then we can start to look at like oh okay my favorite thing is when I do um aces training and I get them to do the the test. Oh yeah. And I had one girl she swore up and down she wouldn't have I had no trauma and I was like okay all right and so when she did the test I was like what was your score and she told me and I was like sometimes people don't realize they've been traumatized until they realize they've been traumatized. Because it affects people differently. Yes. And then you like when I started going to counseling I started connecting the dots like oh that's why I act like that oh that's why I respond like that because of the why.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yes yes and there is it there is not always but so many times there is a larger societal issue. And we're not gonna I mean we are powerless over people that is right but as a community we can come together and be powerful in making the change and I I have been I have seen that I see I feel like we are a part of that change happening but um it is it is gonna take all of us all of us little small small people to make that big change.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Yeah yeah so for someone that you know you hold a lot of space for others what do you do to sustain your own wellness? Oh that's a great question I get I get that question you do all this stuff for other people how are you taking care of yourself and I'm like well I might have brought a pair of shoes which is pretty fun.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

Yeah very satisfying yes yes yes um I uh I have a great dog that I wanted to name dopamine because she makes me happy so I have great dog um I exercise multiple times a week I walk my dog I swim I um I get acupuncture of course I meditate um I'm a like an old can I say shit I'm an old shit I'm an oh shit meditator like I I get my mind gets out of whack and then I'm like oh shit I better start meditating so I'll meditate for a while and then things get better and then I stop and I and then I do it all over again. And I write I have a substack called sassy queen Pamama so I write um so I really do I think after being in this position for so long and actually my mom is pretty good. She she has taught me she's a person who serves but also has taught me to take care of myself too and that having a female role model like that has been really important to me and I hope I have taught my daughter that and my son how to take care of themselves. Yeah so those are the and I just I have great friends I have a wonderful husband I really I have a really good life and so I um it makes it easy for me to serve.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yeah do you kind of know when that moment is coming up like for me I know that maybe I need to take a self-care trip or maybe it's time for I I see a happy meal. It's like cut up peppers with it's notches but like do you know when it's that time or do you kind of like schedule it out before you hit that time? I I that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

I sometimes I know like I was getting ready to go I was on vacation last week and uh the week before I was really stressed which doesn't normally happen with the wellness um with I mean with the calm clinic and caravan but I so when I was running my private practice I was a single mom for most of that and super super stressed. And once I sold that practice I was like I am never gonna do that so to myself again. You know like I totally burned myself out and so I have been very careful to when I feel that amping up I'm like okay what do I need to do? And I can also treat myself with the five needle protocol and my daughter is trained in the five needle protocol. So I mean I definitely can get acupuncture or whatever I want it.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

Yeah I think that's I think that's awesome like I'm I tell people like I have this kind of like this um in like this little small thing that I think God bless me with I have a an illness that it's an invisible illness and um so that kind of like like bumps me too like girl what are you doing? Because then my body starts doing this weird thing where it's like hey something is not right you might want to take a nap. Yeah have you eaten today um and I have to like so now like I schedule my self-care days because I realize like if I can schedule time for other people I can schedule time for myself.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Yes yes and my mom is like you're is that like OCD and I'm like no I have to do that it's a must yes because if not I won't do it and then I'll get to that point where I'm sitting there and my kids are like mom has lost it yes oh my gosh well no my kids know that that's what my mom my daughter still she's 18 she's like she's like oh I remember grumpy mommy that's what but me yes me too I don't want to and I think as um people who in the community are doing this work we need to be examples for others we do not have to so many people and especially women have been taught to over overdo overdo at the expense of themselves but we you don't have to do that and we to be a good example and show you know that we we can thrive we can get the work done and we can still take care of ourselves that's that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Yeah but I think it's hard because like you said we've been we've had we've been conditioned to like be the people that don't say no. Yes and I think that we feel like when we start I had to learn it with my kids like and I would feel so bad sometimes when I'm sitting in the car and I'm eating something I didn't get them and they're like so we're eating leftovers and I'm like yes you're eating leftovers and but then I was like you know what that's okay it is okay it is okay it's okay because sometimes now if my kids are listening you did not hear this from me but I'll take one of them individual be like hey you want to go to the store and that's their cue they're like oh mom's gonna give me a snack where are we going mom and um they'll send the car be like now you gotta eat that before you get in the house with your brother and they're like scuffling it down and then I'll take the other way and then they'll come back the week later mom took me the Chick-fil-a and like my other one's like mom took me to Zach Space. And I'm like stomach like but we have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

We do have to do this. And I'm teaching them to do this. Yes you are and it is okay I mean to put to have boundaries to put limits on things I mean that is how that's the only way we're gonna get all this there's a lot to work of work to be done and so that's the only way we're gonna get it done is just by taking care of ourselves putting out on some boundaries but moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

Now before you had said that we have to find a way to start giving back their power do you feel like that is at like what's the youngest age do you think? Because to me I think as soon as they hit elementary like you start teaching them about boundaries and you know saying no I can remember my mom I think she touched my niece's shoulder or something and my niece said don't touch me like that and my mom said excuse me and I said she has that right but you know I was growing up kids were not they were seen but not heard. Yes and you did not talk back you spoke to everybody but now I think we're as a society are moving into like with my kids if my kids are not comfortable speaking to a certain adult because they get a certain vibe I tell them that's okay. Yes me too. So when would you say like how early would you say we should start teaching about maintaining that power oh always and it is difficult.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

I mean I would say as an adult who has had kids put their boundaries out on me I'm always like because I was raised I'm Gen Gen X so I was raised very much like that you know like you have to hug people you don't want to hug. Yeah blah blah blah. So when somebody puts a boundary out kids do I'm always my first reaction is like shock you know but then I'm like yes yeah well I feel like these Gen Z are like way better at it than we we were and have been allowed to be that way. I mean I would say from birth because you have you know taking it back to um acupuncture and East Asian medicine we have energetic boundaries those that feeling you feel when someone moves into your space where you feel a little electrical a little whatever that's an that's an energetic boundary. And with some people you have bigger ones and some people they can be smaller because of course there are people that you trust and you'll allow in but um we should always teach kids about that about their um that this is real that feeling is real you know and um because if you don't teach them that that feeling is real and their gut feeling is real then the that voice of society the voice of social media the voice of the predator the voice of whatever the groomer that becomes their inner voice and what we want to teach them is that their inner voice is the real voice their inner energy is powerful.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Yeah so in our closing question I have for you um you know the bus is becoming a brick and mortar clinic and expansion of the dream what legacy do you hope the Calm Clinic in Caravan leaves behind in 10 to 20 years?

SPEAKER_02 55:23

Oh gosh You know I I really want people in Southwest Virginia to feel empowered and not taken advantage of and um I really want for healthcare in the United States to be compassionate. So those are my big ones so in 20 years I hope that we have multiple buses going out around these mountains. Yes that we have um that we keep our clinic that we have a thriving clinic um that is just continuing to offer this compassionate beautiful medicine and empowering people in their health care. Yeah now I know that said that was the last question but I have to ask and I think this is what drew me to you when I first met you the blue hair okay I was not a big hair dying person um and then over COVID like so many people did I grew my gray in and I just I don't know what happened. I think after being so burned out for so long and then I grew my hair my gray hair in and I just had this strong voice it was like I am not ready not ready for this so instead of like doing something like just getting highlights I was like I'm gonna go blue but our bus is fuchsia so um that it kind of matches we match each other.

SPEAKER_00 56:52

Yeah I um I love the platinum blonde and I am trying to convince my cousin to just get it gray and so every time I go into her shop there's this one lady she's like you like that color I'm hiding my I'm like I ain't hiding it like I've I've even got to the point where I'm like this hair can fall out and I'll be bald and I will be totally fine and because I'm just like whatever but I had to ax because I am a dye my hair girl like I've had red I've had purple I've blue and so when I did the blonde people was like you're really going the blonde I was like yes I had to ask you yes yes I mean I love it there's part of me that feels like that that part of me that was you know just like a good girl this is so crazy this is too wild but then there's the part of me that named my business Queen Pen. Yeah he is like yes you need blue hair yes and if it fits you it fits the bus everything I want to thank you again Katie for taking the time to come and chat with me today. This was so much fun and if you are in the Roanoke Valley and ever see the wellness wagon hop in I promise you it's not no heebie jeeby especially if you stress your girl got the acupuncture done and she was relieved okay one last question what's the youngest age you will acupuncture someone um well as an acupuncturist I have acupuncture given acupuncture to somebody as four months old four months old but on the bus it's probably 16 and they have to have a parent's permission but ear seeds we can do those any age well yeah hey if you got your parents' permission don't be going to get acupuncture like you go get tattoos and you got the tattoo artist that's gonna tattoo go see my girl Katie with the wellness wagon and again I thank you so much for coming and having this conversation. Again my name is Desi and I am your host for today and this is a wrap up thank you