Meet Cara ! The dynamic acupuncturist and herbalist, “manning” the Six Fishes ship.
Bio
Meet Cara! Cara was raised in a health food store in Brooklyn, NY. It was clear from the start that Cara was an ambitious soul. At age 8 she cartwheeled 5 miles from Greenwich Village through Soho and Chinatown and across the Brooklyn Bridge.
At 17, she had her first acupuncture treatment. Not long after that at age 20, she enrolled in an acupuncture school. Her studies eventually took her to China in 1998 where she fell deeply in love with Chinese herbs. Since then she has devoted her life to studying and teaching the topic.
Cara has practiced for the last 40 years and the past 30 have been in Philadelphia.
Origin Story
Cara founded Six Fishes in 2013. She had been working in Mt. Airy as a solo practitioner, but in 2007 she relocated her practice to the then, underdeveloped Graduate Hospital nieghborhood.
Walking into Six Fishes’ calm and welcoming environment you’d probably never guess that Cara opened the office on an impulse. “I had no team, no budget, no businesses plan.” But she had an idea for a hybrid, private-community acupuncture space to support the health of the community and so Six Fishes was born!
Cara is the proud head fish of her all woman team and has continued to grow her practice where they see about 750 patients per month at her Grays Ferry and 15th Street location.
Roses and Thorns
For Cara and so many other small business owners the learning curve at the beginning is steep. Early on, she lost a lot of sleep and made many mistakes. But Cara made it work. She had to learn a lot about leadership and how to create a supportive culture focused on community engagement, scholarship, and joy. If you’ve ever been a patient at Six Fishes you know Cara’s hard work paid off.
Recently Cara has found the cost of supplies her biggest hurdle. During the pandemic they went to all disposable sheets and along with the cost of PPE it became crushing. On top of that she could really use a space about twice the size. But Cara knows these problems are the good kind. “I’m very grateful”, Cara says after describing the thorns of owning her business. She makes it work and her Philly community is grateful for that!
2308 Grays Ferry Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19146
215-772-1040
https://sixfishes.com
@six_fishes_acupuncture
