Joseph Carter is the Director at the Acupressure Institute. He was with the school from the very beginning, doing work-trades to help finance his education. Though a graduate student at Cal in Natural Resource Conservation, one summer where he was building a house and also taking classes gave him the inspiration to move forward on this path. He says, "The kinesthetic aspect of my being was finally acknowledged. I got the feeling I could change the world with my hands." He was 17 years old.

Acupuncture Training Incorporated into Practice
     Two years after graduating from the then called "150 hour Acupressure Workshop" Joseph decided to go to acupuncture school. He became very well informed, but also felt separated because of the clinical aspects of white coats and stainless steel needles. He got out of school and was not able to start a practice until someone suggested he go back into bodywork. Now, his sessions comprise 15% acupuncture, 15% herbs and 70 % acupressure and he deliberately maintains his practice at 10-15 clients a week. He has a sliding scale of $75-$95 where the first session is $95 because it is longer due to the intake and assessment. Joseph also teaches for three to five days a month at the Acupressure Institute and at Alive and Well in Marin.

Development of Practice
     Between 1978 and 1984 Joseph lived a self-styled "low-rent lifestyle" where he took frequent trips and lived in communal housing. However, he then bought an Acura Integra and all of a sudden had to make monthly payments. So he had his business cards made and held pot-lucks at friends houses where he demonstrated points and where people got to know him and what he did. He had one client who referred twenty people to him, and his practice took off from that point on. He says people generally come to this work because they are looking for something more meaningful to do, and that the satisfaction is the driving force for him. He keeps photos of the children that his clients have had after seeing him on the wall, and gives them the first session after the delivery for free in exchange.

Range of Conditions Treated
     The focus of his work is gynecological and immunological concerns, but he has also treated everything from aches and pains to mystery disorders. He has had two people with Lou Gehrig's disease and about twenty to thirty with cancer, because sometimes acupuncturists are used by mainstream medicine as methods of last resort. One woman who was an assistant professor came to him with carpal tunnel syndrome. She had had two full work-ups with orthopedic surgeons, but after two treatments the pain had gone away completely and she did not need to have the surgery. Also, a number of women have families now who were trying to have kids when they came in. He says, "There's nothing like the feeling when it works."

Inspiration and Motivation
     In Acupressure, Joseph has found his life's work, his life partner and a means to support his family. He uses self-acupressure to influence his own energy state and says it "gives him the tools to stay sane in a crazy world." Of doing bodywork, he says:
"Very often, working with a client, to be someone who can hold their suffering with love and care and gentleness is a huge part of it. Often people they are close to are busy doing other things. How many people can you spend an uninterrupted hour or hour and a half with a week? How many people do you feel safe enough with to let down your guard? When you hold people with respect and caring, they appreciate it. We all need someone to hold our story and to hold us. To have someone who can hold you, in all the beauty and strife that is human life, it is profoundly simple. Simple and profound."