Q&A with Will Balkwill

Hello Will! Would you like to introduce yourself and perhaps say what inspired your interest in acupuncture?

My name’s Will Balkwill, I live in London and I’m a professional singer as well being a Five Element acupuncture practitioner. I was a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester training as a musician, initially with trumpet as my first study. I’d somehow developed a bad back and one day happened to be walking through Chinatown and saw an acupuncturist and on an impulse made an appointment. (Chinese medicine often ‘finds the person’!) After the first session I immediately began to feel the benefits and after three sessions my back pain disappeared. So I suppose what inspired me most is that it worked for me.

How did you come to train as an acupuncturist?

As time went on I simply made Chinese medicine my first port of call for my own healthcare needs. After a move to London in 2008 I developed a bad shoulder; I found another practitioner, and again things cleared up. I slowly became fascinated by what was happening and in the end I was asking so many questions that my practitioner asked if I’d ever thought of training as an acupuncturist myself.

How did you manage to juggle training with earning a living singing?

The three year course at The Acupuncture Academy in Leamington Spa (which is the leading centre for Five Element practice) offers training using elements of blended and distance learning; that fitted well with my musical activities. I graduated with a distinction in 2018, gaining the Professional Licentiate in Acupuncture (an honours degree equivalent qualification accredited by the British Acupuncture Council) and was highly commended for my clinical work. I still sing regularly with the Choir of Westminster Abbey but now also have a clinical practice based in Islington as well as working one day a week at the University of Westminster.

What can acupuncture in general – and Five Element Practice in particular – offer people suffering from chronic pain?

A lot of people present with pain as a first cause. Sometimes an initial consultation will reveal something about life that is significant. One of the biggest strengths of Five Element Practice is the focus on what are known as major blocks, and I think this relates well to the kind of bio-psychosocial approaches now common in treating chronic pain. It’s about treating the whole person. It’s vital that people are encouraged to frame their issue in the wider context of their lives in order to achieve lasting results.

Is there was one thing you’d like people to take away from this interview, what would it be?

I suppose I’d like people to be more aware of the possibilities of acupuncture. The overwhelming emphasis of my practice is treating the spirit, the person, unifying the mental and physical. It brings the person back to themselves and restores a natural balance, taking much more into account than merely ‘mechanical’ or ‘biological’ symptoms. With its roots in Daoist philosophy, this system of medicine recognises the individual as unique, and Five Element Practice emphasises this.

And now for the ‘fun’ questions . . . what did you want to be when growing up?

A doctor, like my mother.

What is top of your ‘to-be-read’ pile at the moment?

Yi Jing – Classic of Chang by Damo Mitchell is a classic text that’s currently on the go; then for light relief(?) I’m also reading John Boyne’s novel, The Elements.

Current ear worm?

I heard the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at The Barbican recently. They were playing Wagner: four movements from the final chapter of The Ring cycle so now I’ve got Götterdämmerung going round my head!

Guilty secret?

None!

Really?

Ok, then – maybe too much chocolate!

Thanks Will.

Will Balkwill Lic. Ac. MBAcC practises in Islington and at the University of Westminster.
You can find out more about Will’s practice here