Ken Bendat has maintained a lifelong interest in Asian culture and medicine – stemming from discovering the limitations of modern medicine in treating illnesses in his family and a deep appreciation for the role of the mind and spirit in fully healing chronic illness.
While completing a bachelor’s degree at UC Santa Cruz in Biology and Environmental Studies, Ken briefly attended a Chiropractic college, apprenticed on an organic farm, and lived in a Tibetan Buddhist center. Through these experiences he discovered that a career in Chinese medicine was the path that made sense. At 24 he began his education at Five Branches Institute school of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Santa Cruz, California, being in their first graduating class in 1986. While studying he completed several internships with private practitioners as well as received his Diplomate status degree and California license. During this time he also began his study of Daoism with Charles Belyea (now ‘Liu Ming’), the founder of the Five Branches.
After practicing in California for 5 years, Ken travelled to Southeast Asia and China for 7 months in 1991-1992. After opening up a free clinic in Penang, Malaysia, Ken travelled to Hangzhou, China – a town famous for its West Lake (“in heaven there is paradise, on Earth there is Suzhou and Hangzhou”) While on the way to the Zhejiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine his first morning off the train, a passerby took him to the local peoples’ TCM hospital – the Zhejiang Provincial hospital near the famous lake. Ken spent 3 months there – interning with a Lung/Stomach herbal doctor and a Gyn/fertility herbal doctor, as well as studying acupuncture and infant tui-na (massage) at the teaching college. He also was invited to play his guitar at a local university.
On returning to the U.S., Ken established his practice in Ashland in 1992 and has been practicing consistently since. Often having been chosen “best acupuncturist” by the Ashland Sneak Preview, he carries on the tradition of informal, relaxed style with precise and educated application of theory that he learned from his Chinese teachers. After 39 years of experience since licensing, he prefers an initial consultation to get to know someone on a deeper personal level as well as determining how their perhaps chronic medical condition will respond to acupuncture (and moxa/cupping/gua sha /tuina if needed) and/or herbal therapy.
Ken has always felt it important to maintain or have access to a full Chinese bulk herbal pharmacy – knowing that in Asia this is the gold standard of traditional herbal treatment. Ken views himself as a family practitioner of TCM rather than a ‘specialist’, appropriate as Chinese medicine at its classical root is not a medicine of ‘specialization’ but rather the focused clinical and well-read application of the study of ‘qi’ and ‘blood’ to the condition of the clients body, energy, and mind. The herbs can be very specific to the condition, and used in conjunction with modern medicine and scientific knowledge, but always with an eye to the underlying deeper causes rather than chasing symptoms.
In previous historical times, when conditions didn’t respond to treatments, the doctor also knew or recommended a practitioner that worked with ‘ancestral’ causes. To this end, Ken has studied and applied astrogeomancy in its relation to healing – apprenticing in both Vedic and Chinese systems in order to understand how to find freedom from conditions that seem to be ‘fated’. When appropriate, having an understanding of those deeper cycles can unlock what appears to be a blocked body/energy state and lead to different strategies as well as acceptance (and thus relaxation) of the condition.
Ken enjoys educating clients who are interested in not only understanding their personal ‘clinical’ Chinese medicine condition from a TCM perspective, but more importantly be able to transfer that diagnosis into the ‘folk’ level of being their own doctor. Ken teaches about the role of movement (qi gong), eating (the role of seasonal diet and nutrition, herbal supplementation), and sitting (meditation, sleep, letting go) in the development of a personal path towards wholeness, happiness, and longevity. By following the ancient principles of eating, moving, and exercising according to the flow of the seasons the student can ‘economize’ – so have less need for elaborate ‘special’ supplementation therapies.
Ken is licensed by the Oregon Medical Board as a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) as well as holds a Diplomate by the National Certification Board (NCBAHM).