To My Dear Patients,

It is with great appreciation that I let you know of my retirement as your acupuncturist as of August 1, 2020. With equal gratitude and great confidence,  I announce that my chosen successor Daniel Rola (whom many of you have already had the occasion to see for treatment) is expanding his role of many years at the Santa Cruz Acupuncture Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Clinic (SCAOSMC) to continue to address your health-care needs.

The timing of my retirement is only coincidental with the shelter-in-place orders that were issued for Santa Cruz County in mid-March. Over the last 7 years my wife (also an acupuncturist) and I have been splitting our time between Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives and works. The arrival of our first baby in June has lead us to consolidate into one home near Berkeley. So I am in effect transitioning from providing care for many patients to being a stay-at-home dad taking care of one very tiny patient 🙂

I have full confidence that I am leaving you in very capable healing hands. As a continuing education instructor for other acupuncturists, and a Professor for the last 15 years at the Five Branches University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Santa Cruz, I have had the opportunity to personally train and supervise the development of literally hundreds of present and future acupuncturists. I could have offered to many eager acupuncturists the opportunity to continue my clinical practice, but I have chosen Daniel as he is simply the best and the brightest that I have worked with! It’s been my great pleasure to train Daniel personally for the past eight years, and to watch him not only learn and practice my techniques with great skill and aptitude, but also grow into a talented and capable acupuncturist in his own right. (And I will continue to be available to Daniel to provide support and mentorship and consult with him as needed to help him continue to provide excellent care.)

Daniel also brings with him the skills of his wife Erin Fuller, RN. Erin has smoothly handled our clinic’s insurance billing for many years, and she is also a nurse at Watsonville Community Hospital. Erin and Daniel have been working together since Shelter-in-Place to implement stringent COVID safety protocols based on both professional association guidance for acupuncturists, and hospital-based protocols to insure that our clinic does not become a site of disease transmission. I’ve chosen a truly gifted couple to continue to improve upon the care I have been providing..

The clinic will continue to have the same address, phone number, website, insurance coverage, and level of care you’ve come to know from me. Also, Kathleen Manza who some of you have also seen will continue to be available on Saturdays.

It has been a great joy and privilege for me to meet each of you as well as the many family, friends and colleagues that you have referred to us over the years. I will miss working with such a diverse group of remarkable, fun, fascinating, brilliant, resilient, wonderful people.

There is no way I could easily say a “thank you and farewell” to each of your, nor introduce you all to Daniel personally. Under normal circumstances, I would invite everyone to an informal Goodbye/Hello party; sadly, the public health necessity of maintaining physical distancing means that we will have to say farewell in spirit only for the time being.

With many thanks and appreciation for choosing my services for so many years, I wish you all the best for your continued health and well-being,

Anthony Von der Muhll