Thoughts, Opinions, and Ruminations from our Founders
Most Recent Blog Posts
The air cools, mornings are damp with dew, and activity begins to soften. This is a time for preservation—of energy, fluids, and focus. Slow down. Eat warm foods. Let stillness shape your days as Autumn deepens.
The Hungry Ghost Festival honors spirits left wandering, unsatisfied and unseen.
Rooted in Buddhist and Daoist tradition, it is a season for compassion, ritual, and remembrance. Offer food. Burn paper. Float lanterns. Feed the forgotten—not just the dead, but the unmet longings we carry. Memory, here, becomes nourishment.
Dampness in Chinese medicine isn’t just a symptom—it’s a pattern with personality. It slows, sticks, and sometimes overstays its welcome. But it’s also essential to life. In this post, we explore what dampness really is, where it comes from, and how to live in better relationship with it.
Summer lingers, but the energy begins to descend. This qi node invites steadiness—ease back into routine, nourish with warm foods, and make gentle space for change. It’s not about ending abruptly, but softening into transition. Let the shift happen slowly, intentionally, with care.
As autumn quietly begins, Lìqiū marks the rise of Yin and the first inward turn of the year. This essay explores the subtle wisdom of seasonal restraint, the risks of lingering summer heat, and how to align with the cycle through reflection, refinement, and gentle shifts in daily conduct.
Jamal came in with years of sinus congestion and facial pressure. Mornings were foggy, breathing was difficult, and nothing seemed to help long term. With acupuncture and herbs, we helped him clear the deeper root — restoring flow, easing pressure, and helping him finally breathe (and think) clearly again.
As summer peaks, Yang Qi resists its own decline—burning hotter, pushing harder, and tipping into what classical medicine calls pernicious Yang. This essay explores how to recognize that excess in the world and within ourselves—and how to respond with stillness, cooling nourishment, and the wisdom of knowing when to let go.
In Chinese medicine, heat is both essential and potentially disruptive. It fuels life processes like digestion and circulation, but when excessive or misplaced, it can lead to inflammation, agitation, or dryness. This post explores how heat functions in the body, where it comes from, and how to bring it back into balance.
Xiǎoshǔ marks the arrival of summer’s heat in earnest—still building, not yet peaking. The yang qi is fully extended, but the body begins to show the first signs of needing shade and rest.
Seasonal Blogs and Qi Nodes
The air cools, mornings are damp with dew, and activity begins to soften. This is a time for preservation—of energy, fluids, and focus. Slow down. Eat warm foods. Let stillness shape your days as Autumn deepens.
The Hungry Ghost Festival honors spirits left wandering, unsatisfied and unseen.
Rooted in Buddhist and Daoist tradition, it is a season for compassion, ritual, and remembrance. Offer food. Burn paper. Float lanterns. Feed the forgotten—not just the dead, but the unmet longings we carry. Memory, here, becomes nourishment.
Summer lingers, but the energy begins to descend. This qi node invites steadiness—ease back into routine, nourish with warm foods, and make gentle space for change. It’s not about ending abruptly, but softening into transition. Let the shift happen slowly, intentionally, with care.
As autumn quietly begins, Lìqiū marks the rise of Yin and the first inward turn of the year. This essay explores the subtle wisdom of seasonal restraint, the risks of lingering summer heat, and how to align with the cycle through reflection, refinement, and gentle shifts in daily conduct.
As summer peaks, Yang Qi resists its own decline—burning hotter, pushing harder, and tipping into what classical medicine calls pernicious Yang. This essay explores how to recognize that excess in the world and within ourselves—and how to respond with stillness, cooling nourishment, and the wisdom of knowing when to let go.
Xiǎoshǔ marks the arrival of summer’s heat in earnest—still building, not yet peaking. The yang qi is fully extended, but the body begins to show the first signs of needing shade and rest.
Yang Qi is in charge again and it is moving and shaking the things around it. But Yang’s hand can be a bit heavy. Learn more about using Yang qi to your advantage during this season and how it can impact your health for the rest of the year.
We are mid-way through the first moon of Summer and the Yang qi is driving the creation summer fruits and vegetables. It is inspiring movement and activity in people and helping all of us to feel progressive and productive.
Learn about the important shift from Spring to Summer Qi with the details of this qi node
The nature of Earth is to hold space and to create context. This qi node sets the stage for the coming summer and gives us insight into how we dealt with the qi of last Fall.
In a palace shaped by seasons, Yang rises from a spark to a blazing emperor before fading into shadow. Yin, steady and wise, expands through stillness and reflection. This tale of cosmic succession weaves through joy, unraveling, and return—an eternal dance of power, presence, and the rhythm of time.
Yang Qi emerges clear and bright at this time of the year, finally strong enough to start really doing things.
The lethargy of Winter has given way to the agitation of Spring. Learn more about how you can take advantage of the return of a more directed and potent Yang Qi
Finally we can begin to feel the change in the balance of Yin and Yang in our environments. It’s still not time to go out and be super active, spending loads of time outside and getting sweaty but the change is coming. Use this node to finalize your Spring plans and get thinking about what you’ll want to do with the long days of Summer.
This first qi node of the year is not a season, but a threshold. A moment when the frozen ground stirs, and the world begins to breathe again. In Chinese medicine, it marks the return of Yang, the reawakening of Wood energy, and the slow stretch toward growth. Not all at once. Not with urgency. Just enough to remind us: change is already underway.
The Yin Wood Snake year winds in softly, asking us to move with quiet purpose. In a world obsessed with doing, this is a year for tending, composting, and deliberate growth. Wisdom won’t shout—it will whisper. And if you listen, you just might hear your own transformation beginning.
The Wood Dragon year is expansive and creative, filled with potential. But power must be used wisely—Hexagrams Qián and Dà Zhuàng remind us that vision without grounding can become force without direction.
The Yang Water Tiger is a stark departure from the Yin Metal Ox. Learn how this new lunar year is likely to shape up!
The Yin Water Rabbit year invites quiet discernment and careful pacing. It’s a time to tend what’s unresolved, listen deeply, and recognize that subtle shifts may carry more power than grand gestures.
The combination of Yin, Metal, and the Year of the Ox create an opportunity to learn from the past year and apply that reflective wisdom toward recovery and rebuilding.
Chinese Lunar Year: Understanding the Zodiac
The Yin Wood Snake year winds in softly, asking us to move with quiet purpose. In a world obsessed with doing, this is a year for tending, composting, and deliberate growth. Wisdom won’t shout—it will whisper. And if you listen, you just might hear your own transformation beginning.
The Wood Dragon year is expansive and creative, filled with potential. But power must be used wisely—Hexagrams Qián and Dà Zhuàng remind us that vision without grounding can become force without direction.
The Yang Water Tiger is a stark departure from the Yin Metal Ox. Learn how this new lunar year is likely to shape up!
The Yin Water Rabbit year invites quiet discernment and careful pacing. It’s a time to tend what’s unresolved, listen deeply, and recognize that subtle shifts may carry more power than grand gestures.
The combination of Yin, Metal, and the Year of the Ox create an opportunity to learn from the past year and apply that reflective wisdom toward recovery and rebuilding.
Everyday Alchemy: A Series On How To Feel Like Your Best Self
In Chinese medicine, sleep isn’t just rest — it’s restoration. This post explores how bedtime can serve as a boundary, not just a stop button, and offers simple, nourishing practices to support the body’s natural descent into yīn 陰. Better sleep starts with honoring the transition into night.
How to treat seasonal allergies with traditional Chinese medicine.
Fresh ginger’s warm nature and spicy flavor make it a powerful ally at the first sign of a cold. Used early, it can help the body push out pathogens and restore balance.
What They Came In For: A series on treating specific conditions
Jamal came in with years of sinus congestion and facial pressure. Mornings were foggy, breathing was difficult, and nothing seemed to help long term. With acupuncture and herbs, we helped him clear the deeper root — restoring flow, easing pressure, and helping him finally breathe (and think) clearly again.
Months after a mild case of COVID, Thomas K. still wasn’t himself—fatigue, brain fog, and unrest that wouldn’t let go. At Root and Branch, a custom herbal formula and targeted acupuncture helped his system reset. This is the story of what it’s like to finally begin coming back to life.
When Karen T. began losing feeling in her feet, no one could explain why. At Root and Branch, we started by mapping what she could feel—and building it back with herbs, acupuncture, and attention. This is the story of how sensation returned, one visit and one footstep at a time.
After years of unpredictable digestion and no real answers, Josh L. came to Root and Branch looking for something different. What changed everything? A custom herbal formula tailored to his body—and a treatment plan that listened. This is the story of how his gut finally started to settle.
After a car accident left her with lingering neck and shoulder pain, Sara M. tried everything—chiropractic, physical therapy, rest—but nothing seemed to work. Then she came to Root and Branch. This is the story of how things finally started to shift, and what real care can feel like.
Health, Wellness, and Discussion
Sleep is more than a score. When devices misread the body, and we start trusting numbers over how we feel, we risk outsourcing our well-being to systems designed to serve shareholders, not health.
Digital ads and social media may be loud, but they rarely bring people through the door. For small clinics like ours, word of mouth is everything. When you share your experience, you help us survive—and you help others find care that really makes a difference.
Many people are surprised to learn how much Chinese medicine can treat. At Root and Branch, we support everything from chronic issues to acute illnesses, stress to digestion. We may not be primary care on paper—but we’re here to be your first call when something’s not right.
Listen in as Travis Kern talks with Stacey Whitcomb, host of the acusprout podcast, about founding Root & Branch and its mission to provide herbs for practitioners all across the country.
A message from practitioner Travis Kern, LAc about the intersection between Covid-19 and natural remedies marketed as preventative or curative: There are a lot of people out there promising a lot of things. Health and illness prevention have gotten political in a lot of corners. But you can navigate this situation to the best outcomes for you and your family.
Everything I have seen in my short but lively career as a Chinese medicine practitioner suggests that most of the negative experiences we associate with the aging process need not come to pass. But in order to understand how our experience may differ from the common definition of aging, we must look at why suffering is a possibility as we age. Once we understand the problem, then we may understand its solution.
There are a lot of inflammatory ways that we discuss health and well-being. This food is poison, that activity will kill you! Have you heard about such and such causes cancer?! The thing is, there are a lot of things out there that are less than helpful for optimal living but when the language gets too loud, too bombastic, and too crass, it often becomes misleading and then it makes it difficult to have the real conversations we need to have that could help us all live longer and live better.
Cooking herbs together allows their individual natures and flavors to blend together and enhance or subdue one another. This alchemy is the real power of Chinese herbal medicine and is almost entirely missing in most practitioner’s granule formulas. Remember that 汤 “tāng” means “soup” in mandarin and just like your chicken soup is not just the flavor or chicken and onion and celery but the marriage and harmony of all those things and many more, so too is your herbal formula not just a mix of “active ingredients” and chemical processes.
Chinese medicine doesn’t treat “energy” the way modern wellness often suggests. It’s not about fixing parts or channeling light—it’s about observing change, movement, and relationship within a world we’re inseparably part of.
In Chinese medicine, sleep isn’t just rest — it’s restoration. This post explores how bedtime can serve as a boundary, not just a stop button, and offers simple, nourishing practices to support the body’s natural descent into yīn 陰. Better sleep starts with honoring the transition into night.