Qiological Podcast

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.  

In our last conversation with Poney, we talked about the neurological view of acupuncture points. In this Part Two conversation we’re exploring what got Poney interested in medicine in the first place and how he ended up becoming an acupuncturist when his first interest was in herbs, philosophy and metaphysics.

In this conversation we talk about the deep structure of Chinese medicine, kung fu movies, the Yi Jing, feng shui and how life takes unexpected turns. Poney also shares how Chinese medicine allowed him to grow as a person and how it helped him do things he never thought would be doing.

Check out the first interview with Poney about the Neurological View of Acupuncture

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.  

This is the audio of a webinar conversation on the use of Saam acupuncture in the community clinic setting. 

We get into particular benefits of the Saam system and why it’s well suited to using in the community clinic setting. And detail some challenges and considerations in terms of training that need to be addressed. 

Finally, we talk about a few commonly seen issues in the community clinic and how to treat them.

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.  

How does acupuncture work? 

We hear this question all the time. From our patients, from someone we just met at a neighborhood BBQ, from out parents, and if we are honest— ourselves. 

The ancient Chinese mind that conjured up acupuncture did not consider nerve pathways, endocrinological response or brain chemistry. 

The ancient Chinese mind looked out into nature and used that reflection to dream into the body. They considered the natural tides of expansion and contraction. The formed and the unformed, and how physical form arises from an unseen patterning that leaves its trace, like wind on deserts sands. 

In this conversation with Ed Neal we discuss the importance of Chinese medicine terminology, the essential role of 理 a kind of patterning from which manifest reality arises and how the Nei Jing can help us orient to the constant unfolding of life through time-space and motion.

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.