Qiological Podcast

Most of us typically devote our time, focus, and resources to building a successful Chinese Medicine practice. But how often do you take a step back to think about what will happen when you need to make a move, or stop practicing?

We have to come to terms with the fact that change is inevitable. It is part of the natural progression of life. But managing transition with ease, that is part art, part skill and usually a good dose of new learning. As a person in transition, you must learn to let go of what you’ve built as you move on to a new phase of life.

In this conversation with Jason Luban, we talk about how we are and who we are in practice, and how to leverage proactive thinking to anticipate what might be around the bend. He narrates his personal experience selling his practice—and how that decision unknowingly set him on a new path helping other practitioners manage the transition.

Listen into this discussion that touches on buying or passing along your practice to another practitioner and the unexplored essence that goes into considering the value of that practice.

Western medicine and East Asian medicine have often been seen as two completely different ways of approaching health and well being. Can they be blended together for the benefit of our patients?

It has taken time for the Western world to familiarize itself with the modalities of Chinese Medicine. Similarly, maneuvering through large organizations like hospitals, the military, or the government can be like walking into uncharted territory. It requires an understanding of their lingo, procedures and methods of working together.

In this conversation with Megan Kingsley Gale, we discuss her efforts in creating the Hospital-Practice Handbook Project as an open sourced resource for licensed acupuncturists working in hospitals and institutional healthcare systems. At its core, this is a resource for change-makers in the integrative health field to share their ideas and wisdom. It brings Chinese medicine to places where its benefits had not been utilized – while giving Chinese practitioners who are interested in hospital-based care new opportunities.

Megan has a vision of helping us explore new frontiers as acupuncturists in the modern American healthcare system. A system of integrative medicine where acupuncturists are seen as professionals rather than technicians and ; where cooperation is embraced and the lines between the East and West are blurred for the benefit of our patients.

Listen in to this discussion on the professionalization of Chinese Medicine and how change-makers are expanding Chinese Medicine into the healthcare system

Steve has kept the pulse on dry needling and the impact to the acupuncture profession for over a decade. As a specialist in sports and orthopedic acupuncture, Steve's insightful narrative sheds light on the future of dry needling, how it can be leveraged in acupuncture practices, and legislative initiatives with the goal to set a high and consistent standard across professions.

Yin/Yang is a lovely idea. The counterbalance of opposites sounds so good on paper, but the expression of those heavenly ideas within the limitations and form of Earth brings a lot of suffering, strife and pain. And yet, when we look at the earth as a whole, when we look at human bodies as a reflection of the outer world. We can see how the interplay of opposites is essential to that balance from which Health arises.

In today’s conversation with Sharon Sherman, Jeri Steele and Charles Bishop we hear about their explorations with the Saam acupuncture method, it’s curious organ pairings, and how those can be used to help our patients bring forth their own resources for healing.

Listen into this discussion of what happens when you consider both five phase energies with six qi dynamics and how having an expansive vocabulary of each organ’s character can help you in your diagnosis and treatment and open previously unseen possibilities.

How we know, and how we know we know. Our capacity to sit with our patients in that liminal space of not knowing. And the ability to navigate uncertainty in the process of unfolding a treatment. All these are processes that aren’t so easily taught, but can be learned. 

In this conversation with Taran Rosenthal we investigate the process of investigation. Mull over how we bring together thoughts and experience and attend to the unfolding present moment in clinic. 

Listen into this discussion on mutable and fluxy perspectives that helps us to attend to our patients with some skill and presence in our clinical work.

針灸 Needles and Moxa, it is right there in the Chinese characters that are translated as “acupuncture.” Moxa is as fundamental to our practices as needles. The applications of burning mugwort run the gamut from cheap acrid Chinese pole moxa to ultra refined sweet scented Japanese moxa. And the techniques vary as well from the smoky moxa boxes to the whisper thread of smoke from the tiny rice grains.

In this conversation with Hannah Swift we discuss not just her love of moxa, but fascination for the plant itself. Where it grows, the soils and terrain it likes to inhabit, how it shapes the local economies in Japan famous for their moxa and the process itself of turning leaves into the medicine we like to ignite.

Listen into this discussion of leaves and smoke, and how the scent of moxa itself can be part of a connective healing 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. 

Leaves on a plant curl and turn yellow when the soil is not right. The health of a cat is reflected in the texture of its fur and clearity in the eyes. Likewise with people we can discern states of wellness or illness by attending to those parts of the body that are the first to show the signs of change. And so over the centuries we’ve learned to trust the reflections we see from the pulse, abdomen, tongue and if you’re sensitive enough, the qi itself. 

In this conversation with Thomas Sorensen we explore abdominal and pulse patterns from the Japanese acupuncture perspective and investigate how they are reliable markers for finding patterns of disharmony that help both with diagnosis and tracking the efficacy of our treatment. And beyond that, how the Saam organ pairings show up as reflections of excess and deficiency on the abdomen and in the pulse. 

Listen into the discussion of hands-on medicine, as we traverse the terrain of Japanese and Saam acupuncture.

The fundamentals root our practice. The basics that we learn in the beginning not only never go away, but deepen with experience. This is why regardless of lineage or method, Chinese medicine practitioners can communicate with each other as we share a common parlance. The fundamentals of yin yang, the motion of the five phases, and the ways excess & deficiency help us to understand the root of a person's problem. At the core, we all share the fundamentals. 

In this discussion with Rob Helmer we explore how mastery is mastery of the basics, and how the pernicious influence of depressive heat often unlies many chronic conditions, but it’s easy to overlook it in our clinical practice. 

Listen into this conversation on the importance of the basics, why it’s vital to consider proportionality in our diagnosis and treatment, and some of the ways that you identify and treat depressive in your clinical work.

Our job as clinicians is to help our patients. And to help them we must first understand them. Which is easier said than done, especially as we all have different ways of being in the world, our perception has a lot to do with which senses we like to rely upon and the way we frame the world in turn frames our treatments.

In this conversation with Paul Movsessian we touch on the sensate world of Japanese acupuncture, noodle on the innovative and imaginative work of Dr Manaka and explore how the softest of touches with a needle can bring about significant shifts in a patient’s physiology.

Listen into this discussion of palpation, five phase energetics, and the significant role of sensing in Japanese acupuncture.

When you’re running a business, be it an acupuncture clinic, tech company, plumbing service or coaching practice there are core principles that can spell the differences between failure and success.

In this conversation with Mark Asquith we noodle on the First Principles that apply every bit as much to the software and podcast services that he has created, as they do to creating an acupuncture practice that supports your life instead of running it.

Listen into this discussion on learning on your hidden strengths, dealing with unhappy clients, identifying bad money as a way to assess the value of a project, what community looks like in the digital age, and how the Triple I principles of Important, Interesting and Integral can help you to create a practice that you’ll enjoy working within.