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“Living the depth of Chinese medicine for the evolution of our patients, our planet and ourselves”
This is more than an empty tagline, it’s the core theme of a movement that is growing within the Chinese medicine profession.
It is a movement that is based on the most ancient, and precious, principles of our medicine. The wording of the statement is deliberate, and important. Living the depth… The root is an apt symbol here. It makes us think of depth, it implies real stability, it implies nourishment & interconnection. These are the principles that guide us here at Deepest Health, in our writing, teaching, interacting, learning and most of all, in our practice of Chinese medicine.
“It is a movement that is based on the most ancient, and precious, principles of our medicine.”
Again, these are more than empty words meant to be parroted to one another & left in the realm of theory and conjecture.
A deeper, more engaged Chinese medicine practice is more effective, more transformative for patients.
The information we receive from the classics and from our most integral teachers helps to transform our understanding of pathology, our treatment options, and how treatment should progress.
Even as we turn to embrace our roots, to dive deeper into them than ever we believed possible, we are also turning away from something. We are turning away from the simple solution. We are turning away from “the next big thing” even if that next big thing seems to solve some acute problems for some patients. We are turning away from a life that is lived in conflict with the base principles of our medicine. We are turning away from believing that a 3 or 4 year degree and a lifetime of minimal CEUs is enough to be a true practitioner of our medicine.
Who is behind all of this?
I’m Eric Grey, practitioner of Chinese medicine in Portland, OR, and the founder of Deepest Health. (Want to know more specifics feel free to peruse my CV, reading it has been known to cure insomnia). My dream is to participate in the creation and expansion of a classically grounded, internationally connected, vibrant community of Chinese medicine practitioners. Big dream, right?
Deepest Health is at the core of that dream. While in medical school, I sensed that reaching out to the wider community of Chinese medicine practitioners available on the Internet would be an important part of my journey. During that time, I had the privilege of training with noted Chinese medicine scholars Arnaud Versluys and Heiner Fruehauf, as well as interacting with international scholars and practitioners at conferences, other events related to Chinese medicine and also via Deepest Health – founded during my second year of school.
What’s interesting is that a familiar old personal problem reasserted itself around that time…
I started to lose inspiration.
I have this problem, see, I just can’t buckle down and work when I’m not positively bursting with excitement and anticipation. That’s why I turned away from other professions in the past including genetics and teaching Philosophy – just lost the juice. That it was happening about Chinese medicine was troubling, and I set about finding a solution.
That’s when I started to dig deeper.
Now one of the most popular blogs on Chinese Medicine on the web, Deepest Health has become a hub of activity for this community. How? Easy. Because it stays true to its mission of helping others to live the depth of the medicine, and in so doing, helping the evolution of our culture. That connection to something bigger than just getting patients, or just treating symptoms, has really resonated with people.
When I’m not writing here, you can find me reaching out to the Chinese Medicine community across the web and in my own backyard. I currently teach Chinese herbs at my alma mater, the National College of Natural Medicine. Additionally, I’m the founder of Watershed Community Wellness, a thriving local clinic in Southeast Portland in Oregon. No matter where I’m working, you’ll find my focus on the Classical approach to Chinese medicine laced throughout everything I do.
While there are many teachers in Chinese medicine, and a few decent websites devoted to the topic, I think you’ll find something special at Deepest Health. There’s the focus on the roots, yes, and on scholarship, on living the way the sages pointed towards… but you’ll also find that information is delivered in a clear, relatively easy to understand way – without being overly simplistic.At Deepest Health, we strive to give you information you can use, in a way you can really work with, right away.
That’s one of my talents, and something I really work on cultivating. Haven’t you ever had teachers who were brilliant in the lab or the clinic, but when it came to teaching, they just couldn’t explain things at your level of understanding? While that can help develop one’s humility, it’s not necessarily the best way to learn.
By making even the most difficult of topics in Chinese medicine accessible, Deepest Health strives to energize and inspire other practitioners to dive deeper into their own work.
I love communicating with people who are passionate about bringing a deeply engaged Chinese medicine fully into the world. It keeps me ticking! You can contact me by using the contact form below.
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