news from the *Po* of Abalone
Must-Read if you come to clinic • New Classes • Hiring! • 💚
Openings this week for in-person or telemedicine:
Friday 3:30-4:30pm
Saturday 12:30-2pm
book using this link, reply to this email or reach out via email 🌿
learn more about my offerings here >
hello, lovey.
It is autumn. the time of the Lungs, of grief, of ancestors, of the sharpened metal precision of cutting away, the delicious ache of harvest and natural death, toward the composting and replenishment of our depths with coming rains and dark…
The Spirit of the Lungs is the “Po”, the Holy Janitor of the spirit-body… maintaining the rhythms of our breath, our spiraling rivers of blood, the misting of warm moisture through our inner terrain.
So, as it is “Po” season, I have some practical but essential things to tell you. Please do read - I promise, It’ll be quick (ish)!
What’s in this post:
Friday Yoga at Dance Palace starting this week!
By-Donation Class Series on Food as Medicine >> Register Here.
PLEASE READ - Session Price & Timing Changes
Abalone is Hiring! a tech-savvy Virtual Assistant
Gratitude & Book RecommendationFriday Yoga: Weekly from 10-11am at Dance Palace. Drop-in, $20.
My Thursday morning yoga class is moving indoors for winter, to Fridays in the Church space at Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station, CA. I share a traditional Hatha Yoga practice that looks and feels a bit like Qi Gong. Suitable for all levels. Focus on establishing the breath and marrying it with movement, and sharing a small simple practice you can use at home between treatments.
Cost is $20 per class - Payment via Venmo, cash, or else walk with me back to the Apothecary to pay by card and socialize and sip tea. Bring a blanket or mat, and bolster if you need one to sit comfortably cross-legged. See you there!
Food as Medicine 🌿 by-donation Class Series Starts November 3rd
based on Chinese Medicinal nutrition & the work of Dr Natasha Campbell McBride
Those who see me in clinic have heard me buzzing about a philosophy of medicinal eating that I have been researching and practicing for several months now. I am experiencing a paradigm shift in both my body and in my thinking about nourishment and healing. From this rabbit hole, I am offering a three-class series on Medicinal Eating, starting November 3rd! This radical yet traditional approach to medicinal nutrition is a do-able, flavor-rich cornerstone for healing *anything* - from psycho-emotional imbalance to chronic fatigue to leaky gut to cancer.
The class series is by-donation *if* you register and attend live (tell me in advance if you have a conflict). Suggested donation is $25-$75 per class or $75-$225 for the series, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. You will be invited to donate after you register.
Essential Guide to Food as Medicine: GAPS & Chinese Medical Philosophy
three-class Zoom series • every other Sunday from 10-11:30am • starting Nov 3rd
Sunday November 3rd, Nov 17, December 1st. 10-11:30am Pacific Time
This approach to medicinal eating is not a one-size fits all - it flexes based on your body’s signals of what foods work; your constitution, body type and genetic heritage; and what you’re trying to cure. There are levels of engagement so you can get started easily and see if it feels right. Food prep is easy once you are in the rhythm, and so tasty - all three kids in our household devour the GAPS meals I make for myself and my son’s leaky gut.
If you’re serious about healing and ready to put the rubber to the road, I will invite you to imagine a flavor-rich life without - gasp - sugar OR starch - and where - double gasp - fat is no longer the enemy. Like I said in my post last week, you will be invited to buy an ice cream maker (but also invited to mostly eat warm food in winter or if your Spleen / Agni is weak).
and before your mind goes to those “buts” about the horrors of cholesterol - an essential & nourishing hormone made by our bodies - read this paradigm-shifting article. Or check out this book by an MD. Or this one… both books are available in the Marin Free Library system.
Excited? Intrigued? Skeptical? Terrified? Perfect! Each class leaves 30 minutes for Q&A. Bring those burning questions.
Lets change our inner and outer world by not eating sh— that drags us down.
Session Price & Timing Changes
In response to the blessing of a full clinic (and parenting!) schedule, I am changing my normal clinical session time to 75 minutes, which more realistically reflects the actual amount of time that my hour-long sessions take! If you come to see me regularly (so I know what is going on with you), you are welcome to hop right on the table without a check-in and continue booking 60 minute treatments.
I have also changed my prices to reflect the degree of detailed care I offer, and the ever-increasing cost of living and operations in our beautiful West Marin. My new prices are listed on my usual booking page. You are welcome to pay for sessions when you book or pay at time of service - cash gets you a 5% discount. Herb prices only change when my suppliers change their prices - at the moment they’re holding steady :)
If you have been getting treatments from me for a while, you will be grandfathered in at your current going rate.
I also love trading, for things that I need - right now I could use raw organic honey, local pastured milk & eggs, certain organic fresh home-grown herbal medicines, organic garden compost, and help with deep-cleaning the clinic, carpentry & tear-down projects, artistic sign-making, & permaculture gardening.
Drop me a line to barter! If you have true financial hardship, you can write & request a scholarship application- I have a few sliding-scale slots.
Note on Timing: I strive to begin appointment times precisely when they are scheduled, but with just one treatment room and one Alison prescribing remedies and managing the front counter - there may be a short wait. Please allow for 10-15 minutes of wait time before your session. You will always receive the full amount of time you have booked. If you are scheduled to start, and it is chilly in the garden waiting area, you are welcome to quietly enter the clinic, sit on the bench, and help yourself to warm water - even if the “Treatment in Session” sign is out.
Thank you for your understanding, and please reach out with any questions.
HIRING NOW! Seeking an Experienced Virtual Assistant
Abalone is growing! To support more class offerings, faster herb turnaround times, more easeful scheduling, more consistent public apothecary hours, and thus, wider reach of all-good-effects medicine, I am expanding Team Abalone.
I am seeking a part-time Virtual Assistant for 10-20 hours of work per month. Could lead to full time work with other colleagues searching for same. Pay rate based on experience and efficiency. Start date, immediately.
The right person is hard working, heart-centered, and has the following skill-sets:
Meticulously manage email lists in Squarespace and Substack
Create and edit web pages, online courses and online shop in Squarespace
Edit and embed videos using Capcut & Vimeo
Create Flyers for Email, Instagram and Print, using Canva orInDesign
Correspond about clinic scheduling & announcements
Manage calendars
This person must also be:
passionate about natural healing, herbs & Chinese medicine
detail-oriented & precise
tech-savvy
blessed with an eye for visual harmony, typography & graphic design
able to offer quick turnaround time for tasks & correspondence
self-responsible, direct communicator with good boundaries
community-oriented and resonant with my take on medicine
Detailed information on possible tasks here» Abalone Virtual Assistant Task List.
If this sounds like you, get in touch, and please share this announcement with anyone you know who might be a great fit.
Interested folks can reach out to me through my website contact form here. Please title your message “Interested in VA Position”.
Please do not apply unless you have experience and genuinely enjoy this kind of work. Bonus points if you are a wild, body-centered & earth-based free thinker who is on a journey to decolonize mind, health, spirit & community 😉
Thank you, hive! 💛🐝✨
Endless Gratitude for You
I want thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your trust, your referrals, and your continued dedication and support. I am blessed and honored to care for a community which so uniquely lends itself to an old-world “country doctor” style practice like this.
I am inspired by the way you lean into self-healing and trust the wisdom of your body, the living earth, the wise plant beings, and the ancient sage medicine of China and India. I am delighted to witness your transformations. My practice deepens through our time in clinic together, our Embody Chinese Medicine circles and your own journeys and inquiries: you are my teachers.
You know that warm fuzzy feeling and delicious earthy aroma when you step through the doors of Abalone? That sweet imprint was established decades ago by Eden Clearbrook when she opened the doors of Garden of Eden Apothecary, which is still thriving as she makes her medicines from her gorgeous home on a nearby organic farm and ranch. Decades ago, Eden created an oasis that has become a magnetic north in West Marin for truly natural healing. I’m lucky to be able to ride the wave and evolve Abalone’s presence in West Marin.
I’m always touched when yet another delightful you comes down from the hills of Inverness or the mesa of Point Reyes to introduce yourself, seeking a remedy and healing support. Or you swirling in on a cloud of salty Bolinas fog… or rolling through from Novato via the back roads… or popping out to the coast from San Anselmo, Mill Valley, Fairfax or the Valley… or when you drift in - sometimes by chance - from Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, or further afield.
I love it when your siblings, parents, spouses, children, find their way to me after hearing about our work together.
Thank you for coming, thanks for spreading the word. Lets stay connected.
You are my medicine!
And a last “Po” note - I have to share my latest delicious inspiration - an animist love-poem to the desert and all its beings - Leslie Marmon Silko’s memoir, The Turquoise Ledge. It is available via audio or in print… I recommend Hoopla as it is free with a library card, and less evil than Audible.
Her tender attention to all the desert beings, the spirits, her creative process, the history of the Pueblo culture where she grew up… laced with a pure-hearted rejection of colonial greed… I highly recommend it if you love solitude and rattlesnakes and stones and the desert, if you are drawn to stories about living breathing pre-colonial American culture, if wild things are your besties. Oh and her breakthrough novel, Ceremony, is also unmissable.
all right dear… stepping away now to go fill some formulas... more soon…
~Alison
P.S. Substack sometimes asks you to subscribe, or pay, or offers you a discount on a paid subscription - it does this automatically and I do not know how to turn it off.
I do not expect or desire you to pay for this Animist Alchemy creative missive slash information & announcement stream. There is nothing available for pay that is not also available with the free subscription.
I am thankful for any gift of a paid subscription as a donation to support my craft of medicine and writing, but I'm not askin'...
Just so you know.
~AW