Category: ACS Blog

A few weeks ago I opened the front door to the office at 7:40am to find a patient sitting in the waiting room with his phone open on the side table. He was quite happily unwrapping what he told me was a homemade falafel wrap with hummus and parsley. He began to stand, but I

Tonight, curled by the fire with five inches of snow in the 10 degree cold outside (-12 degrees celsius), I’m reflecting on the subject of this afternoon’s third lecture of the mentorship, the Chong channel. How extraordinary is that channel—containing not only the blueprint for the physical being, but the whole plan of one’s life. 

As I head back to New York from a lovely family gathering in Massachusetts, a young person in the car just asked about my new year’s resolution. It’s very boring.Notice all thoughts, slough off 98% of them, and meditate to clarity—no matter how short-lived that clarity it is—every day.If the purpose of resolutions is to

Recently the office received an email from a practitioner who had been told by an advisor to go ahead and combine in a single session divergent treatments and treatments of a very different (modern) practice. He was justifiably concerned. Imagine you’re in a restaurant overhearing someone at the next table making an order:Yes, I’m ready,

Just a short note today.  This morning I received an email from an acupuncturist asking for tips for sustaining commitment.  The writer commented that I seem to have no trouble with it.  It took me aback because the premise of the question is that there is an elusive effort or skill in such commitment.  Certainly

Sorry to be out of touch. Right now it’s 5:45AM and Andrew is beside me driving in the dark while I write this very overdue missive as we return to the city from a day in the country. I’ll see eleven patients over twelve hours and Andrew will Zoomteach to Poland a dietary class in

“How does it feel to be Empty Nesters?” a friend asked this week, with a wink. There’s an expectation that the answer be something like, “I just can’t believe it—my little girl—it goes so fast—it seems like just yesterday she was saying her first word—where did the time go…”   But it felt like the

Sometimes when you feel into a person’s wrist, as you’re listening to the moderate level of the pulses, something extraordinary happens—the pulses suddenly adopt a pendular action, swinging laterally toward and away from the tendons in very regular fashion with every beat.  This happened a couple of weeks ago in a patient with a very

Picture: Miriam’s room is at the very far left of the building. It’s been a whirlwind few weeks. Sorry to be out of touch. The classes in Australia and Hawaii went beautifully, thanks to their amazing hosts, Mei Li and Jordan. It’s been so lovely to meet many new people eager to engage the medicine.

Today was another day of village-style healing.  I had taken my daughter out for a driving lesson, and we were coming up the driveway when I saw a person at the front door. There was no car in sight, so he had presumably walked, yet he wasn’t a neighbor. Miriam drove the car into the

Very often the subject I’m teaching in the Mentorship Program becomes a subject outside the Mentorship at the same time.  When I arrived in the apartment late this afternoon, my daughter didn’t respond when I greeted her through her closed bedroom door. I spoke again. “I have a really bad a headache,” said a weak, pained

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you might remember one dated December 11, 2019, when a car came up the driveway and a young boy got out and asked me to help his father who was suffering a great deal of pain and needed help to get out of the car and

Greetings from Paris! Twenty-seven years ago, when I was living in my native Melbourne, I met Andrew on the phone. I’d been introduced to him by email through a friend as I was looking for some esoteric advice for a essay I was writing as part of a Masters degree at Melbourne in 1997. A

In response to a post we put up on Instagram a couple of weeks ago about unexpected reactions after treatment, a strong and very kindly worded reaction came back. Responses of this nature are always welcome, by the way, especially if they elicit a hopefully helpful blog! Here’s the post:  And here’s the response:  “Humble

Last night I arrived home after a really lovely two days visiting friends at the beach in South Carolina. It was a treat to travel just for the sheer enjoyment of friendship. When I landed in New York I turned on my phone to type “landed 💕,” which is our custom, only to see a