We’re Here for You — But Who Are We, Anyway?
“When there is pain, there is no flow; if there is no flow, there will necessarily be pain.”
Welcome to our second newsletter!
East Asian medicine is all about smooth flow. Are things stuck? The remedy is movement. Is energy moving erratically? Then redirecting it to flow in and with the natural current is the best treatment.
We can conceptualize “flow” on a small scale, say, in the “microcosm” that is a single human being: got a headache? It may be nothing more than energy that’s flowing up and getting stuck in your neck and head... And we can also think of flow in a larger context: Having trouble sleeping? Or can’t relax? Maybe others around you are too. When it comes down to it, all our so-called “individual” systems are both contributing to and being affected by the energies that surround them.
East Asian medicine puts forth that a smooth-flowing society is one that is made up of people who move with the flow of nature, and, further, that well-flowing individuals create a healthy, smoothly flowing society.
Is our influence in the world flowing with nature or against it? How can we apprentice ourselves to life’s wisdom of “going with the flow”? We here at Dragon Rises feel a two-part charge as we reflect on the societal events of 2020 and reorient toward the futures of our clinic and our greater community. To put it lightly, so far, 2020 has been a real doozy: Barefaced, heart ablaze, and earnest AF, it’s asking “who are you and what do you stand for?”
It’s taken us a while to feel prepared to make our heartfelt statement about this -- we took time to decide how we wanted to move forward rather than sending something timely, during the en masse emails we all received in June. Restorative justice is something we must sign up for, for the long haul. And letting our hearts move at their own natural pace is an essential part of finding justice that includes integrity.
Oftentimes, especially as healthcare practitioners, we’ve felt the need to censor ourselves and our beliefs in the name of fostering a safe environment for all people that come through our doors. In alignment with the intention of “maintaining good boundaries” between our “professional” selves and “personal” lives, we’ve been a bit in-the-closet around how we identify and what we feel our Work (i.e. that bigger work than can only be written with a capital “w”) is in the world. We’ve uncovered that staying hidden in silence would be tantamount to complicity with the systemic oppression that exists within our society as well as our own conditioned minds. And we simply aren’t interested in using power—against others or ourselves—in this way. So it’s high time we came out of the closet!
We believe that Black Lives Matter. We are committed to anti-racist ideals— we believe it is long overdue that the voices of the marginalized and the oppressed are heard, listened to, and respected. We believe in reparations. We will do all that is in our power to be accomplices in the endeavor of valuing lives regardless of the melanation of their skin.
We believe that trans people are who they are. We believe that all individuals have the right to live into their own gender identity and expression. We are feminists. Some of us are BIPOC. Some of us are Queer. Some of us are partnered monogamously and some of us aren’t. We hail from various socio-economic backgrounds. We honor the land upon which our clinic sits - land that is not ours, and which was stolen from the Clackamas and Cowlitz peoples.
We know that as healthcare practitioners it is our responsibility to address the disparities in access to care for all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color). From this knowledge arises action: we will begin offering an ongoing reparations-based fee-structure for individual care; effective immediately, we’ll be charging a $60-$85 sliding scale fee per service to all BIPOC. We’re also in the midst of programming regular (and socially-distanced) community acupuncture which will also include reparations-inclusive pricing structure: BIPOC folx will have $20 access to this offering, and we will offer this to non-BIPOC at $25-50 sliding scale. We’re excited for our clinical work to include direct action and we’re humbled to be a part of “the revolution” in this way.
We are committed to the oath we took as Chinese medicine practitioners: to protect the sacred spark of life that exists within all beings. And we are both thrilled and honored to be welcoming two new incredible practitioners to the Dragon Rises family who orient to transformative justice and wholehearted care in these ways as well. Welcome Arista & Alexandra to Dragon Rises!
Arista Gates
Arista (she/her) has been a longtime student and colleague. We are so very grateful for her willingness to help out at Dragon Rises during Melinda’s maternity leave, and we look forward to our continued association with Arista once Melinda returns. We hope she’ll be here for the long haul!
When she’s not in clinic, Arista trains horses with natural horsemanship and competes in long distance endurance rides. And so perhaps it follows that she’s not only a force to be reckoned with--she’s also one of the most tenderly attuned people we know. She has a strong clinical presence and she’s an incredibly loyal and hard-working practitioner to have on your healthcare team. In the treatment room, she grounds her work in the wisdom of pulse diagnosis, abdominal palpation, and her own two hands. She offers acupuncture, classical herbal medicine, and cranial sacral.
Alexandra McBryde
We all won bigtime when Alexandra (she/her) decided to join Dragon Rises Center for Wholeness.
She’s studied with us for the past few years, and we’ve come to appreciate her work so much that we’ve invited her into the DRCFW family. If you’ve ever treated yourself to our low-cost Student Observer appointments, you’ve probably already benefited from Alexandra’s skilled, sensitive hands.
Like us, Alexandra believes that the body has a “homeodynamic intelligence that knows how to restore balance.” Her gentle, effective treatments and solid, caring presence assist patients in achieving this natural balance. Alexandra received training in both Chinese medicine and mental health. She offers gentle care that includes acupuncture, classical herbal medicine, cranial sacral, and mindfulness-based practices.
We want to honor that we’ve shared ourselves with you in a different way here than we ever have before. And we want to continue to have these important conversations with dignity, respect, caring, and lovingkindness. If you’re interested in sharing how this newsletter has impacted you, please feel free to continue to be in touch. We’re here for you! We send you all a heaping dose of tender care, humble reflection and fierce resiliency as we navigate these chaotic and transformative times.
with Heart,
Melinda, Stephen, Arista & Alexandra