Its been a very nice Fall in Portland and biking across the steel bridge and the new walking (Tillikum) bridge is my favorite thing to do. I feel much appreciation for the continuity of being able to travel down to Ashland and see clients twice a month – it is seeming much more doable and ‘flowing’ than I had even envisioned – thank you all.
By next week I should have the beginnings of a modern email booking system together – giving clients the opportunity to not only schedule on line, but also to fill out more complete intake forms – hopefully in a very elegant manner. I’m also trying my hand at electronic charting (and not letting it get in the way of doctor-client relationshiop). If you’d like to have a personal ‘patient portal’ so as to schedule and try it out – let us know and will email you the info. In this way I’m feeling thoroughly modern.
And I’m also feeling a little like ‘Rip-Van-Winkle in Portland’ – in terms of how I’ve carried out my practice for years and what seems to be the modern reality in the big city. The ease-of-compliance and portability of granule (powdered) formulas seems to have won over nearly everybody, Even the ‘place’ practitioners outsource their clients to get herbs from (Golden Cabinet on Hawthorne) can’t fill a raw (bulk) herb prescription. While granules are the bulwark of my herbal practice, in my personal practice I feel that not having any bulk herbs around is kind of a capitulation to the modern that doesn’t have to be so complete.
Even if I’d pare down to relatively few bottles I’d want at least acute respiratory herbs (clients will comply when the feel bad enough – and they work better!), some Shang Han Lun herbs, and this time of year – tonic soup herbs. Wonderful whole bulk herbs are the ‘bupin’ – or ‘soup’ – herbs that I’d recommend as Fall approaches – things to put in the soups and rice and so on… herbs we can all generally use for health, longevity, strong immune function. Like astragulus sticks (huang qi), whole dang gui, yam root (shan yao), codonopsis (dang shen), euryales (qian shi), dates (hong zao), gouqi berries, dragon fruit (long yuan rou), etc, etc…. So nice and colorful and tasteful… So if I join an office where they say ‘they don’t have room’ for bulk herbs, I’ll remind them that all that electronic charting software should free up some space where all the files used to be! ha
Having said that – my bupin/soup herb inventory is kind of low for this trip- but lI will be ordering more when I arrive. Please let us know if you want some so we can get well-stocked up for the next time down (Oct 21,22,23) and they’ll be around for the holidays.
As Fall comes in it is a great time for seasonal tuneup – and perhaps moxa therapy along the back channels. It is also a good time to clear out any residual heat (or smoke) from the Summer and start to strengthen reserves for the Winter. Please call Courtney if you’d like to schedule: 541-482-7071.
All the best,
Ken