Our Courses Archives | White Pine Institute

Great Turning

Below is an excerpt from the syllabus for the White Pine 2021 Graduate Mentorship Program. This excerpt explains the meaning of what I call Great Turning and its application for practitioners of Traditional East Asian Medicine:

The Graduate Mentorship Program has been running since 2003. This upcoming course, starting this March, 2021, is the 9^th time I have taught it. Since the start, my understanding has deepened through experience, both in the clinic, through study, with students, and in life. In this rendition of the program, not only have the principles become crystalized and embodied for me, but I also feel that my articulation of them has evolved. Being a teacher is not only about knowing one’s material: unless there is a clear articulation that meets the student in a way that clarifies and open’s receptivity, the material cannot find a home within the student. While teaching, I always have the question, “Am I making sense to you?” I want you to have a sense of “aha!” and “Yes! I SEE!” I want you to have the experience of the murky confusion coming clear. I’ve learned that this happens when the foundational principles are sound. Only then does the material find its natural place in your mind and heart. The Graduate Mentorship Program’s foundational […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2021-01-26T12:19:01-08:00January 26th, 2021|Classic Formulas, Our Courses, Theory and Practice, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Reflective Learning Pathways

When the White Pine Circle launches on New Year’s Day, it will be like the starting up of an endless, ever-changing carousel of beautiful, useful, relevant-to-your-practice resources. Every month new resources will be posted including video teaching, live roundtable discussions, ebooks, tea-time talks, translations, and more. We are an open collective of nerdy colleagues, who love Traditional East Asian Medicine and can’t help ourselves but share what we love.

However, the REALLY cool thing the White Pine Circle is offering is TheReflective Learning Pathways. These pathways are available to members (free!) as a way to progress through resources in a more structured way so that they become like a course. For now, we have the following five pathways members can follow: Classical Formulas, Chinese Herbs, Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Going Deep with Zhang Zhongjing’s Lines. More to come. Following a pathway is a way to engage in our resources that gives the practitioner structure and support as they move through the resources. AND, at the completion of a pathway, the practitioner receives a certificate, a prestigious badge to show on your profile for referrals, support from a mentor, and a wonderful gift. All of this is free with membership.

An important component of the learning pathways is the reflective part of them. As the participant reads […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-12-29T05:51:34-08:00December 29th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Gynecology, Individual Herbs, News, Newsletter, Our Courses, White Pine Circle|0 Comments

Upcoming Wonderfulness

Oh, this past year! Need I say more?

And now, what a special time, with the light turning toward the new and spectacular conjunctions. I hope many of you had the chance to see the two huge planets aligned!

I look back at this past year as one of profound blessing as I’ve connected with so many in new and inspiring ways. Thank you to all of my students, colleagues, friends, animals, and family for lighting up my heart in so many ways. Now I turn to the future with tremendous excitement for what has been gestating and what is soon to be born!

On January 1, the White Pine Circle will launch. This has been a beautifully collaborative effort on behalf of all of us who love and work with traditional East Asian medicine. Please sign up to be notified of the launch here. It’s only a week away!

Until then, I invite you all to a free talk by Sally Rappaport where she will delve into a most common herbal formula, Gui Zhi Tang. I am sure you will be given a new appreciation of this formula! Not only is it useful for chronic and acute conditions, but it is also the foundation for other important herbal formulas. You can register for this talk here. […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-12-24T10:05:46-08:00December 24th, 2020|Individual Herbs, Our Courses, Shang Han Lun Physiology, White Pine Circle|0 Comments

White Pine Graduate Mentorship Program: Early Bird Rate Ending

Hello friends,

I’m writing this post to give you a heads-up that the early bird rate for the White Pine Graduate Mentorship Program closes tomorrow at midnight.

For more information about the program and to register please click here.

Please don’t hesitate to write to me with any questions you have.

whitepinegmp@gmail.com

Thank you,

Sharon

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-11-29T05:17:19-08:00November 29th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Kampo, Our Courses, Uncategorized|0 Comments

What does 經 mean?

In the previous two posts, we discovered that these Six Thing-a-ma-jigs were first named as Jīng, 經 by Qí Bó in NèijīngSùwèn, chapter 6. Therefore, the next step in understanding what these Six Things are is to explore the meaning of 經.

To decide what any character “means”, one must look at the way it is used in different contexts and discover the consistent thread of meaning between these uses. It is virtually impossible to accurately translate 經 as one word, though we often must. For the student/practitioner, a bit of understanding of these complex meanings may expand our relationship to our medicine.

Jīng 經 is made up of the thread radical on the left and the image of water streaming below the surface on the right. A possible definition of 經 is “an underlying structure or constant flow of threads or information that is invisible or enigmatic[1], giving rise to rise to and influencing visible phenomenon.”

This broad definition covers the bases I think. Let’s check. […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-06-14T11:23:02-07:00June 14th, 2020|Books, Chinese Translation, Classic Formulas, Neijing, Our Courses, Shang Han Lun Physiology|0 Comments

This Year, Rothenburg!

Getting to Rothenburg is not easy. The flight is bound to have at least one stop and then there are several trains to take and finally a taxi from the train station. I was there teaching two years ago and I was pooped by the time I arrived. And yet, it is so worth it! The city itself is spectacular and it is surrounded by farms and forests full of hiking trails. The TCM Kongress is always held in May which is an exquisite time to be there. The Kongress itself is, I think, the largest and most prestigious in the world with esteemed speakers from all over the world. It is well worth the long trip.

This year, I was invited to teach again and had it on my calendar. Alas, the live Kongress cannot happen this year. This is sad as so much of the Kongress is about meeting old friends in stone cafe’s and making new ones. However, for those who don’t like to or can’t travel that far, paying for flights, hotels, and meals, it is an incredible opportunity. Rothenburg will be done all through live streaming and video. In another way, this is better in that you can watch and attend classes that in real-time overlap, which is […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-05-13T09:20:47-07:00May 13th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Our Courses|0 Comments

Early Bird Rate Extended to April 1, Chicago and Shen Nong

A new round of the White Pine Graduate Mentorship Program is beginning October 23,2020. We’ve extended the early-bird rate to April 1, 2020. For more information about this two-year training in diagnosis and treatment with classical Chinese herbal medicine, click here.

March 14th and 15, I am teaching a two-day program in downtown Chicago on Treating the Life Force with Classical Chinese Herbalism. For those who would like to know more or register, click here.

Finally, I will be on a panel at the annual Shen Nong Society Conference in New York City, March 21-22, 2020. This is a wonderful conference, in part because it is relatively small and intimate. You’ll have a chance to study with Volker Scheid and Suzanne Robidoux.

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-02-29T04:22:36-08:00February 29th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Newsletter, Our Courses|0 Comments

Meta-Practice? What’s That?

On March 21-22, 2020, Volker Scheid will be teaching on Developing Meta-Practice in the Treatment of Menstrual Disorders at the Shen Nong Society Conference.

In the world of gaming, the word “meta” is used to refer to the “most effective tactic available.” Although there are several meanings of the word “meta,” in general it means to have a greater, more comprehensive view of a subject. There is metaphysics or metamathmatics. A metaphor gives us an understanding of a subject by standing back from the subject and seeing what it is like in the context of other things or phenomena. Taking all this into account then, meta-practice can be defined as a practice that allows us comprehensively review medical texts and teachings and integrate that which is valuable.

These ideas so reflect my own approach to practice and teaching. Although I teach primarily from the view of classic herbal medicine, for me, the practice is a living, breathing, open-source dance with available material. For example, I studied with the late Dr. Qiu Xiao-Mei in Hang Zhou, PRC long ago. She was highly influenced the Fu Qing-Zhu and wrote a text of her own experience as a Chinese medical gynecologist and obstetrician. She created her own experiential fomula called Supplement Certainty Decoction, which causes […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-01-27T14:23:10-08:00January 27th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, News, Our Courses|0 Comments

Clarifying Diagnosis Course

Healthy Seminars is having a cyber Monday sale I thought you all may be interested in as well. You can purchase my new online Clarifying Diagnosis course here and apply half of the cost to your tuition for the White Pine Graduate Mentorship Program. The coupon code for 30% off is GRATEFUL30.

Please feel free to contact me at whitepinegmp@gmail.com with any questions.

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-01-20T14:25:06-08:00November 30th, 2019|Classic Formulas, Our Courses, Theory and Practice|0 Comments

New Clarifying Diagnosis Course

Hello Everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

A new course of mine is now available on Healthy Seminars. It is an all new Clarifying Diagnosis that is a huge upgrade from the previous version. Be aware that, for new students, half of the cost of this course can be applied to your tuition for the White Pine Graduate Mentorship Program. For those who purchased the previous version, you can also get a benefit for that. In addition, there is a 30% discount on the new Clarifying Diagnosis course through November 29, using the code GRATEFUL30 on Healthy Seminars. This course and many others are available.

https://www.healthyseminars.com/bio/sharon-weizenbaum

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2019-11-30T17:51:51-08:00November 28th, 2019|Classic Formulas, Our Courses, Theory and Practice|0 Comments