East Asian Medicine

"Can you go a little deeper?"

If you're a massage therapist, you've probably heard those words hundreds—if not thousands—of times.

Some clients genuinely enjoy deep pressure. Others have come to believe that if a treatment doesn't hurt, it can't possibly be effective. We've almost been conditioned to think that pain is proof something is happening. After all, we've all heard the phrase, "No pain, no gain."

While there are certainly situations where discomfort is part of the rehabilitation pro…

We've all heard of the 80/20 rule. It's become a way of thinking about almost everything in life—that a relatively small number of actions often produce the majority of our results.

But what if we applied that thinking to clinical practice?

Years ago, a teacher I respected said something that stopped me in my tracks.

"Don't fix the client completely. Leave them about 60% better so they'll come back."

I remember thinking, That isn't why I became a therapist.

My goal has never been to build a…

Several years ago, I was working in a multidisciplinary clinic alongside practitioners who had completed an acupuncture certification designed for regulated health professionals.

One day, a former client named Pete came in for bodywork.

Pete was a professional musician. He was a gentle, soft-spoken man who wrote and composed his own music. He suffered from chronic pain, spinal stenosis, and recurring headaches.

As we talked, he mentioned something that surprised me.

He told me that acu…