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 physi...
Oct 01, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 105
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 th...
Sep 24, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 104
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 expres...
Sep 17, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 103
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 ...
Sep 10, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 102
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...
Sep 03, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 101
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 th...
Aug 27, 2019•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 100
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 c...
Aug 20, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 99
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.
Aug 13, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 98
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....
Aug 06, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 97
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...
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 96
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, espec...
Jul 23, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 95
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 mindse...
Jul 16, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 94
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 perspe...
Jul 09, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 93
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 tre...
Jul 02, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 92
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, th...
Jun 25, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 91
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 reflec...
Jun 18, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 90
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 ...
Jun 11, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 89
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 pres...
Jun 04, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 88
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 ...
May 28, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 87
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...
May 21, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 86
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. A...
May 14, 2019•56 min•Ep. 85
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 live...
May 07, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 84
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 ...
Apr 30, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 83
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...
Apr 23, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 82
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 ou...
Apr 16, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 81
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 me...
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 80
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...
Apr 02, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 79
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 ...
Mar 26, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 78
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 limit...
Mar 19, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 77
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 organizatio...
Mar 12, 2019•54 min•Ep. 76
