earth medicine in practice
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People have been asking me about my intake process, so I decided to try to write a picture. This post describes what it looks like to work with me, and what I draw on to inform my practice. I’d love to support your healing if it resonates - and for those who already see me in clinic, I’d love to hear your own experience.
But first, I have a story…
the mystery of the Orange Slime
Abalone Medicine Field Notes | January 17, 2021
In our local woods there is a healthy creek where salmon spawn and the water runs cool and crystaline. All along this creek is a delightful diversity of micro-life, stone and fallen redwood brimming with tiny mosses, insects, flowers & lichen.
One day I wandered up a tributary of this creek and noticed that something was not quite right - there was an overgrowth of some globby-looking entity -some kind of algae? (blob-ID is not my wheelhouse.) The verdant life along the water had suddenly morphed into a tiny, sad and apocalyptic diorama - where this goop grew, no other life was found. I was certain the orange sludge was an invader, destroying or obstructing all the diversity of flora and fauna in its path.
Then I hiked a bit further upstream and looked closer. Almost totally buried in the hillside, crumbling and camouflaged by the surrounding earth, was an old, rusty iron water pipe leeching rivulets of golden-copper mineral into the creek. Wherever the orange ribbons of iron streamed out of the corroded pipe, nothing grew except the blob, which thrived in abundance.
I suddenly realized that this uggy-looking thing was a superstar force of nature, the only creature that seemed to be able to consume and transmute the pipe-stuff that was killing everything else in its path. I daresay the blob was cleaning the creek. I was told later that it was likely benign “iron bacteria” - which checks out.
How easy it would have been to label this gooey monolithic life form as a problem, to try to eradicate it, if I had not looked closely and traced it back to the hidden leeching pipe - its source, or root cause (though really, the root cause had to do with the humans who laid the pipe). Just like when we chase down and micro-manage “villains” in our own bodies, we risk overriding the unfathomable intelligence of our own nature and destroying the very thing which heals us. Thus bypassing the deeper more fundamental healing our bodies are begging for.
ecological medicine with Alison
Background. Traditional Chinese Medicine or “TCM” as it is taught in the US, is a product of Mao’s cultural revolution - it is a spiritually-sanitized skeleton of the ancient roots of the medicine. TCM incorporates 300+ hours of Western medical study, leading to a license to practice acupuncture and provide medical care. Classical Chinese medicine, by contrast, is thousands of years old, rooted in ancient Taoist ideas about the human body, nature, and life. I learned the skeleton of TCM through 5 years of grad school, and I flesh it out with my clinical experience, 20+ years of yoga practice, a life of immersion in nature, and my undergraduate degree in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from MIT.
Yoga and Chinese medicine are centered around the truth that our bodies are a perfect microcosm of the macrocosm, precisely reflecting the living earth & dynamic cosmos.
I’ve had amazing human teachers, and I am also a student of you lovely people in clinic. From yoga, I learned to directly feel energy pathways in my body and sense my own qi. My earth science studies taught me the anatomical and energetic body of the macrocosm of our planet: I learned the mathematical poetics of how ocean currents (yin & blood), atmospheric winds (qi) and rainforests (wood, earth) store and move solar energy (yang) around the living planet on a geological time scale. My deep life-long relationship with the natural world helps me to intuitively understand the Chinese earth-based concepts of fire, wood, water, earth. I also take small dips into passages from the classic Chinese medicine texts. All of these together guide me in applying this medical system every day in clinic.
Inner Tracking. Chinese medicine treats the whole person. In order to do this well, I need a detailed picture of what you experience physically, mentally, & emotionally - yes, symptoms, but also, just the day-to-day details of your unique experience in your body - like whether you digest quickly, or slowly. Together, we track and map your internal ecology.
To do this, I observe your pulse, tongue, skin, etc, and ask many, many questions. I invite you to tell me what you feel in your body, and what you sense is needed. Chinese medical patterns emerge, revealing the dynamics of any imbalance. I then offer remedies that shift the pattern towards more natural flow of life force so you can heal yourself and express your fullest radiance. Through rebalancing your being as a whole, symptoms often resolve themselves.
It is more like tending a garden than fixing a machine. The remedy can be simple - moisten what is dry or fill what is empty - or more complex, like rebalancing energetic organ functions, yin/yang relationships, or healthy qi dynamics.
Acupuncture with Alison is an other-worldly experience. I feel absolutely nourished and at peace after each treatment. - Carline E. (an incredible medicine woman - find her here )
When people come into Abalone and say “do you have anything to balance my hormones?” or “can you give me something for ulcerative colitis?” I answer no, even though I can likely help them feel better. I tell them, “everyone is very different, and the cause for your symptoms may well be different than someone else with the same issue. I cannot confidently suggest a remedy without taking time to understand your unique inner ecology.” Plus, ‘hormones’ or ‘ulcerative colitis’ don’t exist in Chinese medicine, so I would never treat them. I treat *you*.
For example, someone might experience gut problems because they are totally deficient and depleted, like parched soil that lacks moisture and nutrients. Someone else might have digestive issues because they chronically clenching their guts and not breathing well; yet another person might be clogged up with sludge. These three people need completely different remedies to balance the underlying ecology in their body, as dictated by the laws of nature. The depleted person needs nourishing; the clenched person needs to breathe, relax, and move their qi; the sludgy person needs to clear dampness and strengthen. Through rebalancing, the body uses its own innate brilliance to heal and maintain.
We start by diving deep and spending real time together.
The initial intake. Consultations last between one and two hours; three if you include acupuncture. We sit in my cozy treatment room. I offer you warm filtered spring water to sip on, and I ask lots of questions - about your sleep, diet, emotions, skin, pain, habits, bowel movements, mental health, lifestyle, eyes, thirst, and many more. I I listen, I take notes… I look at your pulse and tongue. I ask you about your medical history, any supplements or pharmaceuticals your taking; I ask about your health struggles, your insights and your goals. People often tell me it is the most in-depth intake they’ve had from any practitioner.
Most of the time people are coming to get a course of treatment for a specific issue, or to learn how to be healthier in general. Other folks have gone quite far down the path of healing themselves; they’ve worked in many modalities and want to take the time to get my nature-based perspective on what’s happening and I think what might be needed.
Coaching. As we move through the intake conversation, I make suggestions and offer my perspective on your health. While I’m getting a sense of your inner ecology, I share what I see from a Chinese medical perspective, and I suggest remedies, eating habits and lifestyle adjustments. I tell folks not to be overwhelmed - I am not suggesting that you should do, or even remember, everything I say!
I summarize all my suggestions in an email or written card, and I encourage you to only do the things that feel exciting, do-able, resonant, and aligned. Once in a while I have specific strong recommendations that are clearly going to be essential if you really want to feel better and tap your deeper vitality and health.
Herbal recommendations. I almost always recommend constitutional herbs, which you either take home after your consult, or pick up in a few days when ready. These herbs come in many forms: powders, syrups, tinctures or “raw” dried herbs. Custom house-ground raw herbs are the most potent, but also the most work to prepare at home. I make these custom formulas using the full range of my Chinese and Western herbal apothecary; for more complex cases, I will spend hours researching to get the most accurate formulation within my power. If it is not practical to cook herbs at home each day, I make custom formulas into tinctures (alcohol extractions) that travel easily and take zero prep, and I offer “granules” as well - just add a few spoons of herbs, hot water, stir, and drink.
These “constitutional remedies” are the workhorses which go deep and shift the baseline situation in your body/mind/spirit. Often it takes a few evolutions of a remedy to understand the terrain, peel away the layers and get all the results. The formulas in Chinese medicine change as you change - you’re not meant to be on a prescription for life. Sometimes the path is direct, and others, a spiraling hunt.
I also recommend symptomatic herbal remedies which I make at Abalone with organic or carefully wildcrafted herbs. These blends are informed by my training in Western folk herbalism, and are vetted by the people that come through the apothecary doors. They do things like help you sleep, clear a stuffy nose, or calm anxiety. It is not unusual for me to prescribe both constitutional and symptomatic herbs, and they work well together. For orthopedic issues, I always prescribe a combination of internal medicine and topical remedies, along with acupuncture, cups and medical massage.
An effective herbal formula is magic. Herbs can get us out from under the first layer of muck and pain and discomfort, and spark the motivation to make bigger lifestyle changes.
Five months ago I was a mess- stuck in fight or flight mode with routine insomnia. Alison met me exactly where I was- listening carefully, asking thorough questions and holding space for my frazzled body and mind. Her incredibly kind, compassionate and grounding energy guided me to a place of comfort and strength in my body, and trust in myself and intuition. - Clare E. (who is an incredible artist, btw - check out her paintings here)
Food as medicine. Chinese medicine and sustainable healing hinges on discovering how to use food to support your body’s unique ecology. For most people, food is a massive opportunity to shift things for the better. Harmful eating habits are going to work at cross-purposes with our healing herbs. A little can go a long way - a few small dietary tweaks can make a huge difference (like starting the day with a warm hydrating beverage or cutting back on raw cold foods). I love it when people transition from following the rules imposed by an external “expert” or rigid philosophy (i.e. “keto” or “vegan” or “low-Fodmap”) and start to truly listen to their body’s messaging about what foods work and what don’t. This listening is a practice. As you heal, your medicinal eating will likely evolve and change.
Acupuncture & all the things. Lately I’ve come to realize that the secret to radiant health and vitality is in the everyday things we do for free: drinking water, breathing, walking properly, fasting, sleeping, doing nothing. When you work with me, I offer remedies around hydration practices, acupuncture, yoga, breath work, soaking, sweating, not-doing, water fasting, hammock sleeping, jade yoni egg, and barefoot shoes/arch rehabilitation - and many more. In my Embody Chinese Medicine circles we calendar specific days to take individualized home retreats, where we clear our schedules to relax, observe ourselves, and gain deeper insight on what medicine is truly called for in our lives.
Packages: committing to a course of treatment. Following your initial consultation, I recommend a course of treatment that may include herbs, follow-up consults, acupuncture, and yoga instruction. I strongly encourage a course of focused work together to address anything chronic or complex, because that is where the real magic happens. I offer a healing immersion called two Moons and also create custom packages based on your unique situation. Custom packages range from 3 weeks to three months and are all-inclusive, including herbal remedies, acupuncture and check-ins. Packages are more affordable than booking sessions individually. They invite a mindset of focus, dedication and self-accountability. Committing to a container of work together allows us to track the changes that unfold from your herbs and lifestyle changes, evolve the treatments, and midwife a transformation into a new, more vital and resilient realm of well being.
Inner listening, the holy grail. People sometimes find their way to Abalone feeling betrayed and frustrated by the discomfort or disfunction in their bodies. They might have lots of data - lab tests, etc - and also might have lots of disconnection from their direct embodied experience. It is not uncommon for me to ask, “what are you feeling” and have someone answer, “my hormones are messed up.” It is a paradigm shift to navigate our medicine by tracking the actual felt experience of imbalance in our bodies.
I gently press on - “what do you feel in your body? do your limbs feel heavy? are you tired or wired? how is your memory? any hair loss?” Inner tracking, and then honoring what we hear, is a practice, and a worthy one. Learning to navigate by our ever-changing inner ecological landscape, rather than by external data or “experts”, is the innermost heart of the healing process. Our bodies don’t lie, and don’t lead us astray. We just need to listen, map and track what we find, and then respond with kind and potent remedy.
During consultations and clinical sessions, I guide you to develop this inner listening. In fact, I’ve created an educational offering around exactly this, because after several years in clinic, it feels like the most fundamental way I can help. To cultivate inner tracking skills in community, you can join my Embody Chinese Medicine circles.
Alison’s wisdom and deep knowledge of plant and body healing, and Chinese medicine has given me a new perspective on health and wellbeing, and life really. After regularly working with her, and fine tuning an herbal formula that addressed my very sensitive and specific needs, and joining her Embody Chinese medicine circle, I feel present in my body, and confident in my health choices, helping me make major transitions, growing into the person I’ve always wanted to be. - Clare E
a philosophy of medicine
I strive to treat the whole person, not the disease. Imagine ‘healing’ a plant that needs water by painting its brown leaves green every day (symptom suppression) rather than observing its whole state of being and then giving it a good soak (root cause medicine). I consider the human body like a garden or a unique bioregion, rather than a complex machine. The body’s terrain has intelligence, life force, and spirit. We move towards self-healing if we are given the right conditions. We can allow the intelligence of our nature to handle the details.
As a permaculture gardener or an indigenous land tender knows, if you deeply understand a complex living system, you can use the innate wisdom and power in fire, water, metal, earth, and green sprouting plant life to regenerate, vitalize and sustain an ecology’s thriving. Watch Biggest Little Farm or read Tending the Wild for incredible examples of this on an ecological scale. Their methods work with the power of nature, rather than trying to micromanage and dominate a living system through, say, monocrops, tilling, pesticides, & GMOs… or symptom-suppressing pharma and biological nanotech...
What is true about the living earth must be true about our bodies, and vice versa.
Chinese medicine does not treat hormones or diseases - instead, the medicine is designed to treat the ecology of the whole human in our ever-changing aliveness. Our bodies never lie, never ‘betray’ us. If, say, our hormones are off-kilter, they are signaling an imbalance, yes, but does that mean they need a manual over-ride? Perhaps they are altering their normal ranges intelligently in order to regulate our bodies in ways that even the most cutting-edge science does not understand. After all, aren’t they totally interconnected with the infinite dynamics that unfold constantly within us and between us and earth and cosmos?
Remember the orange slime?
Modern science has a reliable legacy of making over-confident claims only to find out later that things aren’t what they seemed - like the current unraveling of the cholesterol myth. Modifying our microbiology to force numbers that we deem “normal” can obstruct our messaging systems and scramble our body’s distress-relief strategies (like with cholesterol, fevers, inflammation or even blood pressure).
With Chinese medicine, we get to put these questions on the shelf - we don’t have to choose. We can work in a different, effective way, focused on direct experience, careful observation, and an elegant alternate system of biology, anatomy, and pathology based on the intricate dynamics of the natural world.
The earth, the cosmos, our bodies, are infinitely intelligent, beyond what our logical minds, embedded deep within these systems, can possibly calculate.
Inner tracking, inner mapping, and ecological rebalancing simply works, whether be the body or the land. It is kind, gentle, and harnesses the natural healing and regenerative powers of life itself. The key is to observe closely and carefully to see what the living system is truly calling for in order to heal. And slowly, in realistic steps that we know how to make, to answer the call.