Ritual Health Acupuncture & Herbalism

05/10/2026

If you are like me, and acupuncture has changed your life — or even saved it — please consider signing this to help protect both your favorite acupuncturists and the integrity of our medicine.

We need qualified practitioners administering needles. That should be licensed acupuncturists, not physical therapists practicing “dry needling.”

Officially, licensed acupuncturists complete extensive medical training, including a minimum of 960 hours of supervised clinical practice within a 4–5 year Doctoral program in Chinese medicine. Adam and I clocked far more than that for our Masters and Doctoral progams, not to mention our private apprenticeships with Dr. Bob, with 'ev Rosenberg, with Liu Ming, and abroad in Tibet, Japan, and India.

Physical therapists dry needling trainings, by comparison, may involve little to no supervised clinical training in needling itself. We love physical therapists and deeply value the work they do. We simply believe they best serve the public by practicing physical therapy — not acupuncture under another name.

Because dry needling *is* acupuncture. It is in our texts and tradition. But the way they are practicing it strips it down and rebrands it. Even when performed with good intentions, it affects channels, organs, and systems in ways that require a coherent diagnostic framework and deep training in East Asian medicine.

If you’ve worked with us, you already know: the needles are only as good as the diagnosis. You need a qualified practitioner to make that diagnosis and insert those needles skillfully.

Thank you for supporting this field and the practitioners who have devoted their lives to studying it.

Sign here:

04/08/2026

Sending out the Yangsheng class recording shortly.

If you want a clear sense of how to work with this moment in the season, this is a good time to join.

Spring is subtle, but it’s not neutral.

I wrote this to help orient you:

Most of us are not coordinated in time. We organize our lives by obligation, convenience, and weather. But in the classical Chinese medical view, time is not abstract. It is structured.

03/25/2026

Most people assume something is wrong when they feel off.

Sometimes it’s just the quality of the day.

A short piece on how to read time using the Chinese almanac (Tong Shu).

A practical look at how to read the quality of a day using the Chinese almanac (Tong Shu), including destroy days, lunar mansions, and hexagrams.

03/20/2026

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael Max on the Qiological podcast about Mingmen and ministerial fire.

This is a topic that sits at the center of how I understand Chinese medicine—where physiology, cosmology, and clinical practice meet.

We talked about what Mingmen is (beyond a point or location), how ministerial fire functions, and what it means to work with life without trying to override it.

If you’re interested in the deeper foundations of this medicine, you may find something here.

🎧 Listen:

Listen to Perspectives on the Mingmen on the Qiological Podcast. Explore topics like Diagnosis, Philosophy, The Classics and more with Thomas Sørensen .

02/28/2026

🌿 Last chance to join tomorrow’s Yangsheng class

Tomorrow morning Tara Bianca Rado and I will meet for this month’s session of Yangsheng: The Art of Living in Season.

In astrology we spend a lot of time looking at the structure of things — the timing, patterns, and conditions that shape a life. In other words, the parts that belong to fate.

Yangsheng is the other half of that conversation.
It asks: what do we do with the part that remains in our hands?

Traditionally translated as “nourishing life,” yangsheng is the art of using our freedom well — aligning our habits, choices, and rhythms with the movement of the seasons so that our lives cooperate with time rather than pushing against it.

In this class we work with the 24 solar nodes of the traditional Chinese calendar, exploring how seasonal shifts show up in the body and how small adjustments in daily life can keep us in step with the qi of the year.

Over time it becomes a way to actually feel the calendar moving through the body — and to live inside that movement with a little more intelligence.

We meet tomorrow at 10am PST, and this is the last chance to join for this month’s session.

You can read more here:
🌱 https://ritualhealth.com/fulltext/yangsheng-class-living-in-season

Or email me directly and I’ll send you the link right up until we begin.

Would love to have you with us. 🍵🌿

Monthly online yangsheng class exploring the 24 solar nodes through Chinese medicine teachings, seasonal recipes, and gentle qi gong. This includes: Chinese medicine class - qi gong class - seasonal living - online cultivation class - yangsheng class

01/22/2026

I work with mental and emotional health every day in clinic. Even when someone comes in for pain, digestion, or sleep, it is always part of the picture.

But, here is what I wish more people knew:

We need our emotions.

Much of contemporary wellness treats emotional health as the achievement of calm. Regulation is framed as smoothing or quieting experience. The goal becomes an unruffled state.

From the perspective of classical Chinese medicine, this is physiologically misguided. Striving for that state stunts us, makes us sick.

Emotions are not psychological noise. They are movements of qi that carry information about alignment and direction. Health depends on being able to feel them clearly and respond, not suppress them.

If this seems difficult, it is treatable. Chinese medicine helps restore the capacity to feel without being overwhelmed.

It's like a bicycle wheel: it has to do with the gallbladder and how it hands off to the liver. I'll show you why.

Full post on the blog, here: https://ritualhealth.com/fulltext/please-feel-your-feelings

01/03/2026

You have all heard me rail against Gregorian New Year for years now. I stand by it.

The Gregorian calendar is deeply distorting when it comes to recognizing natural change. Winter solstice is the middle of winter, not the beginning. After all, how can it get more wintery once the days are already lengthening?

I will die on that hill. But…it’s true: this time of year is crucial. Let me tell you why.

A different kind of newness is happening.

Here is the nuance: Although January 1 is not the beginning of the lunisolar new year, the days surrounding Gregorian New Year are physiologically and energetically potent and related to our sense of purpose. It's about our deep knowing how to move toward balance. It's about the gallbladder. �So, on that level, framing this moment as a kind of newness actually makes sense, if we understand why.

This time offers Medicine for Confusion. It's all about the gallbladder channel. Read my article that lays it out for you.

https://ritualhealth.com/fulltext/2026/1/1/switching-action-how-to-use-gregorian-new-year

10/29/2025

🌕 An Evening of Celebration & Stillness

As the season turns inward, we invite you to gather in the glow of music, conversation, and community. We welcome Flutist Maheshwari

Art is healing.
Music is magic.

🎵 Performance by Classical Flutist Sujatha Maheshwari
🩺 Talk with Dr. Anne on the seasonal Qi and how to harmonize with late autumn’s quiet pulse.

📅 Friday, Nov 7 · 6–9 pm
📍 Ritual Health Acupuncture Clinic · 1508 Walnut St, Suite D, Berkeley

This is our first Jade Circle gathering — a new community initiative for resonance, rest, and renewal.

✨ Reserve your spot: [insert Groupmuse link here]
💚 Space is limited — come fill your cup with beauty and belonging.

with Adam Okerblom and Anne Shelton

10/25/2025

This isn’t the “fertile dark.”
This is the fallow dark. The feral dark.

The world goes quiet not to comfort us — but to strip us down to what’s real.

The trees are bare. The heart is bare.

New blog: Crossing into the Deep Darkness 🌒
➜ https://ritualhealth.com/fulltext/crossing-into-the-deep-

🕯️ For those who feel the pull to rest, return, and remember.

with Anne Shelton and Adam Okerblom