Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Kastner.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As a youth, I was raised being conscious of the content of the food we put in our bodies, such as excess sugar and bad-for-you fats.
A very close family member of mine had also been diagnosed with cancer, and as a kid, all I knew about medicine was healing from Western medical doctors with pharmaceutical drugs and surgery. I remember the family member telling us that their cancer doctor had told them, as part of their treatment, to visualize their body healing itself. To see your white blood cells attacking the cancer and winning. Also, do your best to have positive, happy thoughts and maintain a supportive environment. This opened me up to look at healing in more natural forms.
Growing up, I had dabbled a little bit in martial arts, mainly karate, but didn’t do much with it. When I started college at USF after high school, I wanted to continue my martial arts training and began learning Aikido. Now this opened my eyes to so many things and it’s where I started getting interested in natural medicine, the healing power of plants, herbs, and food, acupuncture and Chinese medicine, energy healing, etc.
I didn’t begin my career in natural medicine until a few years ago. You see, growing up I also was really into music and played the piano, violin, clarinet, bass guitar. I began working in radio in the Tampa/St. Pete area in 1998 in the promotions department for Wild 98.7’s Street Team (now Wild 94.1). I loved it and got into audio production, voiceovers, djing on-air and in clubs and other gigs. Did that for almost 16 years.
In 2015, I decided I wanted to get more into natural medicine as a career and went back to school. Got a bachelor’s in Alternative Medicine and then right after that started an acupuncture medical program. Ended up with a 2nd bachelor, in Professional Health Sciences, and a Master’s in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. After school, we are also required to pass 4 state board exams to get licensed before we can begin treating people.
Got my license in Sept. of 2020 and opened my clinic a few months after (yes, right in the heart of Covid).
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road. One of the biggest struggles was starting a family while going through a medical education program. Normally, not too bad, although not easy either, trying to balance everything, but my son was born in 2016 and came 6 weeks early.
Due to minor complications, he ended up needing to stay in the NICU at Tampa General Hospital for over a month. The hardest part was traveling to Tampa, from Bradenton, every single day during that time, and sometimes more than once. Thankfully I have an amazing family and we had a lot of support and help from them, as well as a few close friends. Somehow I was able to maintain excellent grades and got through the program.
It was also a struggle just to try to maintain and make ends meet. So, while in school, I began working part-time at a martial arts and after-school facility in Bradenton called Awesome Youth Sports and Dojo Martial Arts (now Kaizen Dojo). Learned a good bit there about helping kids and encouraging them to be their best. It’s a really good feeling to see the positive impact and changes they go through.
Since my clinic opened right in the middle of Covid, it was difficult for some people to get over that fear, which could have impacted my start. Luckily, we live in FL, so I didn’t have to deal with having to shut down much.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Aiki Wellness Center, LLC?
I own and operate a natural health medical clinic. The name Aiki is derived from the martial art aikido, which has had a huge impact on my life. “Ai” means harmony, unity, balance, and joining. “Ki” means spirit, life force, and universal creative energy. I wanted a clinic that blended the embodiment of ancient and modern natural healing arts with 21st-century medical and scientific knowledge.
I do a lot of acupuncture, specifically electro-acupuncture. Being that acupuncture is technically neuroscience, I not only base the treatments on traditional acupuncture practices but also on the underlying neuropathology of the condition. The human nervous system permeates and communicates with every cell and organ system in our body. Acupuncture, and specifically electro-acupuncture, is the communication with the nervous system that brings the body back into homeostasis and returns the patient to health. Most of my knowledge in this field came from Dr. Michael Corradino’s Neuropuncture™ program.
Other services include herbal medicine, natural injections, clinical nutrition, cupping, tuina and other manual therapies, and a metabolic detox program.
We treat a lot of orthopedic and pain management cases but also do a lot with mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress, depression, and substance abuse/withdrawal. We’re able to help with sleep disorders and insomnia, metabolic issues, neurological/neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular and digestive complications, men’s and women’s health, migraines and headaches, hormonal imbalances, immune support, and more.
I recently became a member of the VA Community Care Network and we have been helping our veterans in need of care, which has been very rewarding to see the positive changes impacting their lives.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Maintaining focus and staying positive. The only way you truly fail is by giving up.
Negative things will always happen throughout your life. Some are worse than others, yet it’s not necessarily what happens to you that is as important as how you deal with those things, and the mindset you have towards those experiences.
A positive and loving support group and home environment is also extremely important.
Contact Info:
- Website: AikiWellness.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/aikiwellness
- Facebook: facebook.com/AcupunctureInBradentonFlorida
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dr-christopher-kastner
- Twitter: @AikiWellness
- Youtube: @AikiWellnessCenterLLC
