Meet Jay Bulloch | Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jay Bulloch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jay, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
You have to ask yourself, “is this really what is in my heart to do?” When I was younger, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life, but once I discovered Chinese medicine, it answered a lot of questions I had been struggling to find the answers to, both about my own health and life in general. I started to study it for my own benefit, but eventually I became so enthralled that there was nothing else I was interested in pursuing for a career. There were considerable obstacles and challenges to overcome to complete my formal education, but I was always clear on the what and why, so I just kept going. I think you have to find something that is aligned with your values that you really love. If what you are doing is the thing that is in your heart to do, you will find a way.

Please tell us more about your business. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about.

I now have decades of experience in the study and practice of various healing modalities – nutrition, hands on manual therapies, movement therapies, acupuncture, herbal medicine, Western functional medicine, and meditation – which I can bring together to form comprehensive and complete treatment strategies. I like to educate my patients, providing them with knowledge and tools that empower them to be active participants in their own healing. Understanding both Eastern and Western medicine, I am able to help patients understand what is going on with their health, explaining it in familiar language and a relatable context, and then structure and organize wholistic and comprehensive treatments that get to the root of the problem.

Currently I share a clinical practice with a number of other providers. We have a large clinic with acupuncture, physical therapy, Chiropractic, massage, Pilates, Gyrotonic, and a fully equipped gymnasium. This offers two real advantages. The first being that patients don’t waste time in traffic driving from one appointment to the next. Everything they need is in one location. The second is that each practitioner has their own skill set and tools that complement each other, and we can combine them, working together, to provide superior, comprehensive care for the patients.

How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

In 1992, I traveled from Australia to the US to study martial arts for a few months. I arrived with about $1500 and decided I would stay until the money ran out. I worked in an acupuncture clinic as an assistant in exchange for martial arts lessons. This is where I discovered a true passion for Chinese medicine, and healing work in general. The journey from that stage to completing my Master’s degree, then a Doctorate degree, Sports Medicine Acupuncture certification, and building a clinical practice has been far from easy. There were many times I wanted to give up it was so hard, but there was never anything else I could see myself doing with my life. There was never a “plan B.” The way through the many obstacles and challenges along the way was simply relentless hard work and perseverance, driven by what I can only describe as the calling of my heart and soul. I frequently had to draw on my martial arts training, which taught me to be flexible and adapt to changes while staying aligned with and rooted in integrity. As long as you have a clear vision of your what and why, the how is an ongoing process. My business is a deeply personal endeavor. It’s about living authentically. If you want to live an authentic life, you have to be willing to continually learn, grow, and evolve. The challenges are an essential part of the process.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

One of the most important things I’ve learned is that everything in life has its own timing. You can’t force anything. Remain focused on your goals, but allow life to unfold in its own time. There are always unknowns in life. Don’t let fear of the unknown limit you. If you want to grow and evolve, you are always going to be stepping into uncharted territory. Knowledge can only get you so far. At a certain point you are going to have to rely on your intuition of what is possible, courage, and faith to move forward.

Cultivating and maintaining relationships is also key to success in business and life. The theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine is all about bringing yin and yang (form and function) back into right relationship with each other. I have noticed that people are often their own worst enemies, and so many live in a dysfunctional relationship to themselves. It is their self-destructive behavior, self-limiting beliefs, and their own ignorance of the whole and who they are authentically that is at the root of a lot of their stress, health problems, and deeper suffering. Essentially you are helping to bring someone back into a more integrated and wholesome relationship with themselves, and you can only do that to the extent you have done that for yourself first.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

My life journey has really equipped me to provide a different type of service than a lot of other doctors. My first career (from 15 to early 20s) was as a chef. I still love to cook and use this knowledge to teach my patients how to prepare foods consistent with their diet and nutritional needs. I spent many years training and teaching martial arts, tai qi, and qi gong. During acupuncture school I taught Pilates and Gyrotonic, my own form of therapeutic exercise, and practiced hands-on therapies. My formal studies and interests included both Western and Chinese medicine. I have comprehensive experience and training in wholistic thinking and theoretical systems. This gives me a great ability to see the big picture, to see the whole. As such, I can bring clarity and simplicity to complex and confusing health problems. Because I’m able to look through the lens of both Eastern and Western models of medicine and have experience with various healing modalities, I am able to guide my patients systematically through a more integrated and complete program to help them get out of pain, heal, and achieve their health goals.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

My family, and many of my friends who come and visit, come from overseas, so from the Airport we usually head to somewhere like Gjusta in Venice for breakfast or lunch, followed by a walk along the Venice and Santa Monica boardwalk to stretch the legs after a long flight. Usually, people from out of town also want to see Beverly Hills and the famous Rodeo drive, so that’s another good place to go for a wander while you synchronize with the local time. While we’re there, Wally’s is a good spot to drop in for a bite to eat and a glass of wine. I usually prefer to cook with and for friends and family at home, but the last place I went out to eat with friends was Bestia, which never seems to disappoint.

I also love to scuba dive, so for my friends and family who are into that I would take them out on a day trip diving around Catalina. There are a number of great dive locations there, from deep-water dives with steep walls covered in soft corals with rays, big eels, and occasionally giant sea-bass. There are also the giant kelp forests which are a lot of fun when conditions are good. California is one of the few places in the world you can go diving in giant kelp forests. If we were going to add a second day of diving, the oil rigs off of Long Beach also provide something a bit out of the ordinary. If you have the experience and right equipment, you can descend into darkness at almost 200-feet. There is something almost mystical about being so far down. The light from the surface disappears. When you turn on your flood lights, a whole other world appears before your eyes. The sea anemones that deep are massive, the colors under the flood lights are brilliant, and there are weird, bioluminescent creatures down there you don’t see closer to the surface. As you do your decompression stops on the way up, you can watch the sea-lions swim around like fighter jets. Sometimes they will come and check you out and play with you a bit. It all makes for a great diving experience.

Land based activities could include a day trip out to Joshua Tree, which introduces people to a rather unique ecosystem. Friends coming from other countries wouldn’t have seen anything like it. Maybe an overnight stay there to enjoy the night sky away from the light pollution of the city. If we were going to go to the beach, I would probably head out to Point Dume.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The foundation of any of my success started with my parents. My father passed away earlier this year, so I have been reflecting a lot on what I learned from him. Growing up, I saw how hard he worked to provide for his family, and I watched him go through some incredibly difficult life challenges. His resiliency and stamina were remarkable. The example he set taught me a lot about commitment to others and one’s values, and also the power and strength one can find to overcome adversity when actions are rooted in love. My mother would tell me that I was smart enough to accomplish anything I set my mind to. My only limitation would be how hard I was willing to work at something. Watching how hard both of my parents worked, I realized there were no excuses.

There was also my Gong Fu teacher, Wing Lam, who I learned so much from about integrity, how everything body, mind, and spirit is an integral whole, linked or disconnected based on your awareness and attention. He wasn’t a healer by profession, but his presence and authenticity were medicine to the souls of many of his students. What I learned from him provided, and remains, the foundation of my medical and healing practice.

I also had a teacher and mentor in acupuncture school, Will Morris, who was brilliant in integrating left and right brain thinking, creativity, intuition, material science, and mental rational thought. He could integrate and ground Eastern philosophical and spiritual concepts with Western medical science in clinical practice, creating inspiring and practical treatment strategies. I really learned a lot about the thought process during diagnosis and treatment and how to integrate different paradigms and perspectives into a singular course of action for the patient. He once remarked during a discussion on some of the great masters of Chinese medicine, who are often deified, that they were, “just a guy who had figured some stuff out.” This was an important lesson on not limiting myself by thinking that the masters of past were necessarily better than I could be at figuring stuff out.

Finally, the work of Matt Callison, who developed the Sports Medicine Acupuncture system and program, was a game changer for my clinical practice. His brilliant, seamless integration of Western sports medicine and Chinese acupuncture gave me a framework to diagnose and treat the root cause of injuries and pain better than any other system I have encountered.

Website: https://jaybulloch.com/