A Healthy Curiosity

In September 2023, my Chinese Medical practice turned 20 years old. This episode started off as a retrospective on lessons learned in these two decades as a self-employed Licensed Acupuncturist, herbalist, and coach. While it starts with the role of a clinician and the nature of healing, it explores issues that parents, givers, and people who care about what they do may well relate to, like:

• If you'll never know it all, when i...

Moving from overwhelm to a more healthy life is often about small steps. One such step can be embracing the philosophy of seeing how so many things can be connected. Approaching symptoms we're experiencing through the lens of the mind-body connection can help us do things like calm down our nervous system and reduce stress while still doing everything we need to do in our lives.

Ali Damron, a colleague in the Chinese Medicine field...

Taking steps in the direction of better health is a multi-faceted process. Not only do we have to take care of ourselves, but we also have to take care of the trillions of microbes that call our bodies home. Rooted in the Earth element of Chinese Medicine, the ecosystem of our bodies is integral to our health in a variety of different ways from our ability to produce energy to feeling grounded and centered.

Dr. Chris Damman joins u...

This season of the podcast has focused  a lot on demystifying different aspects of Chinese Medicine. From acupressure to qi gong, we've spoken with experts to dig into the details of how these practices can help us move toward better health.

In this conversation, we're exploring some of the most common questions from patients in the clinic in an asynchronous q+a session. These questions cover a broad range from the concrete, tactic...

A consistent theme in this show is empowering you to embody self-respect through daily actions; to take small steps in the direction of better. The body is always seeking balance and homeostasis through its own intelligence and there are usually actions we can take to help support that process. One such way is using points on the body to take care of yourself through acupressure.

Katie Pedrick, L.Ac. joins us for this conversation ...

Whether dealing with a COVID infection or just moving through life, a lot of us may be hitting energetic walls these days. In times like this, employing methods rooted in Chinese Medicine, like qi gong, can be very powerful in taking care of ourselves.

Dr. Juli Kramer has practiced and studied qi gong intensely for years and she joins us in this conversation to discuss building strength through the gentle movements of qi gong. In a...

What do you do when your back hurts, or when your neck and shoulders get tight and sore? Acupuncture is a potent medicine for joint pain, muscle pain, and nerve pain that provides an immediate relaxing, anti-inflammatory effect in a way that other healing modalities can’t. A growing body of research shows that acupuncture is a potent medicine for joint pain, muscle pain, low back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis of the knee, as w...

Chances are, if you're checking out this episode, you're looking for tools and techniques to help tune into yourself and be a better self-healer. You're probably also aware that the things we do every day can make a massive difference in how we feel as opposed to only finding healing in a bottle.

In this conversation, Amy Kuretsky, L.Ac. joins us to examine the deceptively simple, yet powerful technique of breathwork. As a broad te...

Winter is cold, dark, slow time of year, and since we’re a part of nature, it’s easy for us to feel the same way: sluggish and more inclined to hibernate than to get things done.

This most yin of seasons is necessary to balance the yang of life, and we ignore its gifts at our peril. In this episode, we examine how we can embrace the yin nature of winter,  along with:

• The connection between slowness, empathy, and connection
• Wha...

What would you really like to make time for on a regular basis, that somehow keeps getting pushed to the back burner? Whether it's writing a book, starting a meditation practice, or dropping a few pounds, developing a consistent routine is often the key to realizing your goal.

And developing a new routine -- or stopping an old behavior -- is hard. And it's about more than just willpower.

It takes time, energy, strategy, planning, a...

From time to time, every one of us makes mistakes and bad decisions. Once we recognize what happened, it can often be hard to regain our self-trust.

Kelly Thiel joins us for this conversation to share her own experience of losing self-trust and how she's been able to work on rebuilding it. Her story inspires us to let go of resentment and anger to move forward; to move on from perfectionism and mistakes to find trust in ourselves o...

Our digestive microbiome supports every other system in our bodies. Since we can't use what we can't digest and what we can't digest can cause problems, we can see cascading effects through our bodies if something's not right.

Here to unpack how the digestive system works and its central role in the body is Dr. Darlene Easton. She brings us some practical insights to help us understand our dig...

Given the stress and restriction of the last year, a lot of us might be carrying around some neck pain or unproductive posture. In the spirit of allowing ourselves to do less than we're humanly capable of, this conversation will address how we can work to reverse these issues with very gentle movements. Movements that invite us to be curious about the sensations we feel rather than trying to force our bodies to move in a certain wa...

It's been a tough year. As we slowly begin to emerge from, hopefully, the worst of the pandemic, we're also entering the full on yang-mode of summer. In the spirit of self-compassion on the heels of such a trying time, what would it look like to give yourself the gift of doing less? How can we lean into play and joy instead of the temptation of sending all of our energy and attention outwards this season?

These questions are tough ...

Almost everyone that comes through the clinic is dealing with some combination of two things: stress and dampness. This episode is a masterclass, or at least a lengthy public service announcement, on dampness since some of the most common questions that come up are regarding what it is and how to address it.

If you're dealing with tiredness, lethargy, poor digestion, brain fog, congestion, or ...

As the world slowly begins to emerge from the worst of the COVID era, there is a lot of collective trauma that we'll be working through for years. While any healing takes time, there are ways to move through trauma in accordance with the principles of Chinese Medicine that invite more ease into the process.

Bringing with her some practical tips for processing grief, being soft with ourselves, ...

Maintaining a healthy alignment with our bodies so often comes back to keeping things balanced and our hormones are no different.

Dr. Felice Gersh is dedicated to helping women navigate life in an optimal way, particularly when it comes to the roles hormones play in aging. She joins this conversation to discuss her philosophy on how women can approach supporting their hormonal systems in a variety of ways.

When dealing with hormone...

Chinese Medicine teaches us that winter is a time of quiet and stillness, a time for reflecting and conserving scarce resources.

As we reflect on how we navigate the world, it's also a good time to get radically honest with ourselves about what we're holding space for in our lives. With the podcast entering a new, slower period of creation, it can be helpful to examine and take a break from things that we're keeping in motion just ...

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine have been used for centuries to treat a variety of ailments in the population.

In this episode, we'll explore how that treatment made it's way into the American mainstream as well as answering some listener questions about the practice. We'll take a look at how the 5 elements interact with different individuals and we'll examine what it means to get out of the way.

On Today’s Solo Episode of A Healt...