Janiece Piper built her acupressure practice by specializing her work with adult children of alcoholics. She draws from her own personal healing experiences and from her background and training as a social worker and therapist. “My skills, passion, and sense of dedication with adult children of alcoholics became finely attuned by tapping into my own life experiences.” Over the past fifteen years, her work was transformed from doing stressful social work to the personal rewards of practicing acupressure.

     Janiece has successful private practice of ten to twenty-five clients a week. She charges $75 an hour; most of her sessions last an hour and a half to two hours. Janiece also teaches at the Acupressure Institute, helps people with sports injuries, and does a few outcalls a week for the elderly.

Discovering Acupressure
     Janiece recalled that her last job in social work was with a caseload of severely abused teenage girls who had to be institutionalized. She was looking for some other type of work that would support her -- when she found the Acupressure Institute. When she enrolled in the basic training, she thought the Institute was an ordinary massage school, before she “fell in love with the work and began applying her acupressure sessions specifically for adult children of alcoholics.” The day after returning to her job, she herniated a disc in her neck, and had to go on disability. This is when Janiece took the intensive 200-hour program in Emotional Healing, and never looked back to social work. She found the core three classes (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) from the 150-hour and the electives from the 200-hour programs most inspiring for her own personal growth and professional practice.

Building an Acupressure Practice
     Janiece started her clinical experience by working on other students at the Wednesday night practice sessions at the Acupressure Institute. After trying to advertise her services and volunteering at health fairs with little result, she was invited to teach acupressure at Skyline College, San Francisco State University, the Acupressure Institute, and Kaiser Hospital. Many of her clients came from these classes and her private practice developed by word of mouth.

     Janiece has a way of talking about acupressure in a practical, but enthusiastic matter. For example, she overheard a man who complained about his back pain. “I learned something in school,” she said to him. “Let me try holding some points for you.” He became one of her most loyal clients and referred his whole family to her!

     Janiece uses the Jin Shin style of acupressure primarily, with tailored visualizations for adult children of alcoholics, and special points she gives her clients for homework. “You do not have to be perfect to do this work, you can be scared, unsure, and still do a good job. I was really scared to start a practice, but thought, if I don’t try, I am always going to regret it later.”

     Janiece enjoys trading with others for their services such as cooking, hairdressing and cleaning. She created a teaching trade with a sports club, at her own suggestion, where she taught a class every few months, in return for the gym membership.

     Janiece says, “My work with adult children of alcoholics is a whole lifestyle; I don’t separate my work from my life, working with people is an outgrowth of who I am fundamentally. I am able to do what I absolutely love to do. I am able to support myself and still have time to do my artwork.” She is relieved to be free of the “rat race” because she never liked working full time, and says that “living in a saner world” has been the best thing about her acupressure career.