AJM Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine Inc

Jay McCoy’s journey to traditional Chinese medicine began as a child. He was always curious about all the herbs and paraphernalia he saw in Chinatown. But it wasn’t until he was in university that he had a proper introduction.

“In my first degree, I had a very academic type degree so there was a lot of sitting and reading and writing, so I did some Chinese martial arts to counter that,” says Jay. “In the martial arts, we use Chinese medicine when we hurt ourselves.”

After completing a degree in German literature and Russian language, Jay decided that he would pursue traditional Chinese medicine. He attended Toronto School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, graduated in 2001, and practiced in St. Albert between 2002 and 2014. In the winter of 2014, he moved his clinic, AJM Acupuncture, to its current location in Edmonton. And though the difference between his original field of study and his chosen career seems vast, he sees some similarities.

“Literary criticism works in the same way that diagnostics does in Chinese medicine. When you look at a piece of literature you’re looking at it from different multiple perspectives, be it ideological, genre-based or within a theoretical framework," says Jay.

“In Chinese medicine, we often use multiple lenses to look at a person’s health in order to determine what sort of treatment pattern we’re going to use. There are overarching theoretical frameworks in Chinese medicine but there are different tools we use to look at it,” he says. It’s all about finding the best treatment for the client.