My Oriental Medicine Healing Experience

By Mary C., Student

When I had my first Oriental medicine healing experience, it was when I was very sick.  I had just run the 5k Mud Race that came to Anchorage.  My immune system had already been pretty weak prior to running it because of all the stress I had been under.  My asthma was acting up and I couldn’t breathe well, and I just felt bad overall.  So after I had done the mud race, I thought it was only going to be my body that hurt.  Two days after the race was over, I began to feel worse.  I couldn’t breathe well at all and I felt weak.  I started to get high fevers at night that became low grade during the day.  I felt like I was walking in a dream.  During the fevers at night, I would sweat so badly that I had to open the windows and have no sheets on me.

My teacher Cynthia was so sweet and asked if I’d like a treatment.  She used some essential oil blends and rubbed them into my lung meridian when I was supine, as well as other acupoints that I can’t recall.  During one moment when she hit a point, I felt like someone’s hand was resting on my lower belly.  It was incredibly weird but calming at the same time.  As if someone was there, helping my healing along.  Later I turned over into prone position and she pressed my Shu Points.  I fell asleep because I was so weak and tired.  Later on I woke up still feeling feverish, but almost like I was getting better already.  Cynthia gave me a special tincture that I had to take every day in water.  Later on I was given herbal pills from Lamar, our acupuncturist, and I made and appointment to get acupuncture done too.

For my acupuncture appointment I was given a “clearing” treatment and told to avoid caffeine for a while.  This made me sad, but I wanted to get better.  I made another acupuncture appointment and began taking the tincture and herbs that were given to me.  Within a few days I was already feeling quite amazing.  The fevers stopped completely and I felt like my lungs had cleared.  I could breathe again! There was also this new energized feeling in my body.  It seemed like I had more stamina.

After my second acupuncture treatment I was completely better and felt better than I had before I got sick.  It was quite amazing and whatever doubts I had before about Oriental medicine working, were gone.  I was a skeptic in some areas, but it seems each time I try these new things it opens my eyes even more.  I am so excited I get to practice everything I have learned to help heal others.

Note: The instructors and practitioners at Alaska Institute always encourage patients to see their doctor as needed for health emergencies.  There is much we have to offer in the case of non-emergencies, and we take an integrative and respectful approach to working in complement with a person’s conventional medical care.

Where's the Mind-Spirit Part??

I've noticed something disturbing lately. It's been going on for a very long time, but it just came strongly into my conscious awareness recently. So I'm going to vent about if for a moment.


There's a stereotype, if you will, in the natural health community, about Western Medicine that all you do is take a pill to relieve the uncomfortable symptoms you are experiencing. The stereotype usually continues that 'how is this healing if you aren't getting to the root cause of the symptoms'?

I have been listening to and watching discussions about natural or alternative methods of healing. The disturbing part is, that all too often I see someone describe their physical symptoms and some other natural minded person advises an herb or a vitamin or avoiding a variety of foods to (cure) or take the symptoms away.

How is this any different from the stereotype of what Western medicine is doing? It's the same thing, but with a "natural" pill.

I would love to start hearing and seeing more discussions that include the emotional aspects involved, attitudes that are stuck, reasons the person's life isn't happy.

The physical symptoms are only 1/3 of the mind-body-spirit connection! Let's get to the attitude mindsets that need to be changed and how to do that. Let's explore REAL lifestyle adjustments and how they can be made. What challenges are involved in these changes and how does someone overcome and work through them to achieve success, and how does this correlate to the relief of their physical symptoms?

Let's hungrily acknowledge the mind-spirit part of the equation. Once this is addressed we might start getting somewhere. An herb or a vitamin or not eating white sugar is not all the answer.

Thank you for listening.

Radical Acceptance

Want to listen to this post? Now you can on our Podcast Channel:



Ever have an insight that made you feel so inspired you wanted to dance and jump around?  This is one I had the other day, and my heart felt so incredibly peaceful as I was pondering it.  I'll share:

Insight 11-6-11 while reading “Narrative Medicine” by Lewis Mehl-Madrona - an excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Wow - the Spirit of “Disease” changes, transforms, and spiritually grows just like we do. We are yin and yang to each other, necessary partners in our spiritual evolution. When we humans truly heal from a “disease”, we become a better person – clearer, more passionate about life, more compassionate to others.

And when we heal, the “disease” also heals and transforms into something better. I don’t think it just goes away or dissolves. But if we kill it as if it’s the enemy have we temporarily thwarted its spiritual growth along with our own?

As true healing begins, we might realize “disease” as a teacher, offering us valuable life-changing lessons that we haven’t understood in any other way. And maybe this is also the beginning of unconditional love the spirit of the “disease” has never known – or longs to know – or needs to know. As we stop hating it and begin appreciating it for the many ways it is changing our lives for the better, maybe it is our love and acceptance that teaches the “disease” to be free of its bonds of hatred, negativity, and loathing, and it moves closer to becoming one with unconditional love and oneness, just like we also do. What if….. this is the way to “eradicate disease”?

Massage Therapy Is Not What I Thought It Would Be - It's More

By Shifu Chase Acuff, LMT

Here I go again, on to my next massage clients. I’m currently about 75 miles Northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Moving along at about 120 knots and about 1200 feet up. At least that’s what it looks like on the dash as I peer over the pilot’s shoulder. This time, I’m heading out on a big, sleek, red and white turbo De Havilland Otter on skis. We should be arriving at the prestigious Winterlake Lodge in about another 20 minutes. Airplane is the only way in, unless you want to undertake the 90 mile snowmachine ride in from Talkeetna. In the summer, forget it. Too boggy.

My clients are onboard. They are to be guests at the Lodge for the next few days as the dog mushers blow through there at checkpoint four during the famed Iditarod Sled

Dog Race. They all look excited. A few VIPs from Anchorage, a couple from D.C. and another from North Carolina.

Oh nice! Here we go winging through the little pass again to the big valley where the lodge sits. Glacial-smoothed tundra stares right in my window. Awesome! We must be only 500' off the deck here.

Never would have guessed being a Massage Therapist would look like this.

This is my 5th or 6th time out now. I’ve been out in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and it’s a different place, each season. In the winter there’s snowmachining, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, then when it warms, hiking, kayaking, fishing, heli-hiking, heli-flightseeing, great food, camaraderie and of course, great massages.

Usually relaxation massage out here. Just tuning up a body not used to winter sports or a long hike or maybe just a bit of indulgence to offset a hectic life. I might have to occasionally smooth out a casting arm being overused from going for those monster Rainbow trout. Out helicoptering from fishing hole to fishing hole the day before.

Yes, I’ve gotten in some great, kayaking, snow machining and fantastic heli-flightseeing and heli-hiking in between clients out here and, so nice, the staff gets the same gourmet food the guests get. Rough!


Now, my massage therapy practice is not always as glamorous as this, but it sure is interesting. My clients are so interesting. They open up to you as a massage therapist. You hear the back stories of CEO’s to a hairstylist in from Florida. You might find yourself doing massage by candle light because the generator just kicked off, or doing hard work with a line of chair massage clients at a health fair; in a hallway! I’ve done chair massage in the luxurious Denaina Convention Center for a Chamber of Commerce gathering, open-air massage at the raucous Downtown Market and an overnighter on the Kenai Peninsula for South Central Foundation, as well as numerous and ongoing gigs at many other places in town. It’s fun to be able to go into these places and meet people, where otherwise you would never go. It’s also nice to be so warmly welcomed and invited right on back into the business. Everybody likes having the massage therapist show up.


Your clients are interesting. They are all puzzles. Do they want relaxation, or therapy? Is it low back pain? Recent shoulder surgery? An old snowmachining crash still bothering them? Single mom of three needs TLC? Old injuries, or new? Recent life changes? What’s their rhythm, their depth? What approach, acupoint formula, should I use to give the client what they’re looking for? As I’m giving, is it working? Do I need to change approaches midstream? What do I need to say? Do I need to say anything?


A puzzle, the assessment, the approach. As my skills grow from further work on myself, advanced massage skills, acupoint formulas: the puzzle solving gets faster and the fix, more effective.


The puzzle, though, I find has more depth as I gain more depth. One can look deeper into a person and give, deeper, more refined care.


I was pleased to find, the years of Taiji and Qigong I had prior to massage school actually added to my understanding of massage clients and how to correct imbalances. I see things in body posture and movement and qi flow that tell me things.


I was actually opposed to going to massage school originally. I used to work in hospitals in varying capacities; I thought working with massage clients was like working with patients in hospitals. More of that impersonal, institutional relationship. I wasn’t interested in getting back to that.


I was wrong.


It’s much more personal and meaningful. Some of my clients have been with me for years. I have seen them change and grow for the better in those years. I’ve also been surprised at how fast and effective the massage techniques can be at times. Providing pain relief, relaxation and better health; and all with just my hands. Often times giving people hope, where before their was none.


So, entering the field of massage therapy has been quite the eye-opener. Quite meaningful as I improve people’s lives, and as I see the genuine appreciation on their faces. They don’t have to say a word. You do a good job; you read it on their face, you read it in their body. I get paid well for what I do, and, in addition, the greater "payoff", is in knowing I made a difference in someone’s life.




Shifu Lawrence Chase Acuff, LMT

Shifu Chase is a wonderful massage therapist formerly practicing out of The Oriental Healing Arts Center in Anchorage. He specializes in deep tissue massage and will leave you feeling like a wet noodle (that's a good thing!). He enjoys Tai Qi, QiGong, personal growth, and hosts a highly successful workshop called "Breath For Stress" which he has presented to several local businesses for their Workplace Wellness day.

A Life in Harmony for anyone

My name is Clint and I am quite content being Clint. As with most of humanity this has not always been so; to enjoy your life and find peace within it. I teach Tai Chi and have a profound appreciation for the patient cultivation of rising beyond drama, disease, misfortune and self doubt. I am not young, 53, yet I am not old nor will I be. Yet in the fire of our youth we know pain, heartache, longing, emptiness that we immerse in the crucible of ruined passion, self medication, tyrannical mental imprisonment or its corrupt twins of self destruction and obsession. We strive for goals (possessions) to satisfy our drives, our desires to "feel" fulfilled; family, wealth, appearance, and status. I suggest it is not the striving or obtaining these things that cultivate the inner love of self. It is the simple joy of "being" yourself and not the "feeling" within that sets one free. Feelings are energetic light shows of the internal essence. A content inner self expresses as a loving, insightful manifestation of life. 

Tai Chi is an art of gentle discipline over time. A journey of patience and revelation that generates will, self appreciation and strength, slowly over time. It is truly an internal art manifesting outwardly in awareness, agility, patience, compassion, health, flexibility (mentally emotionally and physically) and self love. It is a harvest worth the elegant effort to self care. Ask yourself where does love come from if not within? How can we show compassion if we do not nurture the inner fields within from which it arises? Love is a jagged facade of poisoned wine if love offered requires external compensation. As a teacher I have seen students (mine and others) flourish under the cultivation of tai chi and qigong. They are genuinely more happy, authentic and real. Self love is essential to a life of harmony for everyone. These arts can take you there.