Gynecology

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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 |2020-12-29T05:51:34-08:00December 29th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Gynecology, Individual Herbs, News, Newsletter, Our Courses, White Pine Circle|0 Comments
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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 |2020-01-27T14:23:10-08:00January 27th, 2020|Classic Formulas, Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, News, Our Courses|0 Comments
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Guest Post: Birth Basics Class

Guest Post by Claudia Citkovitz

I’ll be there!

Save the date!  Birth Basics Class has arrived.

My book, Acupressure, and Acupuncture during Birth won’t be out until December 19, but I’ll be teaching all the content (and then some) here at White Pine Healing Arts on September 28-29, 2019.

The class will cover needle and bodywork approaches for everything from labor preparation and prenatal homework through the three stages of labor and postpartum care.  In particular, we will look at the roles of Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in birth, and the effects of stagnation and deficiency on contractions, dilatation, and descent of the baby through the pelvis.

Suitable for non-acupuncturists such as doulas and midwives, students learn to recognize the faces of yin and yang, as they manifest and shift throughout the course of labor and delivery. Using a clinical problem-solving approach, you will learn to assess balance and flow from labor preparation through the postpartum period and use acupressure, bodywork, auriculotherapy, and moxibustion to support and encourage healthy labor. Acupuncturists taking the course will learn a full range of needling and non-needling techniques, suitable for even the most conservative hospitals. Non-acupuncturist birth professionals will come away with a powerful but manageable toolbox of new techniques for helping moms with breech, oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios, IUGR and other […]

By |2019-08-13T05:25:32-07:00August 12th, 2019|Acupuncture, Adjunctive Therapies, Books, Gynecology, Obstetrics|0 Comments
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Bai Zi Ren 白子仁

How do we get to know herbs?  Zhang Jing-Yue says

“There are many medicinals, each with their own respective natures. Because the countless indications and contraindications are diverse, it is difficult to know them all. If he who uses the medicinals does not grasp the essence, it is inevitable that he will make many mistakes. If he only considers the which governs, or only considers the secondary actions; if he only cares about ‘what benefits this but does not benefit that’, then his ignorance about what is true and the rigidity in his attempts to lasso the wild horse will result in a lack of effectiveness.”

What does it mean to “grasp the essence” of an herb?  Zhang goes on to say:

“There is only one truth for the use of herbs, and that is the mastery over their qi and taste, along with the knowledge of their yin and yang. This way, even though there are many of them, one will be able to grasp their essence.”

We often learn herbs simply in relation to their listed functions.  “What does this herb DO” is the place […]

By |2019-06-09T14:21:42-07:00June 9th, 2019|Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, Individual Herbs, Opening Through, Xia Guisheng|0 Comments
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Teeny Tiny: Chi Xiao Dou Dang Gui San

It’s been a while since we’ve had a teeny tiny formula post. I am writing today about a favorite of mine, one that really packs some power: Chi Xiao Dou Dang Gui San.

This formula is written about in two places in the Jin Gui Yao Lue.

Firstly it is in Chapter 3 on Pulses, Patterns and Treatment of Bai He (Lilly) Disease, Hu Huo Disease and Yin Yang Toxin Disease. Line thirteen says:

“The patient has rapid pulses, no fever, slight vexation, reticent but with a desire to lay down, and sweating. Three or four days after the initial onset, the eyes are red as those of a turtle dove. After seven or eight days, the four corners of the eyes turn dark. If the patient is able to eat, this indicates that pus has developed. Chi Xiao Dou Dang Gui San is indicated.”

Secondly, it is in chapter 16: Pulses, Patterns and Treatment of Fright palpitations, Purgation of Blood, Fullness in the Chest and Static Blood where line 16 says:

“With bleeding in the bowel, first there is bleeding followed by defecation. This is called proximal bleeding. Chi Xiao Dou Dang Gui San is indicated.”

Ah, the Jin Gui text…..it can be difficult to determine how […]

By |2018-01-01T16:46:58-08:00December 30th, 2017|Classic Formulas, Gynecology, Individual Herbs, Liu Han Tang, Opening Through|0 Comments
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E Zhu and San Leng

th-3I’m so glad to have the website launched so I can get back to the business of talking about Chinese medicine in this blog!  

About six years ago, I wrote a blog post about E Zhu and San Leng.  Over time, I’ve only come to appreciate these herbs more and more.  Recently I treated a woman who had a history of severe dysmenorrhea since menarche.  This was the kind of painful menstruation that leaves a woman unable to function.  In cases of severe dysmenorrhea, I always ask if there are any meat-like or tissue-like clots in the menstruate.  I also ask if there is relief of pain upon discharging one of these clots.  In her case the answer was yes to both of these questions.  This was a clear case of membranous dysmenorrhea.  She did not have any craving for warmth or aversion to cold related to her menstruation. Typically she would start to have pain and water retention starting a week and a half before her menstruation.   2 weeks before the start of her menstruation I gave her a formula to vitalize the blood, disolve masses and stop pain.  The formula included E Zhu and San Leng as well as Xu Duan […]

By |2018-06-26T16:31:05-07:00November 24th, 2017|Gynecology, Individual Herbs, Our Courses|0 Comments
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Bad Flu causes Scary Bleeding

This was an intense case in which the patient really did not want to go to the hospital. I had to both support this wish while making sure she was remaining safe. It is important to allow for the possibility that my skills may not be enough! I find it important to make agreements with patients in cases like this such as - after an agreed upon period of time or if symptoms get worse, they will go to the ER. Without this, I am not comfortable working with these kinds of crises. On the other hand, with this kind of clear communication, it is great to see what the herbs can do.

By |2017-07-24T19:34:18-07:00January 30th, 2014|Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, Our Courses, Qiu Xiaomei|1 Comment
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Placenta Encapsulation: A Traditional Chinese Medicine for Post-Partum Healing

My personal experience has been nearly 100% positive, with mothers reporting feeling strong, bleeding times shortened, milk supply coming in full, and an overall sense of well-being. The clearest evidence, though, has come to me from second-time mothers who report feeling so much stronger and in control, even with a toddler to run around after in addition to the newborn. The placenta can easily be combined with a customized herbal treatment to provide the mother with full post-partum recovery.

By |2017-12-29T17:13:06-08:00December 27th, 2013|Adjunctive Therapies, Experiential Formulas, Gynecology, Obstetrics|3 Comments
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