Watershed Wellness podcast

In this episode, I bring on Tia McBride, LMT for her first Watershed Wellness podcast appearance. Tia has joined WW already prepared with a great new skillset for the North Coast community - therapeutic breast massage. Since most people haven't heard of the importance and regulation of this important modality, we wanted to hear from Tia how it works and what folks should look for when seeking it out.

If you'd like to learn more about Tia, you can visit our website. And for some additional reading about this potentially controversial topic, you might check out this article.

As I noted in the preliminaries for this podcast, we use the word "breast" to refer to these tissues, but some people, including trans masculine folks, may use other words to refer to this part of their body. Our use of "breast" is not intended to exclude those people in any way!

If you have questions about breast massage and its suitability for your situation, do not hesitate to reach out using the contact form on our podcast page.

Amanda Barp has been practicing massage therapy for 17 years - a very long time for a profession that demands a lot from the practitioner! We start out this podcast talking about her career so far and how she's managed to stick around much longer than the average practitioner. After a brief visit to the changes brought by COVID-19, we begin a tour of the goals and principles that underlie the entire Massage Therapy department at our clinic.

Amanda lays out the basic goals and then explores four basic principles we use to guide the department:

• Consistency
• Quality
• Safety
• Attunement

We discuss each in turn, paying special attention to the ways that quality and safety interpenetrate and inform one another. Massage therapy is one of the founding modalities at Watershed Wellness, so we've had a lot of time to refine how we approach it until it brings maximum benefit to all of our clients.

Finally we finish up with a very important call to action - WE ARE CURRENTLY (AND ALWAYS) HIRING MASSAGE THERAPISTS! If you heard this podcast and are thinking of a job change - reach out and chat with us - we'd love to see if you're a good fit for the open positions. You can read more about working at WW, including all the details for these positions, on this page.

In this episode, I bring back holistic skincare & Eminence Organics expert Amanda Koennecke, LE. We start out talking about what it takes to stay inspired in a profession after a decade or two (hint: it has to do with our CLIENTS).

After a brief chat about the curious experience of being part of rural healthcare in America, we begin to talk about some of the special demographics that Amanda seeks out in her practice. While anybody can benefit from a great facial, Amanda has gone out of the way to try to reach out towards demographics that aren't typically served by this important part of healthcare. We focus our conversation chiefly on her work with teenagers and the opportunities she has had to work with people undergoing treatment for cancer.

We wrap up the podcast by talking about the deep value of this powerful, intimate service for people who are struggling or hurting. I hope we'll bring Amanda back soon to dig further into these important topics.

In the meantime, you can check out some of her past appearances on the podcast on our archive page. And you may want to take a look at our Youtube channel as well. Here are some specific links to help you learn more about Amanda, her practice, and how it might fit for you!

• Amanda K discusses doing skincare on the North Coast
• Amanda K talks about Eminence Organics products (the only line we carry!)
• A brief discussion of "maskne" and how to deal with it

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Dr. Melinda Nickels, ND, LAc, this time discussing some specifics about Naturopathic medicine, and her focus on homeopathic treatment.

Naturopathic medicine is a diverse system that includes many modalities - this episode will get you started in understanding it. But, if you want more information, check out the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, or this page created by National University of Natural Medicine, where Melinda and I both went to medical school.

We discuss the scope of practice available for NDs in Oregon and then discuss some of the peculiar features of natural medicine treatment, including why sometimes a patient gets worse before they get better.

Enjoy and as always, submit your questions or ideas on our website.

In this episode, I sat down with Melinda Nickels to discuss her training and her perspective on her profession. Or rather - her professions - as in multiple! Dr. Nickels is a licensed acupuncturist, but also a Naturopathic doctor. Naturopathic doctors have many of the same capacities as MDs and DOs with regards to scope of practice, but come from a different perspective. You can learn more about Naturopathic medicine by clicking this link.

Melinda shares the story of how she came to Naturopathic medicine in the first place, including her adventures in fields as diverse as computer programming and natural building. Throughout the story we discuss aspects of natural medicine philosophy, her current interests and continuing education, and more.

Please don't forget to rate and share the podcast & send along any comments, suggestions or potential topics via our podcast page on our website.

In this episode, Todd Garrity, LAc, and I discuss the use of acupuncture during end-of-life care. Todd has a keen interest in helping people through this important phase of life and has sought extensive continuing education to help him be of most help to people facing the dying process.

Todd discusses the basics of how end-of-life acupuncture works, and discusses some of the theories behind why it is helpful. He also shares a little bit about his training and personal connection with this practice.

The links below will help you get the most out of this episode:

• Certified Providers of Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncture (CPHPCA) - the professional organization that helps to educate and certifies acupuncturists who want to do this work. They host a directory of available providers as well.
• Link to a study about the use of acupuncture in palliative care settings
• Another study looking at the use of acupuncture in home hospice care
• Governing Vessel 20, or GV-20, or Baihui, the acupuncture point on the top of the head that Todd references
• The contact form I reference, where you can submit any additional questions

In this episode, we continue the conversation with Todd Garrity, LAc, this time discussing how he approaches pain relief in his acupuncture practice. 

While most people know that acupuncture can treat pain, there is a lot more to it than sticking needles into painful muscles. In particular, Todd's use of the Korean Hand Therapy system presents an alternative approach, which we discuss here as well as in videos on our Youtube channel.

Don't forget to leave us questions, topics and feedback on the podcast page of our website!

During this short discussion we touch on a variety of interesting topics including:

• What sorts of pain acupuncture can treat
• How an acupuncture microsystem works to treat pain
• The role of burning mugwort - moxibustion - in treatment of pain
• How surgical procedures can interrupt qi flow, and how treatment can help
• How treating the root of a disease is different from chasing symptoms

Some things mentioned on the podcast that you might want to explore further:

• Acupressure pellets
• Lion moxa warmers
• A great book about moxibustion, meant for practitioners and very curious patients

The Watershed Wellness podcast is back!

After a long hiatus, we're back to it and start off with a brief introduction to acupuncturist Todd Garrity, LAc. Todd came to the clinic from Colorado just before the pandemic changed all our lives. So, while he's been here a while - we've not been able to hear from him on the podcast. In this episode he discusses what brought him to the medicine - and his early career arc. In future episodes, we will dig into what Todd's most excited about in his practice and what's to come.

We recorded a short series of videos with Todd on our Youtube channel. A perfect companion to the current episode of the podcast would be this video where Todd discusses the path that brought him to Astoria.

Please do subscribe to the podcast & share with your friends and family. The more the merrier! You can give us suggestions and feedback using the form on this page. Thank you for listening & for being members of our wider Watershed Wellness community.

In this episode, Rowan Everard, LAc and Eric Grey, LAc discuss what an acupuncture appointment actually looks like. While every practitioner is different, Rowan articulates a flow that is fairly similar to most Watershed Wellness practitioners.

Rowan answers questions like:

• What is the intake process like?
• Does the practitioner leave the room during treatment?
• What if the patient is nervous or having trouble with treatment?
• What happens while you're getting acupuncture?
• and more...

Please head over to our podcast archive to listen to all of our episodes and use the contact form there to make recommendations for future episodes! Thanks for listening!

We're back in action with the Watershed Wellness podcast. We'll be releasing episodes every 2 weeks or so, and continuing on with our focus on highlighting our fantastic practitioners while adding some new content types and creative approaches to healthcare podcasting.

We've moved our podcast archive over to the Astoria website. You can find the full podcast archive there, as well as here on Buzzsprout.

In this episode, we bring Amanda Koennecke, licensed esthetician and WW PDX office maestro back to discuss the finer points of her healthcare approach. She also gives a great report back about her time at the latest Eminence Organics regional skin care conference. We spend a fair amount of time chatting about the difference between a more high end spa facial and the holistic everyday health approach Amanda takes in her practice. It's a fun conversation and features some new intro & outro music from the incomparable Tao Jones.

Thanks for joining us again!