As some of you may know, I’ve long debated the use of this business name as it stands. While Kusala stands on its own merits, I’ve gone back and forth and back again between the use of alternative, integrative, healing, healthcare, medicine, and a few variations in between.

The name as it stands now, Kusala Integrative Medicine, is working its way into a full circle movement as I’ve found myself within my scope of practice, and now that I’ve attempted to register this LLC in the State of North Carolina, perhaps without.

Kusala Alternative Healthcare, first founded in Columbus, Ohio, is one of a few names that I seriously considered at the time. Having left a virulent business partnership, and all of the relationships that became entangled with it, I was left with very little to begin anew with other than my own ingenuity, wits, and determination to make something work, when it was never supposed to have been.

Although I am not a fan of the superfluous use of the term ‘supposed-to-be’ in life – those moments and circumstances when fate intercedes and forever changes our paths in ways that cannot go unnoticed – I do not believe that any of the motivations that I had left the business partnership for were supposed to have happened in the first place.

There I was, left in the aftermath of bridging my shamanic work that had come to me in the years before, feeling bewildered about what to do next. Not only was the business partnership a tragic failure on my behalf, and others, it’s taught me something important about dealing with other people’s money. It’s also taught me the importance of if and when you do enter into legal agreements with those that you are not intending to marry, to have those responsibilities laid out to one another, and to have an unbiased third-party at both person’s side to help them communicate what’s needed.

At the time, in the years between 2004 – 2007 I’d say, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine was a buzz term that was being used in conjunction with Western medicine, and gave those of us on the bottom rungs of the ladder, a foothold into greater conversations regarding health, healing, and spirituality. While Complimentary and Alternative Medicine is still a term in use today, from my own perspective, we’ve seen a dwindling of the alternative in favor of the integrative. We can’t ignore the current models of biology, after all.

In the years between beginning Kusala Alternative Healthcare, and dissolving it, and then resurrecting it many years later, I’ve found a world replete with an integrated approach towards health, healing, spirituality, and dare I say, enlightenment, with many of those in the medical communities now awakening in their own lives, and questioning the absolute validity of Western medicine, and the motivations behind its treatments.

Of course, for those of us approaching a patient’s health from the alternative perspective, we may find spiritual healing to be more inline with our thinking, while those coming from a purely Western perspective may find themselves solely focused on the material world and how it relates to the conditions of the human body-mind. Somewhere in between lies the integrative approach of matter and spirit – where East meets West – as faith and reason find harmony within themselves and the natural world.

So, now, and after having attempted to register my Colorado LLC in the State of North Carolina, and after being declined by their respective Secretary of State, I’ve found myself questioning the name once again. Their decisions to decline this Foreign LLC registration is based in large part due to the “implied practice of medicine” and the legal requirements to operate a PLLC, of which, my current medical license falls outside of.

At the time of this writing I’m trying to find a resolution on both space and location while remaining aware of some of the legal implications that Kusala Integrative Medicine LLC puts this practice in. Easy enough, I could go back to Colorado, change schools and begin taking clients in a timely, efficient, and transparent matter. On second thought, North Cackalacky has a certain thing to it, a sense of time and place that reminds me of Ohio, although significantly warmer than those living near Lake Erie. And to top it all off with, I feel the need to be close to home, to the Buckeye State – The Heart of It All. Needless to say, renaming the business to Kusala Integrative Healing is not out of the question, nor is it entirely necessary.

So, that’s it everyone. This is where I am. This is where my father’s path has led me to, and my time in the Marine Corps has brought me to. While I don’t like the idea of renaming and rebranding now, and future opportunities not withstanding, what are your thoughts? Move to Colorado and begin taking clients, remain in North Carolina, and build a blog that will sustain the foundation for Sacred Hoops, or head back to Ohio and call it a day?

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