Qiological Podcast

What do Bruce Springsteen, Queen Latifa and Dizzy Gillespie have to do with Chinese medicine?

Barry Danielian has made his living as a professional musician. But at an age when most people are content rolling with their groove from decades of development, Mr Danielian has followed his muse to the next chapter of life. Music and martial arts lead him to acupuncture school where he’s now coming down the home stretch of his education. 

Both acupuncture and music require a flexible mind and heart that are rooted in solid fundamentals. It’s not surprising that we often use the metaphor of playing jazz when doing an acupuncture treatment. Both require the ability to be present, attuned and effortlessly flexible from moment to moment. 

Listen in to this conversation on how we take everything with us as we move into new phases of life and putting our heart into our work is an essential ingredient to living a life with meaning and creativity. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese medicine has a treasure house of methods and treatment for women’s health. From the work of Sun Si Miao to modern day practitioners women’s health has been a key concern in our medicine. 

In this conversation with Genevieve Le Goff we explore the transformations of qi through the five phases and six confirmations as we discuss Fu Xing Jue and the mythic lost text, Tang Ye Jing. 

Listen in to this discussion of women’s health and some ways of thinking about our medicine from a non-modern perspective.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

CBD is a big deal these days. Is it really the panacea that is constantly being sold to us? How does this substance and cannabis in general fit in with our thinking in terms of Chinese medicine? How do we separate wishful thinking from fact, and how do we know what constitutes a reliable and pure product from those of inferior grade?

In this conversation with Chloe Weber we investigate CBD from the perspective of Chinese medicine practitioner.

Listen in to this conversation CBD, cannabis medicine and how Chinese medicine practitioners can think about how to integrate this medicinal into their thinking and practices.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Our western world hides death. We are taught to avoid it. Avoid thinking about, do everything medically possible to prolong life, and focus on “more time” without regard to more of “what.” 

In this conversation with Tamsin Grainger we look into how death is inextricably entangled with life. How we care constantly dying to one moment as we emerge into a new one. 

Listen in to this conversation on living into the surprising unfolding of life and how the mindset of pilgrimage helps us to transition through the seasons of our lives.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Our medicine teaches us that all things move through cycles of generation, flourishing, decline and disappearance. It’s the way qi moves through this world and so not a surprise that at some point there is an end to the practice that has sustained us and allowed us to help others along the way.

In this conversation with Charlie Braverman we discuss the sunset of an acupuncture practice. The opportunities that arise while you still have time to learn something new. The importance of having a kind of support when beginning that goes beyond getting the diagnosis right, and how success sometimes means it is time to move onto something else.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Good cookware requires seasoning. A hearty stew takes heat and time. Good wine needs a few years; whiskey, that requires a decade or more. And to develop as a practitioner of Chinese medicine, that ripening can take a lifetime.

In this conversation with Peter Mole we explore the dynamics of doubt and certainty, along with the role of intuition and artistry in the development of an acupuncturist.

Listen into this conversation on the inner journey of becoming a Chinese medicine doctor.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Research when done well is an inquiry that can shift the foundation of your cognitive model. And that’s exactly what it is for. 

In this conversation with Brenda Le we both explore how TCM is seen in our Western Chinese medicine world, and how doing this research opened her up to aspects of medicine and practice that she did not previously see. 

Listen in to this conversation on inquiry, exploration and discovery.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

My initial introduction to moxibustion was the classic Chinese mugwort cigar. I hated it. But only because my lungs are the weak link in my chain of being. The smoke was intolerable. 

Japanese rice grain moxa, that was a whole other universe. It’s not that less is more, it’s that the focused and directed aspects of Japanese moxibustion invite a completely different experience of heat and sensation. 

In this conversation with Felip Caudet we follow his path of discovery with moxibustion. 

Listen in to this discussion on mugwort, calling and surrender to the path that beckons.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The medicines and martial arts of Asia have long considered the lower belly and back to be of significant importance in health, wellbeing and as a kind of seat of power and presence.

In this conversation with long time practitioner Jeffrey Dann we explore the structural powerhouse of the Koshi, the dynamic lower abdomen with all it’s energetic and physiological functions. 

Additionally we explore how to approach the body and appreciate the body and develop a sense of listening and connection that becomes the compass that guides our work.

Listen into this discussion of discovery, appreciation and medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Ethics is never a simple black and white calculation, but rather the inquiry into proper relationship in a world filled with variability. It’s about considering the relationship with self, other, and society. And it’s a way to check ourselves for blind spots and to consider how our actions affect others, as well as ourselves.

In this conversation with Laura Christensen we explore common ethical issues that all acupuncturists are likely to run up against. And you might be surprised to hear about how when considering ethical modes of practice we not only need to consider our patients, but our selves as well. Not operating our businesses in a sustainable way can also be seen as an ethical issue, as we put a burden on our patients when we are overburdened.

Listen into this conversation on some surprising ways you might want to reconsider some of your ethical stances, and why there are situations where crossing ethical boundaries might be of benefit to the patient.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

There is a kind of poetry to Chinese characters. They gives hints and clues about the names we give to the world. They tell a story. 

In this conversation with Elisabeth Rochat we explore, like you’d explore bottles of fine wine, some of the meaning and nuance in the characters 意 yi， 通 tong， 命 ming，and 理 li. There are some delicious surprises in this conversation as I’m more conversant with the common meanings of these characters, and Elisabeth’s perspective gives me a whole new appreciation for Chinese language and thought. 

Listen in to this discussion of characters, medicine and what it takes to be a human being.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Jing, Qi and Shen— the three treasures. Like so many of these pithy quotes about Chinese medicine there is a lot here if you have taken the time to investigate it and see how it fits within your experience of practicing medicine. 

In this conversation with Yair Maimon we touch on the three treasures as they relate to treating cancer with acupuncture, immunology from Chinese medicine perspective, and ways of working with research that help us to further our understanding of our medicine here in the modern day.

Listen in to this discussion that touches both on the classics and modern day perspectives in health and healing.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese is not that easy, and the 文言文 (wen yan wen) the classical Chinese, that stuff is a whole other order of magnitude in challenge to the modern Western mind.

And yet if we are going to practice this medicine with deep roots into a long gone time and culture, we need access to the stepping stones that have been handed down to us over centuries through books and writing.

Translating language is one thing. But translating culture, bringing something of the mind and perception from another time, that is a whole other task.

It helps if you can understand the poetry, the stories, the world view and beliefs of the time. And it helps if you can track the changes in the meaning of words and ideas across the centuries of commentary.

In this episode we are sitting down for tea with Sabine Wilms, a self described "lover of dead languages," for a discussion of Resonance from chapter five of the Simple Questions.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We venerate the masters, hold them up as shining examples of what we would like to be one some day, but let’s be honest here— most of us will never be masters. Those rarified characters are few and far between. And the process it takes is not one most of us would willing sign up for. We do however have a good shot at being a fine journeyman or journeywoman

Why it’s hard to become a master? Master’s are usually forged in troublesome fires. They may be living through a time of war and disease and their medicine comes through the crucible of deep suffering. Perhaps they’ve gone through a terrible illness or accident of their own. Or they are acutely sensitive in ways that make every life difficult.

The journey we take with practicing medicine is not to become like one of the masters we idolize, but to become the practitioner with our particular  slant on the medicine that is our’s to become.

This episode is a discussion of inquiry over time. The discovery's that come not from understanding a book, but rather from the drip, drip, drip of experience from our clinical work that over time teaches us to focus in a particular way. A process that does not guarantee, but rather sets us up, so that one day we read something in the old books and get it. Get it not with so much with our minds, but rather our heart and being. Because it is something that we have grown into. And so we can better understand the writing of others who have also grown into their experience.

Listen in for a discussion how to become a good journeywoman or journeyman.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Stems and Branches are old Chinese science. Our medicine touches on it, but most of us rely on the more modern perspectives for our clincal work. The Stems and Branches speak to a perspective of the universe and our place in it that is foreign to our minds not because of language and culture, but because we live a world that focus more on humanity than cosmos.

In this conversation we touch on the influence of numbers, the spiral nature of unfoldment and change, a few things about the Hun and Po that will surprise you, how time and space give us different glimpses into reality and how a sense of playfulness wtih medicine and philosophy just might be a most wise approach.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

There are many ways to attend to our patients in clinic. We can work through mental models that we’ve acquired from our schooling, study, and clinical experience. We can also use our innate human ability to touch, palpate and sense.

In this episode with Chip Chase we discuss the importance of down-regulating our nervous system. Along with the use of palpation and sensing references to anchor our ideas about what might be going on for a patient, and to track the progress of the treatment as it unfolds.

Additionally we touch in on the use the eight extraordinary vessels and their relation to internal cultivation, take a look at the relatively new emergence of using the divergent channels, and discuss the difference between intending and attending during the treatment process.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We often consider the Five Phases when doing acupuncture, and the Six Conformations when treating our patients with herbal medicine.

In this conversation we consider the interplay of “wu yun, liu qi” the five movements and six climatic qi from the perspective of diagnosis and understanding not just what problem a patient has, but also its progression through time.

Listen in to this discussion on understanding the cycles and interplay of yin and yang that will help you to better understand why a patient’s illness has manifest and how to use both the movement of the phases and the influence of the conformations to treat illness and help your patients.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We give a great amount of respect to the Classics in Chinese medicine, but understanding these foundational texts of our medicine can be challenge, even if you do understand the old form of Chinese.

Just as many of struggle to get through the brilliance of Shakespeare, the classics of Chinese medicine require a particular kind of attention. And it doesn't hurt if you actually can understand the "gu wen" classical Chinese language. It's even more helpful if you engaged the other classic literature of China from an early age.

Our guest in this episode Leo Lok did just that, and in this conversation we see how terse lines from the classics can speak eloquently to confusing cases in the modern clinic.

Listen in and get a glimpse at how the classics can be applied to difficult clinical cases. You'll be wanting to spend more time with the Su Wen (Simple Questions) after this!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Medicine is a curious business. The “agreement” is that the patient has a problem and we as practitioners are going to fix it. It’s not an unreasonable expectation in our fee for service world. And after all, we are the experts that are supposed to know how to resolve a medical condition.

But what often gets left out of the conversation is the question of “what is healing?” Along with “who” is responsible for that and “what” is to be done?

Healing is a curious business. And while patient and practitioner both play a role, more often than not, it’s an inside job.

In this conversation with Alice Whieldon we explore what is helpful, the invitation that arises from dropping expectation and agenda, and the connective resonance that arises from simply seeing how it is for another.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Nothing new about city and rural life being very different. But what about when it comes to having an acupuncture practice? What’s it like to practice to practice away from the bustle of big city? Are country folk really that different from city slickers? And what about non-mainstream medicine like acupuncture, how’s it accepted in the hinterlands?

In this conversation with Barbara Bittinger we discuss the benefits of living and working in rural America and how community is not just an idea but an essential aspect of day to day life.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Can you remember in those first couple of years of puberty when your senses began to quicken and a new world began to open up and you started to question your place in the unfolding this world?

Adolescence is a glorious and often troublesome ripening and as with so many aspects of our lives these days... it’s medicalized as pathology instead of being seen as a series of dress rehearsals for the challenges the world will ask of us in the future. 

Acupuncture can be tremendously helpful teens navigating this phase of life and for their parents and families and as well, as medicine does not see kids separate from the family in which they live. 

Listen in on this conversation with Rebecca Avern on using acupuncture to treat adolescences. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

It is surprising where life can take us. We follow a hunch or a nudge and somehow gain some momentum that in time generates wind for our sails.

Not many westerners in the 1970’s started along the road of Chinese medicine. In this long ranging conversation with Jake Fratkin we discuss his perspectives over time and his current thoughts on medicine.

Listen in for a conversation about herbs, TCM, Japanese acupuncture and the curious road of practice that unfolds when you follow your interests.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese medicine is not one medicine; it’s a kaleidoscopic plurality. There is no one true acupuncture; we have a rich ecosystem of perspectives and methods. 

The  trouble with learning something new is that we have let loose of our current understanding usually acquired through effort and hard work. It’s hard to release what we’ve struggled to learn. Our limited understanding of the terrain becomes our turf. It takes a certain amount of confidence in ourselves, and recognition we know we don’t know, to be able to learn something new that may contradict or call into question that which we comfortably feel like we can rely upon.

Two years ago I started learning Saam acupuncture on a hunch after reading Toby Daly’s article from the Journal of Chinese Medicine. It was at first unpleasantly mind-bending, it took me far afield of what comfortably felt like competence. It invited me into another perspective that eventually came full circle, in that it connected up some of the streams of herbal medicine that I’d been following over the years.

In this conversation, two years after my first podcast discussion with Toby, I’m able to bring a different set of questions and perspectives now that I’ve got a taste for how the Five Phases and Six Conformations connect in ways I could not previous see. 

Listen into to this conversation to get a sense of lenses and perspectives of the Buddhist monastic stream of Saam acupuncture. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We often think of emotion as one thing. That we are sad, or angry, or frustrated, or joyous. But often it’s more complicated than that. Many times there will be an entanglement of emotion. Love and anger, grief and guilt, or excitment and anxiety. It’s when emotions get entangled people can really get stuck as it is hard to sort work through one emotion when it’s intimately connected with another toward which you’re not attending .

In this conversation with Lillian Bridges we explore our emotional makeup, how it shows on the face, and how we can use the dynamics of the five phases to better understand and sort out these deep internal influences that can so dramatically effect our physiology and relationships.

Listen into this conversation that goes into our “internal weather,” the right use of Will and how our feelings can strongly influence our perceptions and perspectives.

The Chinese say 活到老學到老 hou dao lao, xue dao lao, which can be translated as “continue learning for as long as you live.” It’s good advice, and when it comes to the practice of medicine, it’s essential. Our work gives us an endless opportunity to learn and deepen our understanding.

In this conversation with Kathy Taromina, Craig Mitchell and Dan Bensky we discuss what they have been learning about using Chinese herbal medicine in responding to the symptoms of Covid-19, as they carry out a study that is being done at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine.

Doctors of the past have left us a treasure trove of ideas and clinical strategies for treating epidemic illness and all of these methods are coming into play in our modern world, as we learn more about how the Coronavirus affects different people.

Listen into this conversation on how experienced herbalists are learning from the wide range of presentations that are showing up in the clinic. And how you can access the information that is being collected from this study for your own learning and use in the treatment of infectious illness.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The Chinese and people of East Asia deal with epidemic disease on a regular basis. And every time a new bug comes to town, they learn a little more.

While we in the west have access to some of the classic materials on treating epidemics, we don’t have the same level experience. It’s not really our fault, epidemics don’t roll through here in the west as often, and even during the cold and flu season most people don’t seek us out first. So our skills are not as polished as we’ve not had the experience to hone our clinical skills.

In this speical edition conversation with Thomas Avery Garran and Shelley Ochs we discuss their new eBook on Chinese medicine and Covid-19.

Listen in to this conversation on how the Chinese are using traditional medicine at a scale we simply don’t see here in the west.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

There are many ways to do acupuncture. Each method gives you a glimpse into the workings of the body, each one gives you a different map of the terrain. And each method allows us to understand and problem solve with a different set of both mental and physical tools.

Susan Johnson studied with Miriam Lee, who was instrumental not just in bringing Tung Style acupuncture into our western world, but helping to get acupuncture going here in the first place. In this conversation we discuss not just the points and what they do, but more importantly a way of thinking about acupuncture so that you are utilizing the healing resources of your patient without squandering or dispersing them.

Listen into this conversation that starts with Tung acupuncture, but goes into how we think about the work we do, and the kind of spirit that we bring to it.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The prolific science fiction write Issac Asimov wrote “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …”

The wonderful thing about research is that it invites delicious questions and opens avenues of inquiry that lead us beyond the borders of our maps of the world.

In this conversation with Richard Hammerschlag we hear about how his curiosity with how acupuncture was helpful lead him to a shift in career that has had him in the forefront of acupuncture research for a couple of decades now.

Listen in to this discussion on the process of inquiry, and how it’s hard to go wrong when you follow what’s interesting for you.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The airways are full of bad news, fear and conjecture it’s a hit parade of one scary thing after another. This alone would be hard our spirits if you ingest even a portion of the 24 hour media feed. Add on isolation and an unrelenting sense of an inescapable threat— it’s tough on one’s mental and emotional wellbeing.

There is a pervasive sense of grief at the loss of a world that just a few short months ago operated in vastly different ways. The physical and social distancing bring their own difficulties, and for anyone who’s carrying some buried away trauma it’s closer to the surface as the veneer of normality is stripped away.

In this conversation with Alaine Duncan we look at how these times more easily surface lingering trauma and perhaps can give us an opportunity to resolve some issues from the past as we work through the challenges of the present.

Listen in as we discuss the importance of attending to the the Heart/Kidney connection, and how the difficulties of this time can also be a catalyst for healing and change.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

These days pretty much anyone can have their own media outlet. The gatekeepers who used to control access to the airwaves and printing presses are pretty much gone. If you have something to share, especially something that focuses on or services a niche market, then this is the best time to be alive. And here in the midst of Covid-19 this just might be the perfect momnet to work on that book you’ve been noodling on as a “some day” project.

Digital technology has been disrupting the various communications industries for a few decades now. The downside is anyone with a computer and some gumption can get their message out to the world, and that can make for some pretty lousy content. The upside is that anyone with a computer and some gumption can get their message out to the world, which means you can contribute the crowd you want to serve. But you’re going to have to learn to use the tools of digital publishing properly, and be responsible for the workflow and design. It’s not so much of a DIY, Do It Yourself project as much as it is a MIY, Manage It Yourself enterprise.

In this conversation with Oran Kivity, author of Moxa in Motion with the Ontake Method and Sean Sumner, a consultant on self-publishing, we explore the basics of the brave new world of digital on-demand publishing.

Listen in and find out why there has never been a better time to publish your own book.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We have many different ways to view the body with Chinese medicine and each of these lenses gives us a different perspective on both physiology and functionality. It’s not unlike those old acetate transparencies you'd find in old encyclopedias that would allow you to overlay different systems of the body one on top of another. Each one has its own domain, and each interlocks with the other systems.

Michael Corradino for many years now has been focused on the connection between acupuncture and neurology. And he’s developed a system of treatment that focuses on neurophysiology and how acupuncture stimulates the nervous system.

Listen in to this discussion of needles, de qi, nerve stimulation and how acupuncture does not interface with qi, but with our neural network.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The scientific method is useful. It helps us to better understand the world by screening out our biases, beliefs and wishful thinking. The process of crafting a good hypothesis begins not with a great question, but first the more yin process of observation. Seeing what is present, and from there we can begin to distill out questions worth asking.

Much of traditional research is not that helpful in understanding Chinese medicine, as our medicine does not lend itself to the binary world of double blind studies. Our medicine requires research methodologies that can handle emergent dynamic systems. And lucky for us, those models exist and one of the researchers who is keen on these models also happens to be a Chinese medicine practitioner.

In this special podcast episode researchers Lisa Taylor-Swanson and Lisa Conboy share with us the design of a study that is currently being carried at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine on the treatment of symptoms that may be related to Covid19 disease using Chinese Herbal Medicine. This study is geared toward collecting data that will help to guide further research. It’s a study that considers Chinese medicine on its own terms. And this study’s design principles are not unlike the principles of our medicine.

Listen in for a look at how this study is being structured, and then check back in a few weeks as we’ll have a conversation with the practitioners at SIEAM who are treating patients and collecting the data.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

You’ve noticed in the treatment room, that moment when something “lands” for the patient, and there's a palpable internal shift. You’ve noticed this in yourself, that a question can be inviting as a whisper, or make you bristle like a growling dog.

In this conversation with Margot Rossi and Nick Pole we explore Embodied Language, a way of connecting that is friendly to both the body and spirit.

What we say, and how we say it can have a profound impact on the experience of both patient and practitioner. Listen in for how you can use language as skillfully as you use your needles.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Listening is not a skill that I expected to develop. I thought I’d get good with palpation or pulse reading. After all, the masters are said to get what they need with the pause and a few questions. That’s what I was aiming for, however it did not work out that way for me.

I’ve found over the years that there is a way of listening to a patient that has allowed me to both uncover what I need to know to treat them, but more importantly, help me to better understand innate resources they have that they either are not in touch with, or curiously enough think are deficiencies or problems.

Listening is not passive, nor about just hearing what the patient says, it also involves an inner ear to our own experience.

This episode is a solo show in which I share some what my clinical experience has taught about an often overlooked yin aspect of our work— listening.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Most of us are head’s down in our clinical work and focused on taking care of patients and running a business. It’s easy to forget that 40 years ago people were being arrested for doing acupuncture. As a profession in the West, we are new. Even without Covid-19 we often dealing with issues of growth, development, scope of practice, messaging and regulation that all professions go through.

And since we are in a time of challenge and change these issues become all the notable.

Listen in to the conversation with with NCCAOM CEO Mina Larson and Member at Large Afua Bromley as our national accrediting organization responds to the coronavirus and what it means for our profession.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We are being invited, both by our conditions and circumstances and by people in our profession to “get online and do tele-medicine.” However much of what we do as acupuncturists does not translate well, as our most critical tool cannot be used in a digital form.

The questions that I’ve been noodling through for the past month plus are what is the essence of my work when I don’t have access to my kit of tools? And how would I describe what I do, when I can use my needles?

In this rebroadcast of a Lhasa webinar with Daniel Schulman, Alaine Duncan and Amy Mager as we explore the opportunities and challenges in this moment of transformation.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Maybe you were one of those people who learned in English class that you weren’t very good at the standardized form of writing they were trying to teach. Perhaps you thought you weren’t a good writer. And you might want to reconsider that, because copywriting is a lot like talking. And it is about being expressive.

In this conversation with Iselin Svalastog we explore the importance of putting your authentic voice on your website. And how there is a way to write that is persuasive , informative, connective and honest.

Many people think that advertising and marketing is about manipulation, but the most effective marketing is about communicating in a way that is connective, respectful and helpful. Listen in to this conversation on creating compelling content that will make you show up more often in a Google search. And better yet, have people call you for an appointment because they connected with what they read on your website.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

You’ve probably seen patients who are on thyroid medication and the numbers are “fine” according the their conventional doctor, but they just don’t feel right. We know from our experience as practitioners that often our patients are deeply frustrated because they’ve been through thousands of dollars of testing and yet they are told “there is nothing wrong with you.” But the truth of situation more often is “we have not been able to find the source of the problem your having.”

In this conversation with Heidi Lovie we taken a deep enough dive into the hormonal interactions of the thyroid that you’ll be able to better understand the numbers on a thyroid panel. And we then flip into how Chinese medicine, especially the ideas of Li Dong Yuan, can help you to make a substantial difference in your patient’s life.

Understanding the story that certain key factors of the bloodwork tell along with the methods and perspectives of Chinese medicine can make a big difference in the life your Hashimoto’s patients. Listen in and find out how!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

With Covid-19 knocking the bottom out of our practices, there is a call from experts in the field to “get online.” Which isn’t bad advice as it does provide a channel to our patients in a time when we can't put our hands on them. But, and this is important, many of us don’t know what we would do online.

Somehow the idea of teaching acupressure leaves me completely cold. And as to helping people with their nutrition, well, most people I see don’t have much of an interest in that anyway. Add on to it, the fact that there are some things I know in theory, but from an embodied understanding I don’t have much to say.

So the question arises for me of “What in essence, and with integrity, can I share online?”

In this conversation with MB Huwe as we dig into that question. Listen in if you have questions about what can you from that genuine place in your bones  bring to the online world.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Listening is not a skill that I expected to develop. I thought I’d get good with palpation or pulse reading. After all, the masters are said to get what they need with the pause and a few questions. That’s what I was aiming for, however it did not work out that way for me.

I’ve found over the years that there is a way of listening to a patient that has allowed me to both uncover what I need to know to treat them, but more importantly, help me to better understand innate resources they have that they either are not in touch with, or curiously enough think are deficiencies or problems.

Listening is not passive, nor about just hearing what the patient says, it also involves an inner ear to our own experience.

This episode is a solo show in which I share some what my clinical experience has taught about an often overlooked yin aspect of our work— listening.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The opinions we have about “doing business” can dramatically affect the kind of practice we have, the opportunities we recognize or are blind to, and how we feel about ourselves as we begin to generate some momentum and success in our work.

Success brings its own issues. And it does not guarantee your insecurities will go away. The more successful you are, the more responsibility comes your way— and there is more to lose if it all comes apart. Sometimes it might seem “safer” to stay small, but our practices ask us to show up with spirit and resiliency.

In this conversation with Lamya Kamel we look at how our practices ask us to grow in challenging, yet essential ways. And that while we may not have confidence in the beginning, over time it can arise when we approach our work with integrity and passion.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

For those of us in North America the world changed about three weeks ago as the Covid-19 began to make itself known. And as Chinese medicine practitioners begin to close their in-person practice and open up video visits with patients for herbal consultations there is an increasing interest in how we in the modern world, facing this particular pandemic, can use our medicine to help.

Heiner Fruehauf has been translating some of the writing and communications of his friend and colleague Dr Liu Li Hong who has been in Wu Han treating patients for a couple months now.

In this conversation we touch both on the one size fits all formulas that have shown effect in protecting staff from infection, and the importance of applying our Chinese medicine 辨證理論 bian zheng li lun, principles of differential diagnosis.

Listen into this report from the front lines of China, and how we can help our patients and each other as it is now our turn to confront this epidemic.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Some of the difficulties faced by many of us in this time of pandemic are the disorientation, anxiety and fear that arise from uncertainty. But if you look more closely, you’ll see that there never is in this life the guarantee of certainty. It can feel that way because of habituation, but when you strip away the daily habits and sense of continuity, then the profound and often unbearable uncertainty that all self-aware mortal beings share, is always there.

These past few months in Asia and past few weeks in the western world have been tearing away at our sense of certainty and security. We fear for our lives, our livelihoods, families and increasingly… our communities as well.

In this conversation with Greg Bantick we look into how this ever-present moment arises from innumerable causes and conditions, and how curiosity can help us to more fully inhabit all the moments in which we find ourselves.

This is an episode that is not just for practitioners, your patients, family and friends could benefit from this conversation as well.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Moxibustion is one of the more interesting methods in toolbox. Stunning in its simplicity and often brings deep relief for those who are a good fit for this method. It’s curious how the burning of this particular herb can bring about healing.

Alice Douglas has loved moxa since before she became an acupuncturist. In this conversation we discuss her survey of research into moxibustion. There is a lot you probably heard about moxa in acupuncture school and might have wondered, “is that really true?” Listen in and get the answers!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Ours is a portable medicine. In the 1960’s the barefoot doctors in China took Chinese medicine into the countryside. Over the years acupuncturists’ response to natural disasters has show us that acupuncture can be practiced in makeshift shelters or tents. It also has a place in refugee camps, churches of impoverished communities and rural villages.

In this conversation acupuncturist and activist Ryan Bemis talks about how acupuncture and liberation theology go together and can help to relieve a lot of suffering.

Listen in and found out about how Crossroads Acupuncture is not only helping refugees at the border, but also assisting poor communities to better care for themselves with acupuncture. And training acupuncturists in how to be of service to those in difficult situations.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We often think of the bioelectricity of the nervous system as a signaling system for the body to communicate with itself, but it might serve an even greater function of allowing us to interact with our larger environment.

This conversation with John Hubacher started off as an inquiry into electro-acupuncture, but it quickly took a hard left turn into neuro-psychiatry, parapsychology as well as the importance of using standardized measures in research so we can build a common language around treatment and experimental findings.

Listen in to this conversation on the perspectives of a long time researcher into bioelectricity, and how he sees this interacting with biology and quantum fields.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The coronavirus has not only found its way into our bloodstream and mucus membranes, it’s worked its way into our social fabric, economic relations and political disagreements. In this age of global electronic connection news of this new virus creates perhaps more noise than signal.

In this conversation with Craig Mitchell we discuss how the effectivness of Chinese medicine is based not on someone else’s successful prescription, but on our ability to skillfully apply our diagnostic methods. We also touch on the importance of not just treating this disease, but also being sure we don’t become vectors for its spread.

Doctors in the past have confronted these kinds of epidemics. Now it’s our turn at bat.

Listen in to this conversation that reminds us the power of our medicine lies in how we apply it, and the need to attend to limiting the spread of infection.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Many of us like to think we are connected with doctors throughout time, that we practice the same medicine in a continuous flow from the days of Huang Di down to this modern moment. It’s a lovely narrative. One that our patients often think about as well when they say “It’s been around 2000 years, there must be something to it.”

But as Volker Scheid, the guest of today’s conversation, points out “The way patients were even 40 years ago, the way they spoke and thought of their issues is already different from how it is now. Within this small time span the changes from cultural already influence the practice of medicine.” And yet even as this is true, we can find a way to have conversations with doctors across the span of time, culture and language.

Listen into this conversation on the yin and yang of diversity and heterogeneity in the practice of Chinese medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The Saam tradition traces its roots back four hundred years to a monk who as part of his meditative practice received some insight into medicine that allowed him see and work simultaneously with the five phases and six conformations. But monks are not doctors, even if they can relief a lot of suffering with a few needles. And so the methods of Saam have over the years found their way into scholarly and educational traditions of Korea. To the degree that a Pubmed search will find you all kinds of modern research acupuncture using the Saam method.

Andreas Bruch has spent time in Korea and was studying Korean Hand Acupuncture. But there were some aspects of that method that were not quite making sense. That’s when he started studying Saam and all kinds of things began to fall into place.

Listen into this conversation on the more scholarly stream of Saam Acupuncture, which can give you a whole new way to approach thinking about and using the antique transport points .

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Humans have an innate drive to make sense of the world. To understand how things work and see if we can reliability influence the outcome on something. To find a way to get more of what we want, or less of what we dislike.

When you think about it, life is one big research experiment as we are constantly testing out ideas of how things work.

But often when we think about research we are thinking about laboratory controlled environments or double blind studies. And there is a place for those, but those models aren’t that helpful when it comes to using a researcher’s eye to better understand acupuncture.

Lisa Taylor-Swanson fell in love with research before she fell in love with acupuncture. She’s a researcher with the heart and eye of a clinician who is investigating the use of non-linear and complex adaptive systems theory to design research that helps us to go from “does acupuncture” to “how acupuncture helps.”

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The corona virus that emerged in Wu Han earlier in this year has disrupted travel and business and has been a deep cause of concern as doctors throughout the world, and especially in China, strive to understand the nature of this pathogen. Conventional medicine brings it’s modern research techniques to this inquiry. While those of us in the Chinese medicine world seek to understand this modern epidemic disease through the lens and prisms of Chinese medicine.

In this conversation with Cheng Du doctor Jin Zhao we discuss his perspective on the illness induced by the corona virus based on the observations and experience of a number of doctors he’s working with along with his own experience and his perspective gleaned from his long term study of various schools of thought in Chinese medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

It’s easy to think of our skin as the outside wrapper, but really its a mirror of the internal environment. And while topical treatment of skin has it use, it’s learning to adjust that inner milieu that over time makes for the biggest changes with the skin. It’s quite in line with Chinese medicine that we work on the inside to change the outside.

Olivia Hsu Friedman is well studied and practiced with treating skin conditions with Chinese medicine. And beyond that she also works with conventional medicine practitioners and uses an integrative perspective to help those with difficult and recalcitrant dermatological conditions.

Listen in to this conversation on an evolving holistic approach to treating skin problems.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

There is something about connection that goes beyond words. There is a way of engaging with those who seek our help that goes beyond the ten questions. Connection is not something we do, it’s a way we are.

In this conversation with long time practitioner Esther Platner we explore the spaces that don’t quite fit into words. Tread into territories without maps. And sit for a bit with the curiosities and surprise that arise in clinic when we attend with an open awareness.

Beyond our theory, and beyond understanding there is a way we can meet our patients with a wide-open sense of inquiry that asks us to bring everything we have, and leave behind our preconceptions. Chinese medicine has its scholarly tradition, but we don’t so often hear from the poetic.

Here’s your opportunity.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The practice of medicine is not completely about what we do, it’s also informed by how we are. How our  presence, perception and allowing ourselves to abide in that space between knowing, sensing and being can invite a quiet, non-rational part of ourselves into the clinical encounter. 

Michael McMahon, like many of us, did not initially set out to become a Chinese medicine practitioner. It was more a process of discovery— of a kind of feeling your way in the dark. It was a following something that lead to the next, which in turn opened a new opportunity. Not unlike the threads we follow in clinic that take and our patients to surprising places.

Listen in to this conversation that reminds us there is something quiet and still that helps to inform the "doing" of our work.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The changes that come from an unexpected direction tend to be the ones that transform our lives the most. Chloe Weber did not plan on becoming an expert in neurology. She was on the path of providing herbs and acupuncture to low income populations. But when her son’s rare neurological condition invited her to move in a different direction, she took that invitation.

Listen in to this conversation on neurology, CBD, Chinese herbs and how a business can be built because it turns out that in solving your own problems, you can help a lot of other people solve theirs as well.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Just how do you locate an acupuncture point? Are you looking for bony protrusions, a palpable change on the skin, or a rule based measurement from a book? Locating acupuncture points is something every practitioner needs to do, and do well. And there are plenty of different criteria that can be used.

This question about point location caught the attention of our guest in this episode. He started to seriously look into this issue, serious as in with a scalpel and cadaver.

And what he’s found has been illuminating. Listen into this conversation on how one practitioner’s curiosity has allowed him to use modern science to find connections between the classics, acupuncture points and neurophysiology.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Archetypes are deep influences that all humans share. They give us a glimpse into the complicated landscape of our psyche. They can live in the light or influence from the dark. Carl Jung had a lot to say about our intrapsychic world, how these influences are shared across culture and time, and how they manifest in personal and societal behavior. And while they are separated by the distance of culture and thousands of years Confucius had a lot to say that rhymes with the Jungian ideas on Being, Doing, Thinking and Feeling.

Listen into this conversation with a translator of Buddhist texts who also has a background in Chinese medicine for a discussion on the similarities in outlook between these two great influencers and thinkers.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

An often overlooked aspect of running our own business is that it gives us a potent way of connecting with others and serving a community. Sure there are additional responsibilities that come with this kind of an opportunity. But the freedom it can give us, and the ways it will challenge us with personal growth, opens up experiences and opportunities we’d otherwise not have.

Listen into this conversation on how doing business asks each of us to develop untapped potential in ourselves, connect us with a larger community and give us the opportunity to live a life where we get to choose our own responsibilities.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Daoism and Daoist thought is something that many acupuncturists have been exposed to. It might have been part of what launched our interest in studying medicine. And perhaps you’ve had the experience of reading books like the Dao De Jing and come away more with a sense of confusion than clarity. It’s challenging for us as modern westerners to grasp the meaning of writings that have come to us from across the expanse of time, culture and language.

Daoist traditions are alive, but they are passed down within the confines and structure of community

Listen in to this conversation on Daoism, hermeneutics, living traditions and medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Money, for many, is the pebble in our shoe that irrates enough to annoy, but not enough for us to make a fundemental change. And if our accounting systems mirror our confusion or conflict around finances, then that adds more one more thing that we’d prefer not to think too much that will undoubtly circle back and be a source of suffering.

A good accounting system, and the basic understanding of the principles involved can save us a lot of trouble. And it’s not that difficult. If you can learn Chinese medicine, you can certainly grasp the fundemental accounting principles that will help you to better understand the financial health of your practice.

Listen in to this discussion on basic accounting for acupuncturists, embracing financial responsibility and why the 80/20 rule is your friend.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The way we make sense of structure helps us to understand function. Drawing lines and divisions helps us to understand parts. But a keen understanding of the parts does not always help us to see the whole of the functioning of those parts.

The anatomy of qi gives us a kind of bi-ocular view of function and form. It helps us to understand a system, even as we are part of that system. And it invites our western minds, which have been cultivated on carving the world into pieces, to glimpse the unity of those parts.

Listen in to this conversation on qi anatomy, Daoism and the influences of pre and post heaven influences.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese medicine reminds us that we are one part of a complex, interdependent and ever evolving ecosystem. That we both influence and are influenced by the world. Our toolmaking ability has wrought remarkable changes on the world, and on ourselves.

In this conversation we look into the prevelence of manmade electromagnetic radiation, how it has dramatically proliferated in the past 40 years, and how some common health complaints could be a sign how the increase in electromagnetic fields in our living spaces might be effecting our wellbeing.

Listen in to this discussion that gives us some of the basic science behind the technology that allows you to read this on your mobile device, and how we are at the very beginning of starting to understand the effect of electromagnetic radiation on human health.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

What gets us started is not what sustains us over the long haul. The energy of beginning is essential at the start of any new endeavor. But what got us to here, will not get us to there.

It’s easy to think that we are broken because what brought us success does not help us in managing success. Nor does it help us to move through the stages of development as we age and face the challenges slowing our practice down, passing it along or letting go of it altogether.

In this conversation we explore our practices in mid and late career. How we find sustenance in our work. How at some point we let go of the business and practice that has sustained us for decades. And the vital importance in sharing something of what we have learned with those who are at the beginning of the journey.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The classics are helpful not just because they contain pointers to how medicine works. They are helpful because of the discussions they have generated amongst practitioners over the twin distances of time and space. They are a kind of thread that connects us with the doctors of the past who have gone to this well for the wisdom within.

Listen in to this conversation on the pulse as seen through the perspective of the Classic of Difficulties, how the principle of 理 (coherence) shows up in the work we do, issues of free will and that troublesome question of what constitutes a cure.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Most of us spend our days treating illness and working to bring out patients into a great state of health and wellbeing. But there are moments toward the end of life when the greatest state of health and wellbeing means helping someone to more gently leave this world.

Listen into this conversation on the place of acupuncture in hospice care, a glimpse into the complexities of working in this kind of integrated environment and how about we can broaden our view of helping people at the end of life.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.   

This is a series of short conversations with some of the attendees of the Pacific Symposium.

Listen in to the wide variety of perspective and practice as it relates to Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Access to acupuncture point location and function has not always been a matter of a few clicks on your mobile phone. This kind of information has not always been at our fingertips. And there is a great wealth of material has not made its way into your digitial library, let alone into English.

In this conversation we talk about knowing what’s true in Chinese medicine, the problem of cherry picking resources, and the work of translating a Qing dynasty text on acupuncture.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Stems and Branches are old Chinese science. Our medicine touches on it, but most of us rely on the more modern perspectives for our clincal work. The Stems and Branches speak to a perspective of the universe and our place in it that is foreign to our minds not because of language and culture, but because we live a world that focus more on humanity than cosmos.

In this conversation we touch on the influence of numbers, the spiral nature of unfoldment and change, a few things about the Hun and Po that will surprise you, how time and space give us different glimpses into reality and how a sense of playfulness wtih medicine and philosophy just might be a most wise approach.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The medicine we practice doesn’t just help us to help others. It can help us to live more deeply into our own lives. The challenges, adversity and difficulties we encounter show us what we are made of and build resiliency. The practices we create are a living expression of who we see ourselves to be. Furthermore, the process of creating a successful practice that we want to work in, it’s an on-going process.

Listen into this conversation on the power of mentorship, the transformational influence of having a business, and how being your authentic self is the best way to build a practice you want to work in.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

With Chinese medicine we know that issues of the skin are more than skin deep. That imbalances in the internal environment can manifest on the exterior. And that if we focus solely on what is seen on the surface, we’ll miss the larger picture that is unfolding below.

In this conversation we explore dermatological conditions with an eye toward internal organ function, the emotions and how diagnosis can be easy but the treatment more difficult.

Listen in to the conversation on healthy skin from the inside out.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The characters for acupuncture in Chinese, 針灸zhen jiu, literally translate as needle and moxa.

You surely were introduced to the cigar-like pole moxa and large cones of smoldering mugwort on slices of ginger or aconite in acupuncture school. Perhaps you also were exposed to the Japanese rice grain moxa techniques or burning balls of moxa on the head of needle. Not surprising there are a variety of forms of using Ai Ye to bring a kind of simulative heat into the body.

In this conversation we explore the use of moxa that is combined with touch, rhythm, warmth, and with an eye to the channel dynamics that Yoshio Manaka, one of the great masters of the 20th century, wrote about in Chasing the Dragon’s Tail.

Even if you don’t use much moxa in your clinical, you’ll find this percussive bamboo method goes beyond the simple induction of heat into the body. And indeed can be used in a variety of contexts where you’d usually employ a needle, but in this case, it’s motion, rhythm and moxa.

Listen in to this conversation that will have you looking at moxibustion in a whole new way.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Musculoskeletal issues are the bread and butter of many acupuncture practices. Many people only think of acupuncture when they think about the treatment of pain, and not without good reason. Acupuncture is helpful in the treatment of pain. And as acupuncturists we know we could probably do a lot better too.

In this conversation we explore the use of the Dao Zhen, the knife needle. But more importantly, we take a look at how the body is put together. And how to “see” the story of a person’s physiology.

 Listen in for a conversation about understanding structure and function and a surprising method of needling.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We pride ourselves on being connected to an ancient medicine, to a way of thinking, working and treating that ties us back to the luminaries of our field. But medicine is always influenced by the times. And the influences that brought Chinese medicine to the west, and the ways we learned it shape our thought and practice.

In this conversation we discuss the difference between 辨證理論 bian zheng li lun, pattern differentiation, and 陰陽五行 yin yang wu xing, the transformation of yin and yang through the five phases. And take a look at how 醫 yi, medicine differs from what’s commonly called TCM.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Resonance, 感應 gan ying, is an aspect of Chinese philosophy that runs through many aspects of our medicine.

We see resonance as we look through the unfolding of life through the five phases. The way we see east, spring, liver, green, beginnings and wood as having shared energies; the way they resonant the phase of wood. We see it in the how the six conformations express health or illness through five phase relations that are emblematic of each side of the conformation. The way Tai Yang can express with the cold of the Urinary Bladder, or the heat of the Small Intestine. The way Shao Yang Gall Bladder and San Jiao tend to go outwards, while the Jue Yin aspects of Liver and Pericardium move inward.

Resonance is built into how we work. And in this conversation we explore how resonant nature of music and vibration can be used in our clinical practice. Along with a look at the kind of knowing that arises when you have the ability to cozy up to irrationality.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We all know that Tech is part of a modern practice. And regardless of whether we love it, or hate it, it plays a central role in our day to day operations, marketing and communications.

Just like our patients find the language of Chinese medicine to be confusing. Many practitioners find the language and work flow around technology to be foreign territory. Where to find a translator who can speak our language? Right here on the podcast!

Listen in to this conversation as we discuss tech in a down to earth way with an acupuncturist who used to inhabit the high-tech world. Tech really is not so difficult when you understand some fundamentals. You might even find you have some fun with this stuff. Especially after you learn not only how to get yourself onto the first page of Google on a local search, but also make your phone ring with people looking for an appointment.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We can approach the business and financial aspects of our practices a distasteful task that we’d prefer to delegate to someone else. Or we can take it as the opportunity it is to work through our shadow material around the issues of money, power, authority and integrity.

In this conversation we explore how wealth allows us to interact more fully with our world. How finances are just one aspect of a balanced and integral life And how the relationships with community and ourselves are not separate from our relationship to money and purpose.

Impoverishment in any aspect of life will limit our capability to live fully in any other aspect of life.
Listen in to this conversation with a long time meditator, with a hearty ability to laugh,  who leans on the wisdom of the DAO and the DOW.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Last year for the first anniversary of Qiological I invited a listener of the podcast to join me for a conversation, this year I did the same. Part of the reason is that I love hearing from listeners of the show. And the other part is that we all have something to share with each other, and I especially love talking to practitioners that you might not know.

I love talking to people that have been working away in their clinics, usually without fanfare or desire for public recognition. And have through their experience learned something of our medicine, and how it helps people.

Medicine is learned anew in each generation. Yes, we have our old books, and plenty of newer ones as well. We have the conversations, discussions and clinic notes of doctors from past dynasties. But medicine only comes alive when we take what’s been shared with us and learn to see it with our own eyes. Learn to understand it through our own experience. And if we are lucky, work hard and are attentive to that curious interplay between what someone showed us and what our experience is asking us to learn, then we might understand something well enough to pass it along to another practitioner.

We are ever students of the medicine. Perhaps it is that sense of curiosity that unites us more than anything else. Listen into this conversation where we touch in on persistence, creativity and why it’s often helpful to not listen to the teachers who tell you that you can’t do something.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

I started this episode thinking we would be talking about lions, tigers and bears. But we ended up with glial cells, learning and neuroplasticity. Just like in clinic there are often surprising things that show up, and so too it is podcast conversations.

In this conversation we start with veterinarian acupuncture. But then take a hard right and go deep into neuroscience, the treatment of pain, nervous system regulation and how medicine is beautiful. I loved our discussion as it ranged from the clinical ‘how-to’s” of working with animals, to the deep science of neurobiology, and all woven together with a sense of inquiry and appreciation for the beauty of nature and the practice of medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Medicine is an unending study. A process of learning, sifting what helps from what doesn’t, and recognizing that we often are students of the unknown.

In this conversation we explore healing, sacrifice, the importance of learning a tradition and finding a mentor.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

There is more to growing herbs than understanding plants. There are the considerations of soil, economic environment, weather patterns, cultural and market forces, and the kind of eye and vision that can see the interactions of these forces not just over seasons, but years or decades. 

In this conversation we explore the cultivation of Chinese herbs here in the West with one of the pioneers of the movement to bring domestic cultivation of Chinese herbs from a curiosity to viable economic reality. 

Listen in for a glimpse the ecosystem required that makes domestic production of Chinese medicinals a possibility. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Mushrooms are a curiosity. Neither plant, nor animal, they are stuff of fairy tales and dreams. They hint at something dangerous. They could be delicious, or they could kill you. They sprout up unexpectedly and then quickly melt away. Their underground mycelial networks make them some of nature’s largest collective organisms. Yet their fruiting body is just one small momentary expression of their unique life.

Mushrooms like Ling Zhi (Reishi) and Dong Chong Xia Cao (Cordyceps) have long been part of the Chinese medicine materia medica. But these substances, until recently, were preciously difficult to come by. Now with modern cultivation methods and scientific assay tools we have increased access to these unique healing substances.

Listen into this conversation on the use of medicinal mushrooms that are you familiar with, as well as some mushrooms that have recently emerged onto the “superfood” scene.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We rely on the skills of experts. The car mechanic, plumber, web designer, business coach. We want to trust the people that are in the position where our lack of knowledge leaves us vulnerable. We’d like for them to have our best interests in mind, and we also know from experience that we question the car mechanic’s assessment when they find more problems with our vehicle than we’d suspected. Most of us would like some kind reassurance that the person diagnosing the problem is trustworthy, especially when they stand to gain financially.

It can be difficult for the expert to have a clear-eyed view when their livelihood is based on finding and correctly problems. And because the expert is used to knowing their territory inside and out, they can be blind to new information that does not fit the metrics of how they usually operate.

The downside of being an expert is that our knowledge and sense of understanding can blind us to valuable information and give us a false sense of security. As acupuncturists we too are experts. Which gives us a level of skill that truly can help others. But at the same time we run the risk that all experts face of thinking we understand, when in fact we are ignoring vital information.

Listen into this conversation on the benefits and challenges of being an expert.  

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Business is one of those aspects of practice that many new practitioners approach with a not small amount of fear and loathing. Business is often viewed as something bothersome and takes away from focusing on our practice. But the truth is, just like there is a false dichotomy between mind and body, the idea that business is somehow separate from our practice not only is not helpful, but cuts us off from all kinds of creativity and learning.

In this conversation we use the entrepreneurial mindset to discover solutions and opportunities where previously you might have only seen obstacles and annoyance.

Listen in to this conversation and learn why learning to care for your business is not so different from learning to care for your patients.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The experience of trauma is as much a part of life as is falling in love, having family disagreements, and wondering how we fit in this life. And while we tend to focus on the problems that have their roots in traumatic experiences, it is also possible that we can become more resilient and anti-fragile by moving through traumic experiences in a way that allows us to harvest the lessons of the experience.

In today’s conversation we explore aspects of modern bio-physiology, the insights and perspectives from somatic experiencing, and how these relate to the five phases.

Listen in for a discussion of how the fact of trauma is less important than how we move through the cycle of resolution. As we know from Chinese medicine, when things stagnate there are going to be problems. But if there is movement, then the zheng qi of our system will work to help us to resolve the difficulties and bring us to a place of harmony, health and resilience.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

What we tell ourselves might be more powerful than our actual experiences. Not only that, our thoughts shape our bodies. Practitioners of East Asian medicine have hard-won, clinically derived tools for conceptualizing how biography affects physiology.  

Importantly, this is not limited to counseling our patients.  Instead, through palpation and other components of East Asian medical physical exam, patients can physically experience how emotional patterns affect structure and function.

Effective treatments can then help shift that monologue running between the ears to change the state of our sympathetic tone, organ function and blood chemistry in order to ultimately shape the way our sensorium interacts with the world.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

When I was a kid it was easy to smell a snow storm coming, or to be able to feel how the wind shifted and the light in the sky meant that you’d better take cover as a thunderstorm was maybe, if you were lucky, 20 minutes away. Us humans have the ability to sense deeply. And if you don’t’ think that’s true, reflect on the last time you knew there was trouble in your relationship, but when you probed your partner said, “nothing.”

Us humans have extraordinary abilities to sense deeply. Actually, these abilities are not extraordinary, they are just not in this day and time ordinarily used. As conventional medicine relies on the “evidence based” objective tests, and we in the Chinese medicine community have our own questions, theories and processes that prescribe how we use our sensing to determine what is going on for our patients.

In this conversation we go deeply into sensing. Into trusting our first impressions, and how listening attentively with our touch and presence can lead us to places where our patients need attention, even if they are not themselves aware of it. And even if it at first makes no sense to us either.

Listen into this conversation that explores the crossroads of Chinese medicine and old-school osteopathy.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

When you come right down to it… the practice of Chinese medicine is a kind of applied natural science.

What makes for an effective natural scientist? Mostly an abiding sense of curiosity. A willingness to have yourself proven wrong. The capacity for a kind of encouraging delight that emerges from following a thread of inquiry. And the fortitude to spend years or decades on following something that may or may not pan out, but journey is worth the effort.

In this conversation we explore and reflect on the path of practice, and the unexpected places to which it will take us.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Fake it till you make it is not a helpful strategy for acquiring confidence. Any halfway competent human being can sniff out inauthenticity. We can only work at, and improve from, our genuine growing edge of ability and skill.

Cultivating confidence requires time and experience, generous amounts of both failure and success, and a kind of dogged persistence. It requires confronting what we don’t yet understand with an inquiring mind and willingness to be teachable. It demands a kind of steadfast trust that we can learn and adapt. And it takes both patience and a sense of urgency that we don’t waste any opportunity that shows up as challenge on a good day, and trouble on a bad one.

Gaining a sense of confidence is not something we can learn in a class, or purchase as a service. It can only arise from being lived. Listen into this conversation as we inquiry into the practices and experiences that help us to gain a sense of confidence and comfort with our clinical work.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Some learning is more transmitted than taught. Observation, touch, the kind of connection that does not rely upon words. We love to make sense, especially to ourselves. But the theories in our heads, the maps of thought that can point the way, but are not the way; these can lull us into a feeling we understand when in fact our understanding is limited and limiting.

Developing a way to sense directly. Learning from pre-modern books that show us another way of perceiving. And being able to be present to our own unfolding experience in an attentive way. These are more than skills; these are ways expanding our sensorium so that we can both get out of our way and at the same time be present with our patients in ways that can help us not to miss the clues and cues that our theory focused mind would certainly overlook.

Listen into this conversation on the benefit of old books and how sensing opens vistas that theory can only point towards.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese medicine is fractal nature. We can take the broad principles outlined in the Yi Jing, Five Phases or Six Jing and watch as they help us to tune in the particular level of life in which we are embedded or observing. Be it the resonance from tendon, to Liver, to Spring to the arising energy of the East. Or the way Taiyang cold balances Shaoyin heat. Or how the trigrams of water and fire are mirror images. The ancient Chinese sciences and philosophy can help us to unfold a phase within the ever-shifting tides of change.

Today’s conversation takes one of these fractal perspectives, the heavenly stems and branches, and investigates how it shows up in the practice of acupuncture.

Listen in to this conversation on how the stems and branches are reflected not just in heavenly cycles, but in the arrangement of acupuncture points and how this fractal energy can help enliven the work we do with our hands and needles.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Our lives unfold in space-time. It’s the water in which we swim and so like fish, it is difficult to know the influence of the matrix within which we live our days and experiences our lives.

The Chinese ba zi, the eight characters, is a system based on the heavenly stems and branches that can help us to orient to the influences that shape us and can guide us in making sense of certain seasons of our lives.

While often used as a kind of 算命, suan ming, fortune telling system. The Ba Zi can help us or our patients to better understand the arising and falling away of particular influences that can affect our health and wellbeing.

Listen in to this conversation on how these eight characters of influence can help us to orient to the cycles of heaven and earth.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Books on herbal medicine go way back, back into the misty time of myth and story. We have Shen Nong with his peculiar ability to taste and feel the influences of plants. We have the foundational writings of astute practitioners like Zhang Zhong Jing, Li Shi Zhen and Ye Tian Shi. And then there are the thousands of years of regular doctors like you and I, who have recorded their clinical experience so future generations of practitioners might glean something of their experience and perspective.

As with all East Asian medicine there is more than one perspective we can use to understand the nature of humans and world, and how we might be able to assist with our patient's health. The Tang Ye Jing, the classic of decoctions, is an ancient text that looks at herbal medicine from the perspective of the five phases and invites us to consider the use of flavor in a way you might not have considered.

There is some debate on the authenticity of this text. Regardless of origin, the Tang Ye Jing provides us with another perspective that can help us to think in another way about the actions of herbs and the workings of human physiology.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The classics are more than just a way to focus our thinking in clinic, they are part of a perspective that sees the world as an integrated and ever evolving whole.

It can be a challenge for us with our modern linear, rational, material perspective to grasp the the fractal perspective of a world that made up of resonance, and where observer and observed are both parts of a greater whole.

Listen into this conversation on the classic medicine perspective as it can unfold both in clinic and our lives.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

In this episode of Qiological we are taking a look at dry needling not from the legal or scope of practice point of view, but rather from the viewpoint of how acupuncturists can learn something from this form of acupuncture that has quickly grown in popularity among our conventional medicine colleagues.

We all know that acupuncture can be powerful medicine. Little wonder that other professionals would like to be able to access its healing power. And in some ways, conventional practitioners have a leg up, as they already speak the language of the dominate culture, and have a certain status due to being associated with “scientific” medicine.

In this panel discussion with three experienced and dedicated acupuncturists we explore what East Asian medicine practitioners can learn from the dry needling community.Listen in to this conversation that is less about legalities and more about opening up an uncomfortable avenue for learning.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We often think of moxibustion as a potent way to add heat and yang into the body. But if you only think of moxa as heat, then you’re missing the power of the perspective that moxa is about creating a specific kind of stimulation in the body.

Listen in to today’s conversation as we explore how Japanese moxa techniques can be helpful in treating antibiotic resistant tuberculosis. And how our guest has taken resources from Japan, along with research and his own experience in Africa of using moxa to help make a difference in the lives of those suffering from the modern drug resistant forms of TB.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Perceiving and sensing are not the same. It might seem that the stream of information coming in through our senses arrives passively. But further investigation proves this incorrect. And in fact our perceiving not only is an active process, but can become richer, deeper, more nuanced and integrated when we actively bring our attention to help us sense more deeply into our work and interaction with others.

In this conversation we explore how sensing and esthetics help us to better connect with our patients and ourselves. How perception moves through the six levels. And how non-dual states of awareness change what is an “effective action” with our patients.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

East Asian medicine has one foot in the skills and practice of medicine, and another in the traditions and influence of culture. How it is thought about and used in a place like Taiwan bears some similarity to how we practice in the West, and there are also significant differences.

Culture and habit are inseparable from the experiences people have in making sense of world and how they approach illness and health.

Listen in to this conversation on a Western practitioner’s view of doing Chinese medicine inside of the traditional culture of Taiwan.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

As herbalists we know a thing or about the therapeutic application of botanicals. But the lifecycle of plants we work with, the way they interact with their environment, the differences between cultivated and wild medicinals, and the farmer’s eye that takes in the influence of weather, the rightness of soil, companion plants, insects, nutrients and stressors, all these are hidden from view when we are not connected to the growing and harvesting of the herbs we use.

Cultivation is not just giving the plant what it wants. It also includes giving the plant what it needs so it can develop its medicinal properties. And there are risks when bringing a plant from one ecosystem to another. What lives in balance in place could become an unrestained problem in another.

Listen into this conversation on the challenges, risks and opportunities of cultivating Chinese medicinal herbs in the west.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We all can feel the difference between a sunny and cloudy day. The influence of long summer days brings a sense of expansion, while the short weak light of winter naturally makes us turn inward. Light, the quantity and quality of it powerfully effects us. You know this in your bones.

In today’s conversation we looking into a particular kind of light— lasers. These concentrated beams of focused coherent light can be used to upregulate certain biochemical processes that help to promote healing and even can be used to promote neuroplasticity in the brain.

Much like acupuncture, laser light is a a technology that seems kind of magical. And so sorting out science from imaginal flights of fancy is important if we want to understand how to skillfully apply this tool in our clinical work.

Listen into this conversation that will give you some helpful basics on using lasers in your acupuncture practice

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Many of us think that business is something we “have” to do. But really, it is something we “get” to do. It is a kind of privilege to create a life and practice that deeply reflects who we are. And it is an opportunity to work through any issues we might have with money, power and authority.

In this conversation we explore business as a creative process that allows us to bring our unique vision of health and healing into the world. And at the same time invite us to grow beyond self imposed limits and beliefs that keep us from growing into more skilled and able practitioners.

Listen in to this conversation about discovery, creativity, profitability and the resources we find in ourselves when we willing inhabit the opportunity of creating a business that allows us to bring forth our latent talents.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We know that acupuncture can be helpful in the treatment of chronic or ongoing illness, and can be effective in reducing the side effects of invasive or toxic treatments that go along with a cancer diagnosis.

The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic has 27 years of experience helping low income women with a cancer diagnosis. Running an organization like this not only requires skilled volunteer practitioners, it requires a savvy business and operating model.

Listen into this conversation about an organization with a power mission and a business model that allows it to operate in a powerful and effective way.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We mistakenly thought our conversation with Dr Yu had ended, but what can I say… wrong again.

There is a little more of the conversation genereated from Dr Yu’s thoughts on the qi transformation of the six confirmations and the role of theory in the clinic.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Learning formulas is far more than memorizing as series of functions and indications in a book. It requires a kind of attentiveness. A sort of rigorous and yet flexible way of parsing a patient’s signs and symptoms and checking it against both your book knowledge and clinical experience.

In this discussion we explore that tender edge of knowing, not knowing and how to operate in the clinical reality of uncertainty.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Discussing medicine with a seasoned practitioner is like drinking well aged whiskey. Dr. Yu Guo Jun graciously agreed to sit down with Michael Fitzgerald and myself after his morning lecture at the Shen Nong Society’s conference.

If you’re an herbalist, you’ll enjoy this discussion of the six confirmations. Listen carefully, there is something in here about how the levels connect that you might not have heard before.

And do check out the PDF in the show notes area that our friends at The Lantern sent along. It will help you to better understand some of the turns in this particular conversation.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

When we are putting herbs in a bag, or mixing together granules we are probably not thinking about the various laws and regulations from the FDA, or the historical arc that actually allows us to work with herbs in the way that we do.

In this conversation we go into the history and impact of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. There is a lot in the background that we don’t think about on a daily basis, and yet it provides a foundation for being able to practice with herbs.

Listen in to this deep dive into the regulations that affect our practices, but which we rarely consider on a day to day basis.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Some of the most important crossroads in our lives were not marked with a big Flashing Warning Sign, but rather instead were barely notable moments of “Oh, maybe this would be interesting.”

Our guest in today’s conversation had just completed a medical degree and was looking to take a little vacation. That vacation turned into a lifelong inquiry into acupuncture and East Asian medicine.

Listen into this conversation on how a sense of curiosity lead our guest from California to England to Korea and back. And has taken him deep into the investigation of pulses and constitutional medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Electro-acupuncture is a fairly new innovation. And thinking about its use in clinic does not quite match up with the traditional ways we’ve been taught to think about acupuncture and how it works.

We know the body has a profound reliance on electricity for everything from how our brain’s function to how we sense and move our body. But how does electro-acupuncture influence our systems? And how can we combine our traditional thinking with modern bio-science?

Listen in for a discussion about needles and electro-medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

It’s not uncommon for children of doctors to also become doctors. Sometimes there will be a string of docs that run for a number of generations. Which can be a good thing as you can learn at lot at your grandparents knee.

In today’s conversation we talk about a lineage of practice that goes not just a few generations, but a handful of centuries.

Zhejiang province is well known for its fu ke, gynecological doctors. There are actually several streams of doctors that have attended to women’s health over the centuries. Listen in to this conversation on women’s health and pick up a few easy to employ in your clinic tips for making your herbal prescriptions both more effective and tasty as well.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

How we make sense in clinic is not as simple as ticking items off a list. It’s more than mentally sorting through the models, theories, admonitions from our teachers and some chatter from a recent glimpse at Facebook.

While the theories and mental models we crafted through our experience have a place in clinic, there is also the experience of sensing without a story being attached. If we are attentive and quiet enough there is something that arise in our mind, before the label of “it’s that!” gets attached to our experience. Sometimes we can have an experience in clinic that does not yet have words attached to it.

In this discussion we explore perceiving, thinking, evidence and sensing. Listen into this conversation on how we make sense at the edge our unfolding clinical experience.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

It is easy to think of Chinese medicine as a clear step by step process of diagnosis and treatment, but it does not always go that way in clinic. It can take time for a diagnosis to clarify, and then there is the level of skill we bring to treatment. It’s a process that reveals itself as we go. And while it is easy to look back and see the solid stepping stones that lead to a successful treatment; that clarity can be quite elusive while in the middle of the process.

In this episode we discuss the experience of learning from our patients and clinical encounters. How diagnosis is not a series of boxes to check, but rather a process that emerges and clarifies as we engage with our patients and how they respond to our treatments.

Listen in to this conversation with long time practitioner Sharon Weizenbaum as we explore the art of diagnosis and how the way we bring ourselves to the clinical encounter is an essential element of the treatment process.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

The textbooks tell us that sinew channels are important in the treatment of pain and musculoskeletal issues and they are accessed through the jing-well points. But beyond that not much else is said.

In this conversation we investigate the channel sinews from both the Chinese medicine and western functional anatomy and physiological perspectives. This gives us a more nuanced look into how structure influences function and it further helps to illuminate channel theory and its profound impact on both organ function and channel based issues.

Listen in to this conversation on how the tensegrity of the sinews and fascia influence health, movement and wellbeing.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

It’s not hard to study acupuncture these days. A quick internet search will bring up plenty of choices. But back in the 1980’s, it was a different story.

Our guest, like many of us, did not set out to become an acupuncturist. It was a process of fortuitous circumstances that opened those doors.

Listen into this conversation that covers some of the early days of acupuncture in New York City at the beginning of AIDS epidemic.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

The Yi Jing speaks in the language of image, resonance and metaphor. Its not a good place to go for direct answers, but can be helpful in finding some guidence.

Our converation today touches not just on the ways it is used for divination, but more importantly how it is a mirror and once you have a knack for it, you don’t need it for divination. We discuss how the commentaries are as important as the original text itself. And touch on how it is a kind of operating system that can help you to understand Chinese medicine, as well the curious unfolding of your own wondrously mysterious life.

Listen in to this conversation on the power and importance of image and transformation.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We know that Chinese medicine and the martial and cultivation arts of East Asia share a common root.

In our healing practices we are paying attention to the medicinal side of this continuum. We don’t think about the points can be used for martial purposes, or how structures in the body can be used to generate power and force.

Our conversation today looks at some of the internal dynamics and structures from the martial point of view, as well as a tour of some of the points that can be used in particular ways if you find yourself difficult situation.

And as this conversation is the other side of the continuum we use in clinic, you’ll find some helpful clinic observations as well.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Ahhh, the new year.

A moment in time to reflect on the path recently traveled and what’s up around that bend in the road.

This is a solo show reflecting on some of the podcast highlights of the past year, a glimpse into some things already on the calendar. Along with my clinical observations about using the Sa’am acupuncture method in clinical practice, how it has helped me to better understand the connections between the 六經, the six levels and the 五行, the five phases, and some thoughts on the forgotten fu organ in TCM— the small intestine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Sometimes takes an instant to know you might fall in love with something. And then it takes years, even decades to unfold all contained in that initial spark.

When it comes to the study and practice of Chinese herbs, you’re signing on for a lifetime of learning. Some would see that as a barrier, other’s as an opportunity.

The guest of today’s podcast conversation took it as an opportunity. One that not only has helped her to expand her own clinical understanding, but also assist others with their study and clinical application of Chinese herbal medicine.

Listen into this conversation on how one person’s passion has helped to create a conference and resource network for those interested in Chinese herbal medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the conversation. 

Page through the Material Medica and it is easy to think that Chinese herbal medicine is one unified body of knowledge and practice. But, it’s not. 

If you look closely you’ll see that different formulations come from different dynasties. Some were written in times of famine and war, others first penned during heights of peace, cultural exchange and affluence. While it looks like one coherent collection of prescriptions it is actually a history of doctors striving to cope with wildly different conditions. 

In today’s conversation we explore the dosing and cooking methods of some of our oldest and most used prescriptions. Listen in and discover the differences in dosing between ancient and modern times and why harmonizing formulas require a particular kind of attention to how they are prepared. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Chinese medicine and Korean medicine share a lot of similarities. But there are a few differences. And when it comes to constitutional types, there are some significantly dissimilar perspectives.

This is one of the delights of East Asian medicine. Coming across a perspective that is close to something we understand, but different enough to edge us toward either a feeling of “wrong, this can’t be right,” or “oh, I’ve not seen it that way, I wonder how this works.”
It’s at the edges of our understanding that new information can arise and help us to deepen our perspective and understanding.

Listen into this discussion on constitution, the Confucian influence on Korean medicine and how dietary habits and constitution can play a vital role in health and wellbeing.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We tend to think of movement in mechanical terms. How this muscle contracts, how blood perfuses a certain kind of tissue or how tendons and bones allow for particular kinds of movement.

But beyond this we we can see that movement is a kind of vocabulary of the body. It has nuance or not. It has a range of expression or not. And just like micro-nutrients are vital to our metabolism, so to micro movements are vital to our physical wellbeing and nervous system.

Today’s conversation is not about taichi or qi gong, but about another kind of “kung fu” another kind of attentive focus on movement and movement practices that can help us to heal ourselves and our patients.

Listen in to this conversation on how a modern perspective on movement goes hand in glove with our traditional medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Inflammation is a popular topic in the worlds of both alternative and conventional medicine. It’s a pathologic process that is the result of certain disease processes and the generator of others. It is also something that can be treated very well with East Asian medicine.

In this episode we explore how the fundamentals of the Liver/Spleen relationship, the Heart/Kidney axis and digestion in general all can contribute to treating lingering heat in the body.

We also take a look at lingering pathogens, and discuss how herbs with opposite effects are useful in treating these kinds of conditions as they help to reestablish dynamic equilibrium to the body.

Listen in for a conversation on the power of harmonization in the treatment inflammatory conditions.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

The best teachers are perpetual students. They are ones who when things don’t work as expected don’t say the medicine doesn’t work. These people dig into finding out why they don’t yet know how to make it work.

 While aspects of medicine can be taught, there is much more than can only be discovered. Discovered anew within the experience of each generation. And it is those teachers who can help us along in that this kind of learning to learn who set us off on a life-long voyage of discovery.

 In this conversation we listen into one practitioner’s apprentice experience with Dr Wang Ju Yu and the path of practice that it opened up.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

It’s easy to think there is one way to take the pulse, and natural to fall back on the habits that formed early on in our learning to attend to this vital aspect of diagnosis and prognosis.

Pulse is something our teachers help us to orient toward, but it is our experience and patients who help to understand and learn to trust what we feel.

In this episode we have a research scientist’s eye view of the pulse. And how outward beauty is an expression of inward strength and balance.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Sa’am has a good backstory. The meditative attainment of a Buddhist monk sparks a stream of acupuncture that can be taught to simple monks to help alleviate the suffering of the world.

It is a good story.

But, more importantly this is a perspective on acupuncture that gives some penetrating insight into the connections between the six levels (六經) and the five phases (五行). This method can help us to work with our patient’s constitutional, physiological and psycho-dynamic process all at the same time.

It is easy to use in a wide variety of settings as it primarily relies on the transport points of the arms and legs. It does not require a lot needles, and the effects of correct, or incorrect treatment are readily apparent.

In today’s group discussion a couple of practitioners who have recently begun to engage the Sa’am method bring their questions to Toby Daly.

If you have started to use this method, or mulling over in your mind how it works and how to use it, then you’ll enjoy today’s nuts-n-bolts discussion based on actually clinical cases.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

There are basics, principles, fundamentals, some building blocks of how the matter and energy of creation interact and transform. Over the centuries, through wildly different ideas of illness, health and workings of the human body, doctors have applied these principles to the challenges of their day to relieve suffering.

As practitioners, we too are part of this stream. We use the ideas and perceptions of those who came before, and do our best to see how these fundamentals play out in our clinical work.

In this conversation we explore how the basics have been both useful and effective in treating degenerative eye conditions such as macular degeneration and retinal tears. Our guest takes the fundamentals we all share, and applies them as seems appropriate in his clinical work. The result is a deeper understanding of how “incurable” illnesses can respond to the principles of medicine we all share.

Listen in for a conversation on how to learn from your patients.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Liver qi constraint might be one of the most common diagnosis in the modern Chinese medicine clinic. But the role of the Liver has changed over time, and at one point it was even considered to be part of the neurological system.

In this episode we take a nuanced look at that wide and slippery constellation of symptoms that falls under the general rubric of “stress.”

Listen in for a conversation about Chinese medicine from a historical, anthropological and clinical perspective. And be prepared to be surprised!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We trace our medicine back to the Nei Jing, but most of our actual practices come from a more modern perspective.

Going back to those roots is not easy. Even for native speakers of Chinese, reading the 文言文 wen yan wen, the classic Chinese is difficult. For those of us in the modern West, these ancient texts are challenging. They require not just language, but a minset that views the world from through a completely different set of lenses and prisms than Cartesian and materialistic science offers to us.

Immersion in this ancient material changes us if we allow it. Gives us hints at seeing how matter and energy interact in ways toward which modern medical science is blind.

In this conversation we listen into how the Nei Jing gives another way of approaching acupuncture, the 脈 mai, channels, and helps us to understand our bodies as fluid based ecosystems.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Like hitting black ice, suddenly all sense of traction and stability evaporate into a gut wrenching vertigo. Adverse reactions of our patients to acupuncture can trigger this kind of disorientation. And this is when we have an opportunity to learn something that we didn’t previous know.

 Adverse reactions could be due to a botched treatment, we were thinking one thing, but did another. Or our diagnosis was off. Or maybe it was on, spot on but the patient’s processing of the treatment gives rise to a frightening amount of discomfort and sends them scurrying for a quick pharmaceutical fix to calm their fear and anxiety.

 It requires a certain amount of maturity the part of the practitioner to hold steady in a moment of deep uncertainty. And degree of personal development on the part of both patient and practitioner to not let unforeseen reactions stop what might be an important turn in a patients healing process.

In today’s conversation we consider adverse reactions to acupuncture, how to tell the difference between an uncomfortable healing process and an unskilled treatment, and how uncertainty is part of the game when practicing medicine.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

These days we worry about getting through school, passing the boards and then getting a practice started. But there was a time when there were no schools, or national accreditation and practicing acupuncture was a felony. That world was not so long ago, and as is often the case, it is difficult to understand the present moment without a sense of the history that it contains.

Our guest in this conversation began practicing acupuncture before there was licensing and accreditation. He has a view of our medicine and it’s practice that can only come from decades of engagement, learning and integration.

Listen in to another discussion on a view of medicine that comes from the experience of practice over the course of decades.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Even when speaking in our mother tongue we often misunderstand each other. Due to our biases, perspectives, and background it is easy to overlay our story on just about any situation. Add in that we are dealing with translation between language and culture; it gets even trickier.

In today’s conversation we explore the use of “upper, middle and lower” class herbs. This does not mean that upper is better; it means each medicinal has an affinity for more formed or less formed aspects of a person. “Upper” does not mean better, nor “lower” mean worse, these are simply demarcations on where a particular herb will be effective. It’s our job as practitioners to choose the right tool for the right job.

Listen in to this conversation that cautions about conflating “upper” with “better.” And goes into how Chinese medicine can be used for acute and emergent conditions that some doctors used to treat quite well before the advent of emergency rooms. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.

Needle technique is more than knowing how to insert a needle and count the turns in a particular direction. It requires more than the memorization of some protocols, or the rote following of a recipe of steps.

In this conversation we explore needle technique as a part of understanding how to feel into the tissues of the body. We discuss the creation of a treatment that relies not on someone else’s outline, but from your own understanding of first principles. 

Listen in for a discussion of using ourselves as much as using the pins when doing acupuncture. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

In acupuncture school we learn about the 10 questions. But really, the questions are endless. And we are given the image of the scholar/doctor who doesn't say much, just looks at the tongue, takes the pulse and then has everything she needs to treat the patient. But that image does not fit the clinical reality in which most of us find ourselves.

Learning to ask the right kinds of questions. Learning to listen into the places that are silent, or hidden, these are skills that require the honing of time and attention,

In this episode we discuss modern brain science, the verbal and non-verbal aspects of our brains, and how the body has its own multi-textured way of communicating that is often baffling to the voice in our heads that trying to make sense of things.

Listen in for a discussion on the use of words to get beyond words. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is a complex of metabolic and hormonal imbalances. It not only causes menstrual irregularities, but also effects fertility, secondary sex characteristics, and  can be related to elevated cholesterol and blood sugar levels as a woman ages. 

While conventional biomedicine can control some of the symptoms of this disorder, there isn't much it offers in terms of getting to the root of the issue. 

Chinese medicine on the other hand offers a wealth of possibilities that can help to get to the root of the causes and fundamentally shift a woman's physiology and bring balance to the body.

Our guest in this episode knows a lot about PCOS, as she suffered from this disorder and after being dismissed as a troublesome patient decided to see if she could find another way to heal. She did, and today she helps women find their own natural balance without the use of drugs or hormones.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We know that the language and perspective of Chinese and east Asian medicine gives us a whole different glimpse into physiology, health, illness and healing. And if you’ve learned a foreign tongue, then you’ve had experience how language shapes thought, perspective and possibility. 

The systems or currents of medicine we practice, that too gives a framework, a perspective, that helps us to orient and make sense of a patient’s experience and then how we might be able to help them.

For many cultures, dreams are a powerful kind of sensing that speak with a language of their own and can carry important information from our subconscious up into that sliver of awareness that we usually give credit to for running the show. But dreams have their own way of holding and conveying information, and our rational mind is not particularly well suited to that particular non-verbal language. So how do we learn to tune our ears and sensing to the fluidic symbolic language of dreams?

It is doable and there are some surprising possibilities that arise with the right kind of inquiry. Listen in as we sit down for a discussion on dreaming and East Asian medicine. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Learning the basics of promoting or controlling the flow of qi  through the Five Phases is an elemental part of every acupuncturist's training . We learn how the antique points can be used to nudge a response or invite a different kind of resonance into a patient's life. 

The Korean Saam acupuncture tradition has been passed down through a lineage of monk/practitioners. It not only uses  "wu xing" elemental qi transfer, but additionally blends it together with the the six confirmations, yin/yang organ resonance, the yi jing, and constitutional body types.

If you think that acupuncture done well is transformative, but if less skillfully applied will simply do nothing, then you'll want to listen in to this conversation and hear how our guest really took someone off the rails with four thin needles. 

Powerful things can happen with this style of acupuncture and correct diagnosis is essential. Listen in and get the basics on how to begin learning this powerful method that will not only help you to help your patients, but help you better connect up what seemed like different theoretical perspectives.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Beyond the conflicts around scope of practice, the theories and practice of dry needling and intra-muscular therapies give us a deeper look into how acupuncture works on ahshi or trigger points from a bio-medicine physiological perspective. 

Practitioners of this rebranded form of acupuncture have a modern biomedicine perspective on how trigger points, as well as how localized qi and blood stagnation, come about and can be resolved. It's a language that can useful.

Our guest in the episode is a hand's on meat and potatoes acupuncturist who loves functional body therapies. He's gone deep into tuina and orthopedic acupuncture, and has studied the dry needling methods with his Chinese medicine eye. 

Listen in for a well-schooled practitioner's perspective on physiology, trigger points, acupuncture and the fantastic career of Janet Travell. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Chinese is not that easy, and the 文言文wen yan wen the classical Chinese, that stuff is a whole other order of magnitude in challenge to the modern Western mind. 

And yet if we are going to practice this medicine with deep roots into a long gone time and culture, we need access to the stepping stones that have been handed down to us over centuries through books and writing. 

Translating language is one thing. But translating culture, bringing something of the mind and perception from another time, that is a whole other task. 

It helps if you can understand the poetry, the stories, the world view and beliefs of the time. And it helps if you can track the changes in the meaning of words and ideas across the centuries of commentary. 

In this episode we are sitting down for tea with a self described "lover of dead languages," for a discussion of Resonance from chapter five of the Simple Questions.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Forty five years is a long time to have a practice. Especially when you consider that the average American marriage isn't even half that number, and in this day and age people change jobs like they change their hair style.

How do you stay interested in something for decades? How do you change with the times? Work through the areas that you don't yet know, and let the practice itself give you insight into how you work?

If you've read more than a few books on Chinese medicine, the fingerprints of Dan Bensky has certainly been on at least one of them. In addition to his medicine practice, he's been involved in both the translation and editing of books on Chinese medicine since 1981. He has taught and lectured widely over the years. And is one of the founders of the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine.

In this episode I sit down for a conversation with Dan with an eye toward the long arc of practice and how while our work centers on patient care, it involves a whole lot more. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

The words "qi and blood stasis" frequently work their way into our diagnosis of a patient's situation. But getting blood stasis from the realm of theory and  into our perceptual vocabulary takes some practice. And this can be quite helpful especially when working with cases that don't resolve the way we think they should.

In this conversation we look into how the long term effects of blood stasis can cause problems 5, 10, 20 years down the road that become baffling as the usual stuff just doesn't work. Or makes things worse.

Listen in for how paying attention to this commonly seen problem in clinic can help you to improve clinical results and unwind some knotty problems.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

There are currents in our medicine that say we should be very cautious around the heart, in fact, it’s best not to treat it directly. And even in our modern world, treating cardiac issues is something I suspect most of us would feel some uncertainty and anxiousness about as we don’t really get that kind of training here in the West.

It is easy when thinking about cardiology to think about ischemic heart events, but most of a cardiologist’s practice is about managing the various risk factors so as to help people avoid a heart attack. Or in dealing with the slow decline of aging and heart failure.

In this episode we discuss ways of approaching this vital organ, and how Chinese medicine can be used to promote a healthy heart.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Fifteen plus years ago when I was living in Beijing and studying medicine and language I was gifted with a copy of Dr. Huang's Ten Key Formula Families in Chinese Medicine.

At the time it was an astonishing read, as I'd never been exposed to his ideas about constitutional type and how certain people have an affinity for a particular herb or formula family.

It changed how I thought about herbal medicine.

And I've been fortunate to have now known Dr. Huang for many years, and had an opportunity to introduce his work to the western world. 

I was recently in Nanjing for a visit and had an opportunity to sit down with him and some of his foreign Ph.D. students and have a discussion around his latest thoughts on the classic formulas and the practice of medicine. 

Please enjoy this podcast in either English or Chinese, as I was able to edit for both languages.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview

在這片podcast我們外國的中醫師和黃煌教授談經方的魅力。

In this solo episode I review the past six months of Qiological and give you a preview on the next six months. Also I'll talking in some depth about the Practice of Business, why SEO is a process, not a product and some thoughts on what makes for an effective website. Finally, I have some news to share with you about being more involved with Qiological.

I used to think that business was a necessary evil, but have come around to realizing its a powerful opportunity. And I have my family to thank for that.

And speaking of business, your web site is an important part of that. I've some opinions about it too, as mine has become over time an appointment generating machine.

If you would like your phone to ring with people saying "I want an appointment" instead of "I have some questions about acupuncture" after they've been on your web site, then you are going to want to listen to this show and take notes.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We are trained to know a lot about a person from looking and touching. And while we have our “10 questions” or other interviewing checklists, there is a lot that comes from the interview and relationship with the patient that can help us to better understand them and hopefully be of service to them as well.

In this conversation we take a look into how the connection we cultivate with our patients can help not only to inform our clinical thinking and treatment, but become an essential part of the therapeutic process as well. 

Listen in for a discussion on the importance of rapport, why judging our patients is not helpful (but we do it all the time), the power of gaining comfort with uncertainty, and a few gems from the Simple Questions and Classic of The Virtuous Way

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

No one gets through Chinese medicine school without some exposure to the Shang Han Lun, and if you're lucky, the Jin Gui Yao Lue as well. 

But there is a big difference between reading the classics, and understanding how to apply them in our clinical work. What's more, throughout the ages there have been various 專家 (zhuan jia) experts, who have deeply engaged these texts and distilled out a unique perspective that is both rooted the classics and informed by their particular clinical experience. 

The work of Drs. Hu Xi-Shu and Feng Shi-Lun give us a unique view into the connections and interplay of the 六經 (liu jing) the six levels or confirmations.

Listen in as we investigate how illness can span multiple confirmations and how the classic formulas can readily treat complex and confusing clinical presentations. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Pressure, vibration, puncture, and heat, we know there are a variety of ways to stimulate an acupuncture point. 

In this episode we explore the clinical use of light, in the form of low-power lasers. And especially for those of you that don’t really understand electricity, the physics of light, or the difference between an LED and the coherent light of a laser, this conversation will be especially helpful as we go over basics that will help you to better understand these devices and how you can use them in your practice.

Listen in as we learn how to safely use lasers in clinical practice and what kinds of tissues and points that respond to these devices. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Physiology does not forget. Our experience in life effects and shapes our body, our habits and perception. We develop ways to compensate for the difficulties wrought from traumas and unmetabolized experience  in life, but when stressed those compensations don't work so well. That's when symptoms and long held patterns of dysfunction show up asking for our attention.

In this episode we discuss how the work of Wilhelm Reich is helpful when considering the treatment of emotional trauma, along with perspectives of Dr. Hammer and Dr. Shen. We also touch in on the importance of having a tolerance for ambiguity and paradox, the various aspects of 神 Shen (Spirit), and some ways of using the pulse to better understand the differences between a patient’s agitated and compensated state.

Listen in to this discussion that bridges East Asian medicine and Western psychology.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Sciatica is a common complaint that brings people into the acupuncturist’s office. And it’s often treated well with acupuncture. But there are times when a situation that seems straightforward is anything but.

When you start to think about how sciatic pain can be an issue of the dai mai, and how the dai mai is involved not only in the structural aspects of pelvic function, but also in the functional flow and health of the 12 main channels, it’s easy to see how what at first glance appears simple can quickly turn complex.

 Listen in for a discussion of the importance of hands on assessment, the way deficiencies lead to excess and why it’s helpful to have palpatory findings that give you feedback on the effectiveness of your treatment.

Widely known for his pioneering work in sports acupuncture, the guest of this episode joins us for a conversation that reminds us of the deep and varied integration between the layers of being we call body, mind and spirit. 

Additionally we touch on how the trajectory of years and practice can bring us full circle back to basic fundamentals, and that our successes can easily transform into new challenges to overcome. 

We learn not just from our teachers and our patients, but also from our colleagues. One of the real benefits of attending a conference is the opportunities for learning that can't help but arise from the conversations we find ourselves part of.

Here's a few of the many voices that I've learned from this weekend.

Our panel of experienced practitioners discuss the ways they've broken into treating professional athletes, and answer the audience's questions on gearing up to help the pros. 

What gets you started at the beginning of your career is not what keeps you going in the middle part of your career. And as we move into later stages of life and practice, the questions change yet again. 

Listen in to this conversation between some seasoned practitioners considering the trajectory of practice across the span of decades. 

It's not uncommon today for top level athletes to use acupuncture as part of their health care, to enhance performance and treat injuries. 

And even though you didn't hear about acupuncture in the 1984 Olympics, it was there.

Our guest in this episode has been working with sports acupuncture for almost 40 years.

Listen in to this conversation that touches on topics that range from the importance of precise needle location to the value of stillness in your acupuncture practice.

Lots of strange and curious patterns get chalked up to wind and phlegm in Chinese medicine. 

In this episode we take at look at the "curious organ" of the brain, as our guest of this episode gives us a glimpse into the power and usefulness of understanding modern functional neurology as a way to better understand and treat the effects and often hidden pathologies of concussion and traumatic brain injury.  

In this episode we discuss anatomy, orthopedic assessment,  the treatment of joints, sinew pathways, and ligaments.  Our guest takes a deep look, both literally and figuratively  at the anatomy and clinical use of the jing-jin, the “sinew” or “myofascial” pathways. Especially as they relate to joint stability or dysfunction.  

Listen in for a conversation around the clinical power of the sinew channels and why brushing up on your anatomy will help you get better clinical results and improve your confidence with deep needling.

Chad Bong is one of the organizers of the Sports Acupuncture Alliance's conference. 

He's a busy guy, but we managed to grab a few minutes to talk about acupuncture, community and the inspiration and effort behind this conference. 

Needles are an essential aspect of our practices that most of us don’t know much about, other than we have some brands or types we like to use. What goes into a needle and how needle technology over the years has changed is a bit of a mystery to many of us. So I’m delighted to have Matt Pike here with me. He’s been involved with the sourcing and manufacture of acupuncture needles for a long time.

We are going to get into the backstory on this essential tool that we use everyday in the work we do. And we’re going to talk a little about a new needled being introduced here at the conference that has been specially designed and  manufactured for sports and orthopedic acupuncture. 

As practitioners we all work with a mix of theory, clinical sensibilities developed through years of practice, and the immediate moment of encounter with our patients. What we feel with our hands can deeply help to inform our treatments and ground our mental models into the physicality of the present moment. 

Our colleagues on the shiatsu side of the house have a bit of an advantage in connecting and working with the channels and points in a sensate way, as they spend much more of their time in physical contact with their patients. 

Listen in to this conversation with a shiatsu practitioner whose practice has been steeped in decades of clinical work as we explore the differences between intention and attention, working with the sensing of the hands along with the ideas of the mind, and the important difference between maps and compasses. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

In this episode we discuss the Jing Fang, the classic formulas, as they are being used by Dr. Huang Huang in the modern clinic, along a look at how some of our oldest medicine helps to throw new light on the importance of the digestive system and human biome.

Listen in for a wide ranging discussion that covers the challenges and rewards of studying in China. How some simple formulas from the Shang Han Lun are not so simple once you begin to dig into them, and what it is like to do a Ph.D. in China.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Children are full of yang qi and respond quickly to the methods of East Asian medicine. There is a lot of good you can do in using our methods to treat kids, especially in treating some conditions that conventional medicine can only offer symptomatic relief.

Our guest in this episode got started with treating children by working through some health issues with her own kids.

Listen as we discuss the common issues that children present with in the clinic, how to enlist the help of parents, how to help children feel comfortable with needles, and a few things about treating kids that you won’t find in books.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

One of the great things about podcasts is that it’s not difficult to find one that lines up with your particular interest. Chinese medicine practitioners are fortunate to have podcasts like Heavenly Qi that allow us to listen in to conversations that go deep into the workings of our medicine and bring you the perspective of experienced clinicians.

This conversation in this episode is with the creators of the Heavenly Qi podcast where we explore how this new medium allows us to learn from other practitioner’s and some ways in which this new on-demand technology might change  the ways we can provide learning and continuing education. 

Storytelling has always been an essential element in how people learn and share information. Listen in for the story of how Heavenly Qi got started and where podcasting fits into within our long tradition of discussing medicine. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Research can be a problematic area for practitioners of East Asian medicine.  While many acupuncturists are keen to share research with patients that paints acupuncture in a positive light, especially for marketing purposes, there are not many of us that are generating that research. And there is the issue of double-blind studies, which are the gold standard in conventional medical research, but difficult to apply to East Asian medicine, as the practitioner is an integral part of the treatment.

This episode is a conversation with a full on Western style Ph.D. researcher who also is a dedicated practitioner of East Asian medicine. She has some unique views on how to apply research methods to our particular methods.

Students of doctorate programs will find this episode especially helpful, as it will give you tools and perspectives to engage researching your area of interest and contributing to our profession.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Many of us were exposed to guasha in our schooling, but it was more like a footnote than anything else. Over in Asia guasha is a well-used aspect of the folk medicine. Hardly a grandma or auntie that doesn’t know how to raise a rash with a soup spoon. But most docs over there don’t use it. So it is understandable how in teaching “medicine” here in the west we’d get the minimal exposure we do.

In this episode we sit down with the “Guasha Queens” and learn why this simple technique should be part of your pain relief toolkit. Additionally we learn how it can be helpful for a variety of internal health conditions such as digestion, various inflammatory conditions, respiratory illness and even psycho-emotive issues.

This is an aspect of our medicine that we really should own and use, as it’s simple, safe and effective. Listen in as we discuss how to raise a rash and make your patients love you.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

There are many ways to attend to our patients in clinic. We can work through mental models that we’ve acquired from our schooling, study, and clinical experience. We can also use our innate human ability to touch, palpate and sense. 

In this episode we discuss the importance of down-regulating our nervous system. Along with the use of palpation and sensing references to anchor our ideas about what might be going on for a patient, and to track the progress of the treatment as it unfolds.

Additionally we touch in on the use the eight extraordinary vessels and their relation to internal cultivation, take a look at the relatively new emergence of using the divergent channels, and discuss the difference between intending and attending during the treatment process.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Plenty of people seek out acupuncture in particular as they have heard a few needles in the ear will break their cigarette habit, or cause their appetite and cravings to completely transform. We’ve all heard stories of someone’s cousin who got needled once and never smoked again or they lost a lot of weight. But how many of these people have you seen get these results in your clinic?

Often patients seek out Chinese medicine for weight loss, weight control or smoking cessation. Many of us don’t have training in dealing with addictions and it can be a challenge for the practitioner to know how to approach someone who suffers from a troublesome life habit, is not sure if they really want to change it or not, and furthermore has a lot of experience with failing to live up to the image of the life they want. Do they need to be pushed, like in the now popular boot camp, gently supported, encouraged and educated or perhaps they need something else?

In this episode we discuss some ways of opening up this kind of difficult conversation with our patients. And bringing some reality to the situation, which can be helpful in changing expectations and a patient’s experience of themselves in our Internet world that constantly promises quick fixes.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Using acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are helpful modalities in the treatment of veterans who have served our country and suffer from injuries and the aftermath of trauma. 

But, treating veterans is not as simple as treating what we see in the clinical setting. There are aspects of military life that are invisible to the average civilian. And while acupuncture increasingly is being used by the military and the veteran’s administration, it has its own flavor and protocols. 

In this episode we speak with an acupuncturist, who is also a veteran. We get a look not only at the current opportunities for how acupuncture is used to treat the soldiers and veterans of our nation, but also glimpse into the challenges involved in working within the military.

Listen in as we explore how acupuncture and Chinese medicine are used in the treatment of military personnel and veterans. And learn about the various credentials and certifications that will allow you to work within the system and help those who have served our country.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

We learn in acupuncture school that the body, mind and spirit are woven together into the tapestry of one’s life. We learn that each of the yin organs has a spirit aspect, and that we can’t touch the body without touching the mind and vise versa. And yet there are blockages that are lodged more in the psycho-emotive realm and can at times prevent healing on the physical level. 

In this show we explore the healing of emotional trauma. Investigate some ways of thinking about how to interact with the spirit aspects of the organs, how facial diagnosis can help both with understanding where a patient’s problem is lodged and if our treatment is having an effect, and how channel palpation can lead us directly to blockages and help us make choices about choosing effective points. 

In addition we discussion some self-care practices for patients and get an overview of CT’s thoughtful and clinically based book on healing emotional trauma.

Listen in for a wide ranging discussion on working with emotions, trauma and some useful diagnostic tools that both allow you to diagnose and check the effectiveness of your treatment. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Dr. Wang Ju-Yi was ever curious about why some treatments worked and others did not. He deeply studied the classical literature along with his own clinical experience, and somewhere along the way started putting his hands on patients to simply see what the channels had to say. 

For those practitioners who find palpation to be a key part of their practice, the work of Dr. Wang opens a whole new way of interacting with patients. And for those who are interested in how to puzzle through confounding clinical cases, Dr. Wang has some ways of clarifying complex situations. 

Pull up a cup of tea and listen in to this conversation that gives you a personal view of Dr. Wang and his work through the eyes of his apprentice Jason Robertson, co-author of Applied Channel Theory in Chinese Medicine, Wang Ju-Yi’s Lectures on Channel Therapeutics.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

When I first went to Taiwan I noticed that around most of the larger temples there was a street of 算命師, fortune tellers. Some would use the ba gua, others attended to your birthdate, palm or some combination of numbers. Others would look at the face. The Chinese medicine section in bookstores would also have books that explained hot to use maps of the face to diagnose health concerns. In East Asia, it's common knowledge that there is more written on the face than we in West attend to. Our guest in today's episode learned to read faces at her grandmother's knee, she in turn had learned from her father, a successful businessman. Listen in and learn how paying attention to certain aspects of the face not only will help you better diagnose and treat your patient's, but give you clues in better understanding and communicating with them based on how they see the world and process information.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

CBD, cannabidiol, has been making the rounds lately in the natural medicine world. Almost overnight it seems this botanical has popped onto the scene and there are lot of claims as to it health benefits. 

As Chinese medicine practitioners we are already familiar with some of the benefits of hemp seed, and as practitioners in the modern world we might like to incorporate something as useful as CBD. But how does this botanical fit into our thinking and practice? And where is the research, that is so readily touted, come from given that cannabis is still a Schedule 1 drug at the federal level?

Listen in to explore not only the modern research on CBD along with the differences between hemp and cannabis, but more importantly how to consider this medicinal from a Chinese medicine point of view. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Practice acupuncture long enough and one of your patients is bound to mention some issues their pet is having. They might ask for some herbal advice, or see if you'd be up for treating their furry friend.

Perhaps you've tried your hand at treating your own critters. Found that your cat is more frisky after acupuncture or that the dog's hips aren't such a bother after a few needles.

In this episode we talk with a veterinary acupuncturist about the legal considerations,  training programs  and safety considerations for working with animals.

Listen in and explore the world of animal acupuncture.

In this episode we take a look at marketing and practice building from the perspective of new practitioner who is excited and looking forward to building a business. 

No, you don’t need to go back and reread that last paragraph; you got it right the first read through. In this conversation we hear from a newly minted acupuncturist who is happily looking forward to building a business. Yes, this is a minority point of view, as many of us believe ourselves to be healers, but not “business people.” 

For many this aversion to engaging the “practice of practice” can be the source of emotional, financial, relational and spiritual struggle. We grudgingly do something we hate in order to get something we want. How’s that supposed to work?

Listen in and update your perspective on marketing and business!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Precious and rare medicinal mushrooms like reshi (ling zhi) and cordyceps (dong chong xia cao) used to be available only to royalty, or those who knew how to spot them in the wild.

These medicinals have a long history of use in East Asia and are associated with vitality, longevity and a connection to the spirit world. Even today it is said of the wild forms that "those who buy it don't eat it, and those who eat it don't buy it" as it is often gifted in a attempt to curry favor or influence.

Fortunately for us "lao bai xing" (common people) these incredible fungi are available to us via cultivation. Or are they?

In this episode our guest takes us on a deep dive into cultivation and extraction methods, and more importantly, how to read test results so you can better understand the potency of the products you are buying and giving to your patients.

If you use medicinal mushrooms in your practice this episode will help you to better understand the important differences between polysaccharides, beta-glucans, and triterpenoids.

Listen into to this conversation with an etno-mycologist who has been studying and working with mushroom cultivation for over 45 years.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

According to conventional medicine, macular degeneration is a progressive, incurable, degenerative disease. As good as modern medicine can be for some opthamological problems, it does not have much to offer those with macular degeneration other than say "take your vitamins and await the inevitable."

While macular degeneration is indeed progressive, it's progress can be slowed and in many people some amount of function restored.

Not only macular degeneration, but Stargardt's disease, retinitis pigmentosa and other eyes conditions can improve through the use of acupuncture using particular points on the palms and soles.

Our guest in this show is fired up about helping prevent people from going blind. Listen in as we discuss how acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help to make a big difference in the quality of life for people with degenerative opthamological conditions.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Tung style acupuncture is known for its curious collection of points that can be a challenge to the mind for those of us that learned to think about acupuncture strictly from a channel or function perspective. 

The methods handed down from Master Tung invite us to think about the resonance between points, structures, locations and tissue. It encourages us to consider not just the Spleen channel, but why its helpful to think of it as the leg tai yin as well. As well as why the shoulder is like the hip, and overlapping areas of influence can make for a more potent acupuncture treatment. 

Listen in as we discuss the power of resonance, how unlearning is part of learning something new, and why you don't have to understand everything from the beginning, but it's helpful if you keep pushing yourself to find the threads that connect.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Our guest did not start out with the intention of building a medicinal herb import company. It started out as a way to solve his own problems with sourcing herbs. And as is often the case, one thing lead to another.

In this episode we take a look at some of the common concerns practitioners have about herb quality, issues surrounding the use of pesticides, heavy metals and sulfur. Additionally we discuss how the concerns of Western herbalists has to some degree changed the herb market and growing practices in China. 

In the later part of the show we explore the use of granulated formulas. Explain why the 5:1 concentration that most products tout is misleading. Why crafting formulas and dosing granules is not the same as dosing raw herbs because granules are a fundamentally different medium of delivering herbs.  And finally,  how we can begin to think about dosing this herbal product that is fairly new on the Chinese herbal medicine scene.

If herbal medicine is part of your practice, you'll want to listen in to this conversation!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

This episode started out as a short solo show to give you a sense of what to expect from Qiological in the coming year. 

Then a friend who I wanted to interview for the show said, "Actually, I'd like to interview you. I've got some questions about the background of your podcast show, and what motivates and fuels you through the various projects I've seen you undertake over the years." 

So today's show is not only gives you a glimpse of what's ahead, but also a peek behind the microphone. 

Listen in and find out how I stumbled onto the idea for Qiological Podcast, how curiosity and failure make for a potent prescription for learning and creativity, and why running into resistance is not a sign you're on the wrong path, but rather the right one.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

Doctor Huang Huang is a clinician, teacher, author and well studied expert on the Jing Fang, the classical formulas of the Shang Han Lun. He has a unique perspective on constitution and how that relates to a patient's illness, their strengths, and the kinds of herbs that will be safe and effective for them.

The guest on today's show has been going to Nanjing and Studying with Dr. Huang for the past 10 years and is currently doing a Ph.D with him as his advisor.

In this episode we dig into the details of Dr. Huang's approach of paying attention to patient constitution, formula function and illness presentation. Like all masterful practitioner's Huang's thoughts and methods have changed and matured over time, we discuss some of his latest thoughts on diagnosis and the use of particular formulas and herbs.

Listen in and learn some news ways of considering the use of herbs in your clinic.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

In this episode we reflect on the burden and privilege of a clinical practice. How we grow into it by using a blend of our objectivity and subjectivity. And how mindfulness and a curiosity about our own internal landscape all help to inform our clinical work and development as a practitioner. We look at how learning the medicine not only helps the patients we see, but provides a deep benefit for our lives as well. And how to stay  present in the moments of failure in such a way that we can gain a deeper clarity about our work. Listen in for a discussion of how to gain a balanced sensitivity that helps us to navigate the challenges of learning from clinical experience, and support us in moving beyond the comfort of reliable skills when they don't prove so reliable.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.

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We give a great amount of respect to the Classics in Chinese medicine, but understanding these foundational texts of our medicine can be challenge, even if you do understand the old form of Chinese. Just as many of struggle to get through the brilliance of Shakespeare, the classics of Chinese medicine require a particular kind of attention. And it doesn't hurt if you actually can understand the "gu wen" classical Chinese language. It's even more helpful if you engaged the other classic literature of China from an early age. Our guest in this episode did just that, and in this conversation we see how terse lines from the classics can speak eloquently to confusing cases in the modern clinic. Listen in and get a glimpse at how the classics can be applied to difficult clinical cases. You'll be wanting to spend more time with the Su Wen (Simple Questions) after this!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Eastland Press has been bringing books on Oriental medicine from Chinese into English since the early days of Americans studying the traditional medicine of Asia. Actually, from even before there was a market for this kind of material. In this episode we go into the early history of Eastland Press. How what seemed like a good idea at the time turned into a multi-year endeavor and how Dan and John's dedication to "Westerner's owning our part of this long medical tradition" has kept them at the forefront of providing quality books for the practitioner of East Asian medicine. Listen in for an entertaining and informative piece of Chinese medicine history in the West, and for a glimpse of some future offerings from Eastland Press that you'll want for your library.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Oriental medicine draws distinctions between various aspects of mind, body and spirit, but unlike Western culture, it never severed the connections between these aspects of being. We know both from our experience in clinic and writings of Chinese medicine through the ages that emotional and mental processes can effect physiology and the body can deeply influence the mind. We see an entangled  system of mutual influence where Western medicine sees a hierarchy and disconnection between mind and body. In this episode we explore working with the aspect of emotions through the influence of the eight extraordinary vessels. Listen in for an introduction to how you can tap the influence of the eight extras to help your patients navigate psycho-emotive issues.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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It’s really difficult to attract something that you actually have an aversion toward. Many practitioners have conflicted feelings about money, conflate marketing with dishonesty, and worry that material success is somehow suspect. Is it any wonder that for many acupuncturists having a thriving practice is something we both desire and at the same time avoid?

In this episode we look at how a stable thriving practice comes not from doing the “business things” we dislike, but rather from the cultivation of value, integrity and responsibility.

The “practice of business” is not separate from the “practice of medicine.” In fact, our business and the services we provide are as seamlessly integrated as yin and yang. Cultivating our business is no different from the cultivation of our medical skills, or any yang sheng practice we might have in life. And just as we see all kinds of problems in the conventional medical work when body and mind are split apart and considered separate, so too we cause all kinds of problems for ourselves when we image the practice of medicine and the practice of business to be separate entities. They are part of an integrated whole.

Listen in to rediscover the joy and opportunities that can arise when we engage the practice of business!

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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It is common knowledge that acupuncture is quite effective in the treatment of pain. However, for many of us acupuncturists we feel a bit uneasy about treating back pain in pregnant women, as we don’t want to move too much qi and blood in a pregnant woman. 

 In this episode our guest Debra Betts shares her long and deep experience in working with women in pregnancy, and in particular how to effectively and safely treat back pain that is due to the physiologic and hormonal changes that occur in the later stages of pregnancy. 

As she reminds us, “Conventional medicine has nothing to help these women, while acupuncture can make a significant difference in these women’s lives, their ability to sleep comfortably and get about the business of daily life without pain.” 

Listen in as we discuss common acupuncture points you’re sure to know about, that can bring profound relief to women that suffer this common discomfort during pregnancy. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Our guest in this episode is a long time practitioner and teacher of Chinese medicine. Our discussion ranges through a number of different topics from approaching the classics in Chinese medicine, to how our practices season us and lead us in certain directions over the years, to some considerations that new practitioners might find helpful. We also discuss how to keep our growing edge vital and alive and dip into the difference between medicine and healing.

Listen in as we explore the perspective of a long time practitioner of Chinese medicine who's been chewing on this stuff for a few decades.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Studying medicine can be both a joyous exploration and a dry mind-numbing slog through endless technical material. In this episode we discuss the Eastland Press book "A Walk Along the River." This book is not just a glimpse into the mind of a seasoned and well-read practitioner, but also brings in the aspect of dialogue, as his clinical cases and considerations are further illuminated by the questions posed by three doctors. If you've ever read a book on medicine that gave you the "what" of a treatment, but left you hanging because it failed to include the "why," this book will be a useful addition to your library. In this discuss we discuss the process of translating, dig into Dr Yu's thinking, and touch in on how to move forward when you don't know what to do. 

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Every acupuncturist is intimately familiar with the points and functions of the 12 commonly used acupuncture channels, as well as the functions and use of the 8 extraordinary meridians.

In our studies we might have heard about the divergent channels, but for the most part we don't use these in everyday practice. For many of us, they are a bit of mystery and remain so as we generally can go about our business of helping patients with the 12 regular channels and 8 extras.

In this episode we explore the use, function and treatment of the divergent channels. If you have patients autoimmune disease, or chronic issues seem to cycle but go nowhere, this conversation with Josephine Spilka will give you insights on how help your patients break these cycles of dysfunction.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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Recurrent ear infections are a common complaint with children, and it's clear that the conventional multiple courses of antibiotics are rarely effective in the long run. In this episode we take a look at specific patterns of disharmony that lead to this common problem, some treatment strategies, as well as  lifestyle considerations that are helpful in reducing or eliminating this troublesome problem.

Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview. 

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In this brief introduction to Qiological, show host Michael Max gives an overview of what you expect from this podcast show.

You can visit the website for more information and to get direct access to various links on the show notes page of the episode you are interested in. 

Thanks for listening. And if you have suggestions for a show, or want to hear more about a particular topic. Pop on over to the website and send an email!