Entering the Mainstream of Healthcare

A few months ago, the New York Times published an eye-catching illustrated piece about the “interstitium,” the West’s working term for what many practitioners see as potentially closely related to the meridian system that Eastern medicine has been working with for, as the article quotes an expert in TCM, “…about [] 4000 years.”

Then, this week, I received an email from the California Massage Therapy Council (the state where I received my training) that massage practitioners and bodyworkers have been officially labeled “health care professionals.” While most of us have always understood our work this way, it feels meaningful to see that reflected in state policy. The Council notes that this “strengthens professional legitimacy and public trust” just as the article in the NYTimes helps bring these conversations and modes of thinking into the mainstream.

When hope, for whatever reason, feels a little hard to access, these are signs that I personally take to heart. There is a mainstreaming of subtle, more relational forms of care. These forms are surprisingly accessible, grounded in skills that people have shared with one another for generations.

I, of course, love to see these signs. In my beginnings, I loved the mystery and magic of this kind of work, the witchcraft-like vibe of hands-on-healing (I still do…its very cool to feel!), but more and more I am just grateful for simple and accessible forms of health care. It feels restorative to me to see “proof” that our human hands are imbued with the power to map out imbalance and help each other heal, process, and restore. I spend a lot of time thinking about what Large Language Models are not - and this is one of my main thought pathways - they are not human hands, they can tell us what might help us find balance, but they cannot rest warm hands on our bodies and bring us home to ourselves.

Lastly, I just wanted to share some appreciation for you - my incredible clients! You are artists and activists, storytellers, parents and grandparents, firefighters, carpenters, teachers, healers, scholars, community leaders, lawyers, animal whisperers, social media mavens, scientists, and all-around inspiring and beautiful people and I am always honored to have you here.