Expect the unexpected. The awesome thing about East Asian Medicine is that it works on multiple dimensions, which translates into healing on multiple levels, often in unexpected ways. In my experience, real and lasting healing is often a nonlinear process that includes, but not limited to, the physical body.

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The knowledge of how acupuncture and traditional herbal medicine works is based on understanding the nuance and complexity of the natural world----that the ecology of the human body mirrors the complexity of the environment and ecology of the planet. In other words, you can put five different plants in the same environment and some will thrive, and others will wither. You can make changes in the environmental conditions of those same plants and those changes will be beneficial for certain plants and not for others. In people, this is seen in the way that that a single health solution doesn't work for everyone, and sometimes what works well for one person and is beneficial, can worsen a problem, or create additional problems for another. East Asian Medicine emphasizes the importance of creating a treatment strategy that is tailored to the individual and integrates an understanding these nuances. Thus, the diagnosis and treatment strategy for a problem with sleep can differ greatly depending on the particular individual coming in with that problem.

 

In contrast to western medicine, eastern medicine also acknowledges that there are aspects of reality that may not be measurable, but are valid nonetheless. It embraces our collective human experience and relates to understanding how our subjective experience, emotions, energy, and consciousness can affect the physical body and health as much as the things that we already know are important, like diet and lifestyle. East Asian Medicine is also different in that it adopts a long-term strategy in the promotion of health and prevention of disease. Thus, the metrics that I look at when I evaluate progress for my patients are based not only on a reduction of symptoms, especially when it comes to treating chronic conditions, but also on big-picture changes in vitality, resiliency, and overall wellness. I'm always working toward regeneration, as well as remediation.

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As far as the difference in seeing me personally versus other practitioners, you'll find that I spend more time talking to my patients compared to most other medical practitioners. Acupuncture works best when you can be seen often, so I will often intermix longer interpersonal visits with shorter visits that are just for acupuncture. This way you have the benefit of having personal time and attention while still being able to be seen on a consistent basis in order to get the cumulative therapeutic effect of regular acupuncture treatment. You'll also find that my educational background is diverse and that I'm a bit of a polymath, so sometimes you'll find me explaining something from the perspective of biochemistry or human physiology, and at other times, from the perspective that is more interpersonal or subjective. I'm a bit of a linestrider in this way, as I have a lot of education in academia and science, but have also have had life experiences that have informed the perspective that science cannot explain everything, that there are multivariate and complex relationships that work in nonlinear ways.

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