About the Acupuncturist:

 

Karoline Gostl has been practicing in Forest Hills since 2005, and Manhattan since 2010.  She is a licensed acupuncturist in the state of NY, and nationally certified by the NCCAOM in chinese herbology. She is a graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), New York campus, with an MSTOM, that is, Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine.  PCOM is an intense program: 11 trimesters long, with an average of 20 credits per semester.  If you're wondering why she didn't just go to medical school for that kind of schedule, you won't be the first.  The short answer is that Karoline prefers a more noninvasive approach to healthcare and she finds that a MD degree doesn’t often let you do much for a patient’s quality of life.

PCOM is highly regarded school, both for its hands-on clinical training and for the emphasis on understanding western medicine. Training is relatively intense in that area so that we can effectively communicate and work with western doctors.  Most frequently, that becomes handy in translating what a patient’s MD has failed to explain, or what Dr Google has managed to terrify a person with.

(Spoiler Alert: Dr Google is useful only if you take the good doctor with a grain of salt.)

Karoline has an additional 3 years training apprenticing in her mentor's clinic, Xing Lin Healing Arts in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.  Her list of CEUs (Continuing Education Units) is long, and mainly includes musculoskeletal and endocrine issues and the crossover between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine.

Karoline is sometimes available for public education and lectures.  Her previous lectures, at which not a single person fell asleep, have covered:

  1. •a general survey of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture,

  2. •Holistic/Chinese Medical Nutrition

  3. •Qi Gong for Health Preservation (very gentle - closer to self massage than exercise)

  4. •and a variety of acupuncture demonstrations at local religious institutions and small businesses

Karoline’s most in depth event to date was guest lecturing (approximately 2 hours) for the Medical Anthropology class at Rider University in February 2006.  We’re fairly sure it’s because it was a lively and curious group, not because Karoline was given more than an hour to babble at a captive audience.

Karoline loves what she does.  She's convinced that she has one of the best jobs in the world.  She might even be right. :)