Lorie Eve Dechar

My journey began with a love of language, art, and dance that I explored as an undergraduate at Bennington College. This study led to a decade of work as an environmental activist, gardener, and poet and then to the discovery of Chinese medicine. After receiving my Master’s degree from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in 1985, my earlier love of art continued to inform my clinical work with Chinese medicine. For me, creativity, beauty, and self-expression are central to the healing process. My post-graduate work with Gene Gendlin of the Focusing Institute, at the Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy and Training in Manhattan, and nearly twenty years of study with Jungian analyst Nathan Schwartz-Salant bring a psychological dimension to my acupuncture practice.

Despite my interest in Western psychology, I remained committed to the practice of acupuncture and believed that I could find a way to bring Eastern and Western psychological approaches together in the treatment room. My discovery of the Five Spirits – the Taoist version of the chakra system – offered the connecting link. Writing Five Spirits was a journey as well as an initiation that led me to discover a new way of practicing the ancient art of Chinese medicine in contemporary Western settings. For the past sixteen years, I have been delighted to have the opportunity to share my multidimensional approach to healing not only with my patients but also with students at the Tri-State College of Acupuncture in Manhattan, the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Toronto, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and at conferences and workshops in the UK and Europe as well as through our ongoing Mentorship programs.