We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andy Bishop. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andy below.

Andy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Meeting my teacher T. Koei Kuwahara Sensei in 2018 during his seminar intensive that he taught in Austin was a defining moment of my career up to that point. Meeting him and starting the path of learning Japanese acupuncture meant honing and sharpening my clinical approach in a new way. And having only just graduated from AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine the previous year, it meant a commitment on my behalf to a transmission and lineage that was very special, unlike anything I had encountered during my academic development up until that point. Keiraku chiryo or Meridian Therapy is a pain-free and very effective style of Japanese acupuncture, unlike other acupuncture most people have experienced. Not only that but Kuwahara Sensei models a patient-centered approach unlike any I had encountered before. Despite Mr. Kuwahara’s considerable renown and status internationally in the world of Japanese acupuncture, he has a humble and compassionate nature with regard to his practice of the medicine. If anything, he might say that renown and status are things that get in the way of practicing good medicine, and that’s what he teaches not by saying it but by showing it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My interest in natural medicine began 20 years ago with a seminar in herbalism during my undergraduate years in plant science. In the intervening years, I studied traditional foodways, folk herbalism, medical herbalism, traditional martial arts, qigong, a path that eventually culminated in my graduation from AOMA Graduate Integrative School of Integrative Medicine, my national board certification as a Diplomate of Traditional East Asian Medicine, and my board certified and licensed integrative medicine practice in Austin, Texas. I treat all sorts of things in my practice, from the effects of stress on mood, sleep, and energy; to women’s health, men’s health, fertility, thyroid health, and other hormone balancing; to pain relief, chemical and neurological sensitivities. Utilizing different styles of traditional Asian medicine such as acupuncture, plant medicine, and bodywork such as Tuina and Guasha, my practice is also highly informed by methods from contemporary osteopathic medicine, as well as functional and research-driven nutritional medicine. Although I’ve been privileged to study under a number of teachers that have taught me so much, the lineage of acupuncture I draw from the most is a pain-free and very effective Japanese style called Keiraku-chiryo. My teacher T. Koei Kuwahara Sensei has been practicing it for over 40 years. Although it is a Japanese tradition, it draws from one of the oldest traditions of medicine in the world from China, encompassing advanced systems of internal physical medicine, pain management and energy work. Lastly but not least, through countless symposia, seminars, intensives, and continuing education in clinical nutrition and research-driven medicine over the past 10 years, I am able to seamlessly integrate these approaches into the treatment approach for my patients. Traditional Asian medicines are increasingly recognized as among the most complex herbal medicine systems in the world. This was demonstrated around the world in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and in the treatment of “long COVID”, where the medicine really shined. I use this wisdom in tandem with the insights of clinical science and a modern nutritional approach to tailor the treatment to the unique person in front of me, and provide the best that I can in compassionate, holistic care.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

In the medical field, really it’s all about people—or at least that’s how I see it—but my experience doing “people work” started long before my career in medicine, and I think they’re some of the most valuable skills to have. My involvement in my early adult life with student organizations, living in housing coops, and working in the retail industry for many years, taught me this. The importance of people, our chemistry together both interpersonally and in groups, and working together toward shared goals is all about optimizing the empowering, creative, and inspired impulse in the folks you work with. My relationship with a patient is not a one-way street, and in my view, medicine is just another arm of the service industry. Everything from the common sense approach of bedside manner and thoughtfulness, to the indispensable communication skills that come out of consensus building methods, nonviolent communication, and trauma informed care, all can contribute to empowering and inspiring patients along their healing journey. That’s the same approach that will welcome patients into your practice, too.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Perhaps it’s something we all learn, but I certainly include myself in the experience: the feeling that “we” are not enough. In the world of small business entrepreneurship, the independent capitalist drive is privileged above all else. We are meant to be strong, perfect, with an unending resolve and showing no signs of weakness or vulnerability, or at least that’s what we are told, implicitly if not outright. Assets such as seeking out collaboration, recognizing and valuing others for strengths that we may not possess, and loving ourselves for the unique combinations of weaknesses and strengths we contain, are not assets that are listed in the “Manual for Success” handed down to us. Speaking personally, I think that I had to unlearn a certain amount of impatience, austerity, and pity that I harbored toward myself. I came to believe that these things would protect me from an imaginary enemy that either I created or was modeled for me by others. I’m still learning, and I always will be, but I’ve gotten far enough to know that this enemy is really not there.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jondollar.com/about-us.html
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-bishop-952764257/