Exploring Life & Business with Jane Gregorie of Acupuncture Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Gregorie.

Hi Jane , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Charleston, South Carolina as the youngest in a family steeped in Western medicine. Both my father and maternal grandfather were surgeons, two of my sisters are physicians, and all of my maternal uncles were doctors as well. As someone who challenged the conservative norms of my provincial hometown, I ended up bucking tradition and finding myself drawn into holistic health and alternative medicine in my early twenties. I left the South to go to college in Vermont, but later finished up my Bachelor’s degree in Boulder, Colorado at Naropa Institute in the early nineties.

Soon after college, I moved to India to study Tibetan Buddhism with a teacher I’d met in Boulder. I spent over a year in India studying Tibetan language, meditation, and ritual practices at a nunnery near a hill station town called Mussorrie. When I returned to the US, I imagined I’d become a longterm expat in Southeast Asia, and started looking into travel nursing as a possible career choice. However, I happened to connect with an acupuncturist at a rural farm in Missouri where I was visiting some friends on my way from SC to Taos, New Mexico and knew I’d be more aligned with alternative medicine. She encouraged me to look into acupuncture school. In the mid-nineties, acupuncture was more counter-culture that it is today, so I didn’t know much about it, but I took the leap and went to the first acupuncture school I visited in Santa Fe, New Mexico, naively signing up for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans!

Since making a living doing acupuncture was difficult in Santa Fe, I ended up having to move to Georgia in the early aughts, but never got over my homesickness for the Rocky Mountains. I longed to come back West and dragged my then-boyfriend, now-husband, Greg to Denver in 2003 and we settled down in Cap Hill, where I started my clinic, Acupuncture Denver. We’ve been here for over 22 years now and having spent the better part of my adult life in Colorado, it feels like home.

We moved to Whittier neighborhood in 2006 and later adopted our children, who are now thirteen and seventeen. We’ve also adopted a veritable menagerie of animals from local rescues and currently live with four dogs and a cat. We enjoy getting away to our cabin in Jefferson to hike, explore, ski, and relax in the quiet woods. We feel grateful to live in such a wonderful community and to have access to both gorgeous wilderness in Park County and vibrant arts and culture here in Denver. We are also grateful to the kindness of the community that welcomed us so many years ago and to the clients who have helped us build our thriving clinic, Acupuncture Denver.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As any small business owner can tell you, there have been bumps in the road along the way. From struggling to build a clientele early on, to managing a rotating door of administrative staff, to surviving the COVID pandemic and shut-down, I feel like I’ve learned to manage uncertainty with confidence and courage. My dedication to the business and our clients gives me the strength to face any challenge, knowing we are putting our best effort out there with both integrity and a heart-centered mission.

As high tariffs on all goods from China loom, I’m taking proactive steps to ensure we can weather yet another major business disruption. Knowing we survived and thrived after COVID, I’m hopeful we can get through this despite the fact that so many of our supplies (especially acupuncture needles and Chinese herbs) will be subject to exhorbitant price increases. Having been in business for over two decades, I’m fortunate to have both the foresight and funds to try to plan ahead for these increased costs.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
After spending part of my early twenties traveling in Southeast Asia, I found myself (on a whim, really!) going to acupuncture school in Santa Fe in 1996. When I graduated in 1999, it was hard to find a job in the field, so I started a tiny practice in Santa Fe, then begrudgingly moved to Savannah, Georgia in 2001 when an acupuncture job opportunity popped up there. I spent two+ years there buidling a successful practice within a integrative medical center, but longed to be back in the Rocky Mountain West.

I moved back West to Denver in 2003, thinking I was going to work in a group practice, but ended up founding Acupuncture Denver on a shoestring budget out of a single treatment room, instead. I was able to expand into my own office space with multiple treatment rooms in The Logan Building after less than 2 years, and hired my first acupuncture associate in 2008. I began to specialize in fertility and women’s health in 2004 when I met my mentor, Randine Lewis, author of The Infertility Cure.

Over the years, Acupuncture Denver has become the preeminent acupuncture and Chinese medicine fertility clinic in the Denver Metro area. Our success was born of a deep commmittment to continuing education and to our highly specialized expertise in the fields of fertility, pregnancy care, and women’s health. We have evolved into a larger group practice of three acupuncturists and two massage therapists, and work closely with renowned fertility clinics like Colorado Center for Reproctive Medicine (CCRM), Conceptions Reproductive Associates, and more. We have a free monthly women’s infertility support group for our clients (and anyone interested) to connect with others going through fertility and pregnancy loss. Our clients remark that they are so grateful for all the support they find at the clinic: from our clinical knowledge to our unflagging committment to their emotional well-being.

Our clinic offers comprehensive services including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, supplement recommendations, dietary therapy, cupping, gua sha, massage therapy, and infrared sauna. In addition to our specialty in fertility and women’s health, we offer general wellness services including treatment for pain, chronic illness, menopausal symptoms, and health optimization.

I’ve poured my heart and soul into Acupuncture Denver, and having experienced infertility and pregnancy loss myself, always feel like it’s a labor of love. I’m so grateful to all the patients who’ve shared their journeys with us, to my employees who helped me create this amazing space, and to my husband, Greg, who is part of both the admin and clinical care team.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the proximity of the mountains, the laid-back, unpretentious lifestyle, and arts and culture scene we have. I spend a lot of time at my cabin in Park County, so the back-and-forth allows me to have the best of both worlds: the diversity of a large metropolitan area and the solitude of a relatively wild high rural area.

Denver is such a welcoming, supportive, and progressive city. And the small neighborhoods make it feel quieter than so many other cities of its size. I feel very fortunate to share the values of so many of my neighbors, clients, and friends.

Dislikes: I’m deeply concerned about the environment and the current threat to public lands brought on by executive orders enacted by the current administration. The public lands and wilderness of Colorado are precious treasures we must steward with the utmost care. I am devastated when I imagine the proposed logging of national forests, drilling of public lands, and degradation of National Parks. These are resources that cannot be replaced and are worth more than all the money in the world!

Pricing:

• Acupuncture Initial visit: $165
• Acupuncture Follow ups: $99
• 8-visit package (follow ups only)- $752
• Massage: starts at $99
• Infrared sauna $35

Contact Info:

• Website: https://acudenver.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acudenver/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acupuncturedenver/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/acupuncture-denver-denver?osq=Acupuncture+Denver

Image Credits
Greg Cradick Photo