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On Friday January 20th, Sifu ad Rachel Jensen attended the Chinese New year party hosted by Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic. Pine Street Clinic has the most beautiful clinic and treatment rooms of any acupuncture clinic I have been in. You feel like you are transporter to a high end clinic in Taiwan a century ago. Filled with art and antiques form Taiwan and other Asian countries it is an amazing and unique clinic setting. Broffman learned acupuncture in a traditional apprenticeship in Taiwan in the 1970s making him one of the most senior and few traditionally trained western acupuncturists in the USA. Modern Communist Chinese Acupuncture is simplified and reduced version of the ancient healing arts. This process of simplification did not occur in Taiwan and the pharmacopoeia of herbs used is much larger in Taiwan than it is in China. The specialty of Pine Street Clinic is treating cancer patients and their practice is busy enough that they rarely make exceptions.  

I find Michael Broffman to be one of those brilliant people who always offers a fresh and interesting insight into our field every time I talk to him. In speaking with him at the party he talked about how in his experience adopting a regular exercise program of Tai Chi or any other type of Tai Chi has a greater long term impact on people’s health and longevity than getting periodic acupuncture, herbs, or massage treatments. Most people don’t know that exercise especially systematic exercise like Tai Chi or Kung Fu is considered to be the fourth pillar of Chinese medicine with Acupuncture, herbs, and massage being the other three pillars. I have known about the concept of pillars and even given a lecture about this at the opening of the new location of the Oakland Acupuncture School. But is rare to hear an acupuncturist admit that another modality might have greater long term benefit.  

Broffman is a Tai chi player having learned Tai Chi in Taiwan. Their personal style is more of a fusion of traditional acupuncture and free improve dance in a Tai Chi flow. Here is how Broffman describes their practice: 

“This is what comes to mind when I think about Tai Ji Chuan: There are different styles of Tai Ji Chuan. The way we practice here at Pine Street is in recognition that each person has different strengths, weaknesses, physiology and energetics. Therefore, in learning the 108 form, we learn the first standard movement #1 and then, through participatory intuition (this translates as creative problem solving and recognition of constraints) we create movements #2, #3 and #4. Then, we learn the standard movement #5, again followed by our own created movements #6, #7 and #8…and so on through 108 movements. When an entire class is doing the form simultaneously, they come together doing identical movements #1, #5, #9, #13, #17 and so on, but all movements in between are unique to each person. This way of learning Tai Ji Chuan suggests that the deep playing of Tai Ji Chuan is not so much in the performance of movements that you are given but rather making choices about what moves are relevant for you in that moment, and that the martial act of attacking someone is never as good as standing up for oneself. 

Best wishes, Michael at Pine Street.” 

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023!

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