Founder of the Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley
Clinic
Chris founded the Acupuncture
of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley Clinic in 2002 in Marin County, California
to revive the age-old integration of Buddhism with Chinese Medicine and
Acupuncture. He maintains his clinical practice there.
The primary practitioner at the Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley Healing Center in Mill Valley, Chris has a Master's in Traditional
Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture and has studied Buddhism with the Venerable
Master Hsuan Hua’s senior monk disciples of the City
of Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery (www.drba.org).
One of the highlights of Chris's time
spent studying at the Institute for World Religions was to get
exposed to the United Religions Initiative (www.uri.org).
This video clip below gives you a feel for what URI is all about.
.WMV file requires Windows Media Player.
improbable_pairs_south_africa_peace_smallest.wmv - 1.5 MB
- 6 minutes video clip
improbable_pairs_south_africa_peace_small.wmv - 4.5 MB
- 6 minutes video clip
top
If you have a health problem and want an alternative
solution, or if you are healthy and want to know your body/mind type and how
to maintain your health, an
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Consultation will provide the knowledge
you seek.
Chris will read your pulse and assess your life patterns from an Acupuncture
and Chinese Medicine long-term perspective and recommend a diet, daily
routine and individualized herbal formula to achieve your optimum health and
energy level.
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is
traditionally used to increase energy and mobility, improve digestion and
elimination, remove depression, decrease pain, and restore the balance of
the internal systems, the mind, emotions, and consciousness. After the
initial two or three consultations (typically one week apart), follow-ups
are generally every 14 days until balance is restored.
Ask about the time-honored Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine approach to arthritis, sciatica, neck and shoulder pain, chronic
fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, anger, insomnia, allergies, colds, flu,
cough, asthma, constipation, chronic diarrhea, high blood pressure and
cholesterol, ulcers, skin disorders, low libido, impotence, weight loss,
diabetes, gynecological disorders, menopause, pregnancy.
top
Chris Veiga’s clinical practice is built on three principles:
1. Service to the local community:
The role of the "medicine man" is beginning to become
obsolete in modern Western culture. Community-building provides a delivery
system in which the clinician can offer his service in a more natural habitat.
This can take on many forms. It may be as mundane as shooting the breeze at
Whole Foods or as mighty as invoking the name of
Guan Yin Bodhisattva to impart blessings. Medicine works in strange ways.
The operative word here is service. Service is bridging the gap between theory
and practice. Without action, there is no practice. To serve is to become a
servant to the public. From this perspective, the clinic is just a storing
house for individual health while the marketplace symbolizes the well-being of
the community as a whole. As the old adage says, we are all just a product of
our environment.
top
2. Optimal
Health:
To quote Patch Adams in his book Gesundheit ( p.54 ), "In a
profit-oriented system devoted to grabbing the most income the traffic will
bear, the goal will be disease care. In a service-oriented system devoted
to keeping the population at its healthiest, the goal will be disease
prevention."
The Shen Nong Ben Cao, China’s oldest herbal text, states
there are three levels of medicine. The lowest level involves treating
the symptomatic manifestations of physical illness, while the next level
focuses on nourishing an individual’s nature. The highest level
of healing is assisting a person in fulfilling their destiny and achieving
longevity of life. Chris's vision of medicine encompasses these
three levels of healing. He seeks to assist a patient at whichever
level one is, whether it is addressing physical or mental concerns, improving
the overall quality of one's life, or providing spiritual direction.
top
3. Integration:
Traditional Chinese Medicine is an integrative medicine.
It is based on patient centered healing. In the high-tech world, there is
much talk about "integrated solution" and "one-stop shop". Interestingly,
these same concepts apply to the low-tech world of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The mental,
physical, emotional, and spiritual interactively create an "energy" specific to an individual. As a person, we are not any one of these
things. We are all of these things, all the time. For a person to thrive,
he/she must be connected to the "root" of his/her being. The root
cannot be dissected, it longs to be whole. Any deviation from our root
results in disunity, hence; disease.
In essence,
Traditional Chinese Medicine is the art of assessing where the
individual’s "energy" has gone haywire. This paradigm is particularly
effective today in our highly compartmentalized lives along with a pervasive
fragmentation of consciousness.
top
Clinical Background and Credentials in
Traditional
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
 Chris
Veiga is a California state licensed acupuncturist (L.Ac.). He was awarded
Masters of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the American College
of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2001. As one of the top schools in the
U.S., the Masters program at the American
College of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a four-year program totaling
over 3,000 hours of study. This includes comprehensive clinical training at
the school’s community clinic serving the whole of San Francisco Bay Area.
As an under-graduate student at University of California, Santa Barbara;
Chris was a participant in the Yale-China exchange student program. That
year, Chris attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong highlighted by a
year of intensive Mandarin studies at the Language Center. The side-light
was the opportunity to travel in Mainland China, Taiwan, as well as
Southeast Asia.
Chris Veiga works as an herbal consultant for
Mayway Corporation, a leading
supplier of Chinese herbs in this country. Mayway specializes in sulfur-free
herbs which Chris uses in the clinic for his patients. Chris has lectured on
Traditional Chinese Medicine related topics at the Integrative Pharmaca in
Berkeley as well as the Berkeley Buddhist
Monastery.
top
Principles of Spiritual Practice: Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley
In discussing any structure, it is fundamental to examine
what the fuel is that drives the engine. In Traditional Chinese Medicine,
much attention is paid to the dynamic which connects the internal world to
the external world. Whether the organism is an individual or a clinical
practice, this dynamic dictates not only the integrity but also the efficacy
of the structure. The root of the pillars determines the strength of the
structure. In this way, my clinical practice is essentially built on my
spiritual practice. The central theme of my practice is the concept of
crossing the bitter sea. With the help of
Dharma Master Heng Sure at the
Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley was borne. In turn, this has
given birth to my dharma.
The inception of Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley is a culmination of Chan ( Chinese word
for Zen ) meditation, personal suffering, observation of others’ suffering,
and the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The conventional Chinese wisdom holds that life is bittersweet. Sometimes,
things come together. Other times, they fall apart. In life, people have a
tendency to overlook the bitter while obsessing on the sweet. This is not
real. In reality, life is birth and death, joy and suffering.
The bitter sea is the place where everybody swims. It is the place of
suffering. No one is exempted from this swimming lesson. Rich or poor,
you're guaranteed to swim. You have automatic enrollment from the minute
you are born. Crossing the bitter sea is to expand one’s heart to endure
endless suffering while standing in for others. If one person crosses
over, we all cross over. That's the beauty of the bitter sea. My work
is to assist you in the crossing. Paradoxically, there is no crossing;
there's only the Now. Crossing just becomes a figure of speech for cultivating
and practicing the awareness of the Now. In a rudimentary way, the journey
is to stay in the Now. And if you are so fortunate as to experience Now
Now, it could only mean that you are doubly aware.
top
Chris Veiga is Eurasian. He is bi-racial (Portuguese and
Chinese), bi-cultural (American and Chinese) and bi-lingual (English and
Chinese). Born in Hong Kong, he lived there for eleven years until his family
moved to Berkeley, California in 1973. His first language is Cantonese, second
is English, and third is Mandarin.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is essentially Chinese philosophy.
Surely, a competent clinician must possess knowledge of herbs and practice
proper needling techniques, but the focus of Chinese medicine remains in the
underlying principles which govern this ancient art of healing. These
underlying principles permeate throughout all aspects of everyday life. Hence,
the medicine is embedded in the very nature of Chinese culture. So much of
Chinese culture is transmitted through its language. As a matter of fact, there
is no distinction between the medical terminologies used to describe a pathogen
in Chinese medicine as that of the adjectives used to describe the condition of
the climate.
Chris's heritage and cultural background in many ways
predisposed him to become the person he is today. In many ways,
he lives in two worlds, the Orient and the Occident. As a transplant,
he learned from an early age the importance of adaptability. The
ability to straddle the two worlds, in a way, has coursed the movement
of his life. Maneuvering in life is not always easy. It involves
overcoming fear, letting go to start over, and trusting the process of
life. As people, we always seem to get tied up in knots and become
entangled in ourselves. We become stuck. To move beyond the
place of stagnation, one must be imbued with the desire to seek more from
life than what he/she is experiencing. The ability to access and
ultimately cultivate the source of that desire essentially becomes the
purpose of life. This is the place of investigation. This
is the place where Traditional Chinese Medicine bridges the gap between
material and spirit. The integration of these two worlds not only
promotes self-healing, but ultimately all-healing, coming together of
the whole.
top
Chris's specialties and clinical experience include:
-
Internal Medicine - including
digestive disorders, ulcers, chronic fatigue (CFIDS), diabetes, multiple
sclerosis (MS), hormonal imbalances, urinary disorders, hypertension,
skins disorders, respiratory disorders including bronchitis, asthma, and
allergies.
-
Pain Management - including
headaches, neck and shoulder pain, back and hip pain, sciatica,
fibromyalgia, arthritis and individual joint pain.
-
Women's Health Issues - PMS, menstrual
disorders, infertility and menopause.
-
Mental Issues - such as anxiety,
nervousness, anger or rage, depression, insomnia and stress management.
-
Lifestyle Counseling - how to create
order and discipline in our daily life utilizing the tools of meditation,
Yoga, Tai Chi, exercise, time management, and spiritual awareness. This
kind of awareness can help with clarity in our relationships, finding
direction, managing job stress, and improving the overall quality of life.
-
Addictions - alcohol, nicotine and
drugs detoxification protocol utilizing ear-acupuncture.
-
Eye, Ear, and Nose disorders -
including ear-ringing, blurry vision, and sinusitis.
top
Scheduling an Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
Consultation or other Massage Therapies with
Chris
For an appointment with Chris in San Francisco
North Bay Area - an Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Herbal and Dietary
Consultation, please call or contact him at:
the Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley
415-383-9900
E-mail:
Chris@Acupuncture-Marin.com
top
Qualities looked for in a physician
are outlined in the Root Tantra of Tibetan Medicine
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama speaks
of the correlation between Tibetan Medical Practice and Buddhism, in regard
to their being separate, but if the physician is a practicing Buddhist, then
prayers and mantras may be recited during the preparation of medicines and
dispensation of treatment, to further purify the causes of illness. In
addition, if the patient is Buddhist, prayers and mantras may be recited at
these times also, to enhance the psycho-spiritual potency of the treatment.
The qualities looked for in a physician
are outlined in the Root Tantra of Tibetan Medicine:
-
An analytical mind with some intuitive knowledge
-
Exhibit compassion and possess a good heart
-
Exhibit respect for medical ethics and a commitment
to the profession
-
Exhibit no revulsion when seeing bodily fluids
-
Consider all medicines and medical scriptures as
wish fulfilling jewels, including blessings according to proper
rituals
-
Must have patience in body speech and mind
-
Exhibit a continued effort to learn and gain
experience
-
Their manner should be gentle and contented and
helpful toward the destitute
-
The physician should know by heart the causative
factors of diseases and their proper treatment.
|
The definition of the physician is
one who heals all pain and practices medicine to promote good health. It is
noted in the text that the concentration required when seeing a patient is
the same as the concentration needed by a person walking on a wall with a
bowl of milk and butter on his head, threatened with death if a single drop
is spilled.
top
 Chris
Supports Humor in Healing as taught by Patch Adams, M.D.
Patch Adams, M.D. and his Gesundheit! Institute team (www.PatchAdams.org)
are an inspiration to Chris.
Our Healing Services:
House-calls or In-Clinic
Inspired by the friendly “Clown
Bodhisattva” energy of his role model Patch Adams, Chris is offering
“house-calls” – just like the traditional “country doctor” of yesteryear,
Chris is able to visit you directly at your home or office for a health
consultation or Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine consultation rather than
you having to come to Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley Clinic. Offering
House-calls supports Patch's and
our philosophy of:
"Bringing
fun, friendship, and
the joy of service back into healthcare."
“The healer who regards kindness to
humanity as his supreme religion and treats his patients accordingly,
succeeds best in achieving his aims of life and obtains the greatest
pleasure.”
-- from Charaka, honored 2nd century B.C. Physician
Although
Chris studied Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, he also encourages his clients at the Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley
Clinic to follow the advice of Dr.
Patch Adams, M.D. of the Gesundheit! Institute. Dr. Patch
suggests a daily dosage of the following:
Soon after seeing the
famous movie “Patch Adams” with
Robin Williams, Chris was inspired by the humorous,
joyfully exuberant and immensely generous Dr. Patch Adams. His Clown Bodhisattva energy
inspired Chris to make the vow to offer to the world for "sliding scale" his
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine healing knowledge and the fruits of his continuing long-term
studies in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and Buddism. It
was due to this initial inspiration from Patch that
Chris founded the Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley Clinic to offer affordable (sliding
scale) Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine consultations.
To
quote Patch in his book
Gesundheit (p. 54), “Greed is one of society’s worst
malignancies, and it appears to have metastasized to every corner of the
earth. The sense that greed is incurable may well account for its
escalation. Certainly one of greed’s most devastating symptoms is
cynicism. Unless greed and its symptoms are excised, society will perish.
We believe that a society must care for its population enough to take care
of its needs. Treatment of disease and provision for health care are
fundamental to a society’s sound survival. These needs should be fulfilled
as a gift to its population, not as a commodity to be bought and sold. In a
profit-oriented system devoted to grabbing the most income the traffic will
bear, the goal will be disease care. In a service-oriented system devoted
to keeping the population at its healthiest, the goal will be disease
prevention. The Gesundheit Institute will never charge money for its
medical services. If it is to survive, its staff, patients, and friends
will cooperate and donate everything needed for it to flourish as a
community hospital. We hope to eliminate the factor of debt entirely from
the healing interaction. Although this leaves us vulnerable to the
wishes of the greater community, paradoxically, we believe that
vulnerability is our greatest strength. We believe it is imperative to
need the community we serve because the community also needs us. This is
basic to interdependence, which we feel is necessary for a healthy
society. We must, as individuals and as a free society, stop our
worship of things and wealth and put our sense of richness in things
everybody can have in abundance without excluding anyone. These riches
include faith, fun, and the breathtaking bounty of nature and friendship.
This kind of medicine cannot be bought or sold. By not charging patients…
we are freer to be silly and to build friendships. We also believe that not
charging money is very good malpractice insurance. We hope that our patients
will take the generosity with them when they leave and spread it in their
own communities.”
(Click
here to listen
to an amazing 2 hour long lecture by Patch at UCSF's
Practical
Outrageousness Seminar from April 2002 - 19MB .WMA
file). Click on any of the above links to see many video clips that
show Patch's philosophy on life which has been the
model for the Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Healing Arts Institute.
While Acupuncture of Marin - Integrative Medical Center of Mill Valley is not
set up to be able to offer free treatments, we do offer low cost sliding
scale consultations. In the spirit of the compassionate healing arts
of China, this donation-based “sliding
scale” is available for low income persons: seniors, single parents, students, and those on
fixed incomes. Since we rely on consultations fees to
support our Dharma (life purpose) of spreading the healing wisdom of
Chinese Medicine and Buddhism to people throughout the Bay Area, we do have
suggested guidelines to qualify as low-income.
top
|
