Ever think about how much of what we do as healers is more about what we don’t do? Sometimes, it’s in the subtle pauses, the empty spaces, where the real magic happens. What if the art of doing less is actually the key to unlocking profound change in the body? In this conversation with David White we immerse ourselves into the world of Nei Jing acupuncture. With decades of experience and a passion for classical Chinese texts, David has honed a unique approach to acupuncture, one that’s rooted in...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 386
Did you ever as a child grab a length of rope, run screaming around the yard and swing it around with abandon and joy? Sometimes, the most unassuming tools hold the greatest potential for transformation. Rope flow might look like play, but beneath the surface lies a practice that can unlock balance, coordination, and deeper mind-body connection. In this conversation with David Weck, the Godfather of Rope Flow and a mad scientist in functional movement we’ll discuss body and movement. How simple,...
Dec 03, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 385
How did you learn the medicine you practice? Likely it through the influence of a school, a book or perhaps in this modern moment, an on-demand course of online study. There is another way that medicine gets transmitted, through the connections of friendship. I’d not thought about that until Volker Scheid mentioned it in this History Series conversation. Once I heard it, it rang true. and I could easily look back through the years and see so many moments of having my eyes opened to something abo...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 384
There’s something about the act of touch that goes beyond the physical, isn’t there? It’s like we’re not just meeting someone at their skin but somehow dipping into the unseen—into emotions, memories, and layers that words can’t quite reach. What happens when we listen with our hands instead of our ears? The guest of this episode, Chris McAlister, is an acupuncturist and shiatsu practitioner who’s been exploring the art of presence and connection for years. He’s inquisitive about how the practic...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 383
When thinking about our toolkit, most acupuncturists, and patients too for that matter, think about needles. Our job, it’s to use those whisper thin slivers of steel with skill and accuracy. But sometimes the best tool for the job might not be a needle. In this conversation with Orit Zilberman and Hila Yaffee we consider the use of Hui Yin, Ren One. For sure this point it’s important and there are challenges to using and learning to use this influential meeting of yin. Listen into this discussio...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 382
Ever wonder about the unseen forces that shape health and illness? Sometimes it’s the things we can’t measure that hold the most sway. Healing isn’t always about what we see, but what we’re willing to explore. In this episode, we sit down with Lindsey Wei, a practitioner deeply rooted in the world of Daoist medicine. She has spent years blending the physical practices of qigong and martial arts with the mystical art of talismans, incantations, and ritual healing. She brings a unique perspective ...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 381
Being in business is not just about tracking the financial health of your enterprise. It is about having a mission worth engaging, a kind of fire in the belly that fuels you through the difficult parts, and a sense for working at the edge of your capacity. Having a business and all that goes with it, it gives you the opportunity to grow into potentials you can only dream about in the middle of a difficult night. Our guest in this History Series conversation, Bill Egloff has been helping patients...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 380
In acupuncture school we learn the 10 questions, which will get you some information. But it’s more interrogative than rapport building, more about eliciting information than revealing meaning. Listening with a mindset of noticing the small anomalies. Listening to understand someone from their own point of view. To be inquisitive about how the difficulties might hold unrevealed lessons, and how troubles are lessons in progress. It’s more than having an unfettered sense of curiosity, there’s some...
Oct 22, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 379
We have the two of yin and yang, the three of the jing, qi, shen, the four levels of pathogenic invasion from the Wen Bing, the Five Phases of the Wu Xing and the Six Elements— wait a minute, Six Elements? Have you ever wondered why the Classics speak to the Five Zang and Six Fu? Especially when we have an equal balance of yin and yang meridians. And what is going on with those two troublesome organs, the Triple Burner and Pericardium that have a “function” but no form? Furthermore, have ever wo...
Oct 15, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 378
In our work as acupuncturists, we use differential diagnosis to understand the warp and woof of a patient’s problem, to see how various seemingly marginally connected aspects of their problem give us the pattern that allows for skillful intervention. We also look at constitutional factors, those aspects of our patients that provide a kind of gravity and centering to their life and how they live it. Both aspects need our consideration in clinical practice. In this conversation with Peter Eckman w...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 377
We are encoded beings. There is a song that plays out through the patterning of our DNA. We are influenced by the tides of culture, family and peers. And there is a great turning of Stems and Branches that leaves an imprint on our mind/body as we enter the world. The Ba Zi is a description of the moment we enter this world, it’s the weather we carry with us from that first breath. It shows tendencies of expression, not unlike how DNA plays a familiar rhythm through us. In this conversation with ...
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 376
In this History Series episode we time-travel with the vivacious Cara Frank. Her story begins in the gritty, creative pulse of 1970s New York City, where as a teenager, she was navigating the counter cultural scene. Her first encounter with acupuncture was anything but ordinary—an illegal treatment that changed her life and set her on the path she travels today. Cara’s journey is a tapestry woven with threads of rebellion, discovery, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. From the scarring mo...
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 375
You’re probably somewhat familiar with the four needle technique. It’s an innovation said to have arisen through the meditative practice of the Korean Buddhist monk Saam, roughly four hundred years ago. It has since been passed down both through the monastic tradition, and used as well by ordinary doctors. Today you’ll also find the “Saam Method” used in academic research studies and employed as a key part of their acupuncture practice by Korean practitioners. In this conversation with Andreas B...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 374
How we engage the mind can have an effect on our wellbeing in profound ways. What is even more interesting is how the mind and body interact. We are all familiar how the emotions can be the source of internally generated illness, and we are all familiar with how injury or illness can in turn have an effect on our emotional life. Some would go so far as to say all physical illness is rooted in the emotions. To me that seems a bit simplistic. but I’d agree that our physiology and the internal “cli...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 373
What is Nature, and what is Nurture? It’s an old question that poses what is perhaps a false dichotomy. Considering out Nature, it’s as old as Chinese medicine. And nourishing ourselves so as to enjoy the full measure of our days, also has a long history of inquiry and practice. As practitioners we need to know how to take care of ourselves as part of being able to care for others. The tenets of East Asian medicine suggest that different kinds of people need different things. Sun Xi Miao is one ...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 374
I attended what was then known as SIOM before it was an accredited school. I thought the program and approach was a good fit for how I learned, and being in my late 30’s at the time, I did not have the patience for a program that would not let me get my hands on people for a year or more. At SIOM, they had us in the clinic from the first week. Our patients were part of our curriculum. That fit the way I learn. The innovative program they were experimenting with back then was in part due to the e...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 371
For sure, the health of the brain is absolutely essential to health and wellbeing. As we age, just like with other organs, there is a lot that can go wrong with that curious Sea of Marrow. In this conversation with Clayton Shu we discuss how he went from a focus on orthopedic issues to being concerned with neurology and brain health. Clayton doesn’t really do things in halfway measures, so when he goes at something, he goes at it full tilt. Listen into this discussion that connects ancient Easte...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 370
From the misty mountains of China to the teahouses of Taiwan, Tea has served as a bridge between nature and culture, tradition and modernity. Tea is not just a beverage, but a living entity that carries within it a connective plant wisdom and the potential for personal and societal transformation. In this conversation Brian Kirbis unveils tea's hidden depths, its ability to foster human connection, its embodiment of spiritual ecology, and its power to teach us about balance and appreciation. Lis...
Aug 13, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 369
Not only is acupuncture strange, with its twelve invisible watersheds of flow and influence. But we have the qi jing ba mai. The strange flows… usually translated as the extraordinary vessels. Some say these are the blueprint that give structure to the embryo as they help to orient and guide development. Others say that these vessels are deeply tied into our psycho-emotive functioning. Traditionally they were talked about as reservoirs . They helped to regulate the excess or lack in the 12 main ...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 368
I recently had the good fortune to sit down for a conversation with Charlie Buck, one of the early pioneers in acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the UK. He shared his journey of discovering acupuncture in the late 1970s, a time when it was still quite unknown in the West. Our discussion explored how the landscape of acupuncture education and practice in Britain has shifted dramatically over the years. This conversation touches on deeper topics like the nature of mastery in Chinese medicine, th...
Jul 30, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 367
Understanding and acknowledging how things are is a terrific starting point. It’s what led Ilan Migdali to not just understand how health insurance worked in California, but opened up a path for him to create an insurance network that specifically aimed at helping acupuncturists to thrive. Beyond the creative and practical work Ilan has done with insurance, he’s also a student of the Balance Method and in particular looking at the yi jing and how the transformations of the gua can be stimulated ...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 366
I was cautious and reluctant about studying acupuncture when it first really caught my attention. Then there are folks like John McDonald who when he first caught wind of acupuncture thought… far out man, I want to know more about that. That enthusiasm has followed him through his time as a practitioner and even through doing a Ph.D. In this conversation we’ll discuss trickster shamans, the ethics of using the controlling cycle of the Five Phases to influence your patients emotions, why people w...
Jul 16, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 365
Tinkering and creating, I suspect that anyone who's been lucky enough to have grown up in an environment that encouraged exploration, risk taking and curiosity— they've got a perspective that has them asking “why not” instead of “why.” Figuring out how things work is fun. Even more so when you don’t take other people’s word on what is doable or not, and you go and see for yourself. Adrian Larsen has been one of those “how’s this thing work” kind of people his whole life. That’s what led him into...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 364
I had the delightful surprise of Zoe Coldham reaching out to me to tell me about the documentary she’d created that goes into the early days of acupuncture finding its way into the mainstream of British culture. As you probably know, Qiological has been doing a little mini-series on acupuncture’s journey to the west as well. So I was keen to have her on to hear her perspective and what she’s discovered. Listen in for this documentarian’s perspective on acupuncture’s Journey to the West....
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 363
The late 60s and early 70s were a time of openness and experimentation. It was the beginning of the civil rights movement, more equality for women, and the recognition that sexuality included more than love between men and women. Cultural norms were questioned and that included dietary practices, the healing arts and the relationship between humans and the planet. It was in this rich milieu of change that acupuncture started to take root in the imagination and then practice of those who were wil...
Jun 25, 2024•2 hr 14 min•Ep. 362
It’s fun to solve problems. Especially when you’re not quite sure what to do, so you have to pay attention and learn what’s important. You must develop the capacity to learn from both your failures and success. Mark Brinson wanted a liniment for patients and was not happy with what was on the market. So he thought he’d just mix up his own. That turned into a process of learning a lot about everything from the quality of the herbs, to the nature of the water, to distilling his own alcohol. The fi...
Jun 18, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 361
The Chinese are right, the brain is a curious organ. The way the nerves entangle their way into every aspect of our body, and how their gentle electric hum gives us awareness of this container we call ourselves. Pain is how our nervous system lets us know there is a problem. Acupuncture has rightfully been seen and used as a way to intervene. Strangely enough the ear has a powerful influence on the brain and nervous system. In this conversation with John Howard we take a look at Battlefield Acup...
Jun 11, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 360
What is our universe made of? How does it work, and more importantly– what are we doing here and how do we make sense of it? Eternal questions, unanswerable, but maybe the questions are not for answering, perhaps they are for focusing attention. In this conversation with Rory Hiltbrand we take a look at our peculiar situation as Beings in between the circle of heaven and square of earth. We dip into mathematics, Donghan Daoist numerology, metaphysics and others head scratching ideas about medici...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 359
While many are keen on looking to “science up” acupuncture and squeeze it into the thinking and theories of conventional medicine, others are quite content with the weirdness of it. And enjoy playing around in the territory that’s off the radar of Western science. Julian Scott is one of those pioneering acupuncturists whose background in theoretical physics primed him for the strangeness of the world of acupuncture. In this conversation we explore how healing and science don’t always go together...
May 28, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 358
As anyone who has started an acupuncture practice and tried explaining it to potential patients knows, it’s not easy taking the terminology and thinking of East Asian medicine into English speaking Western culture. The guest of this conversation, John Rybak, has thought long and hard about this. He is keen on helping our profession bridge how we think and work with the constraints and opportunities of the conventional medicine world. Listen into this conversation on the importance of effective c...
May 21, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 357
