Poke Acupuncture

12/07/2022

BY POPULAR DEMAND!

I’m thrilled to announce that Poke has created a limited run of Diet Poke tees to raise funds for .fl, a youth-led organization in South Florida working locally to advocate for and educate LGBTQ+ youth.

And our good friends made the shirts which means they’re beautiful and make very special gifts! And designed by the genius !

We did a very limited run so order quickly to claim one in your size. They are $45 each plus $7 for shipping. And you can secure one by sending $52 through PayPal (pokeacupuncture@gmail.com) or Venmo (-acupuncture) and include your name, address, and the size you'd like. Every dollar goes directly to PRISM.

About PRISM:

PRISM is a youth-led 501(c)3—started as a club at Boca Raton High School two years ago—working to expand access to LGBT-inclusive education and sexual health resources for young people in South Florida, an initiative catalyzed in response to the state of Florida actively employing its legislature to legalize homophobia, target q***r youth, and deny them their education, identities, and self-determination.

These young people are on the frontlines of LGBT+ advocacy in the face of Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the other “Don’t Say Gay” monsters, establishing a network of resources and support for high school and college student leaders. We honor their fight and support their acts of resistance!

09/29/2022

As I move into the next phase of the Poke project, I am starting to think of ways we may better support new practitioners and students who are finding themselves in the frightening spot once they finish our very expensive schooling, loaded with debt, insecure about their capabilities, and cut off from community.

I feel personally responsible that there are few existing channels for dialogue between new and old practitioners–short of a couple podcasts, expensive CEUs and Facebook groups, which (despite their best intentions) are increasingly exhibiting the worst qualities of social media: misogyny, paternalism, capitalism and general meanness.

To this end, I am very excited to announce that my colleague Portia Wilson of .acupuncture and I will be hosting Virtual Case Review every Monday in October, from 11am to Noon PST, beginning this Monday, October 3rd.

Case Review was one of my favorite things in school: someone would present a case to the group and then everyone would share what they think, and explain their treatment protocol and plan for that patient. The fun of the exercise was that there was NO wrong answer-- the point was always that our medicine is vast, and the ephemeral slipperiness of Yin and Yang allows for there being as many ways of using acupuncture as there are acupuncturists.

If you'd like to discuss a specific case, please email it ahead of time to Portia and I at pokegeniuspoke@gmail.com. Keep the case short, try to include Tongue and Pulse, please avoid names and specific descriptors, we won't be recording to avoid any confidentiality issues. If you'd like to just listen in, of course that's welcome too.

All levels are welcome; in fact that is the point. There is no cost, just come and participate in a sense of community that is drastically missing from our profession.

Zoom Meeting ID: 876 799 6576; Passcode: POKE1

"The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful; it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.
You open your safe and find ashes." -Annie Dillard

08/23/2022

04/08/2020

We’re all “Sour Face Ann”

03/16/2020

03/13/2020

So I'm going to close Poke at least today and tomorrow while news and information develops about our current circumstances.
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The conventional wisdom right now seems to be to minimize all non-essential face-to-face medical visits. I think the suggestion of staying home, limiting interactions with others, getting more rest, and keeping warm is the best way to flatten the curve of infection and support not only my patients, but the community outside my patients and the hospital system.
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It's a tough decision for me, but my first priority is to public health.
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I’m always off Sundays and Mondays and we’ll see where we’re at going into Tuesday. Ill reach out as we know more. If you need anything (really anything: medical advice, nutritional help, television recommendations) please don't hesitate to reach out. My cell is 323-387-3765 and my receptionist’s name is Backpack.

Take care, truly!
💙Russell

01/22/2020

The good people at Medicinal Roots Magazine asked me to contribute to their special Winter Issue. I wrote this piece because this is the conversation I want to have with other practitioners; and it's the conversation I hope other practitioners are having with each other. *

One need only take a glance at the world news just today to feel these are unprecedented hard times. On the outset of another election year (this one even more divisive and uncertain), with all that has gone on since the last one, what does it even mean to help someone “feel better" in 2020? How can acupuncture treat daily-mostly-functioning existential pain? How are we clinically addressing the needs of our clientele who are living and breathing in the world today? *

I don't have the answers obviously, but the article offers a handful of the strategies and points of departure. Please let me know what you think.

Read P ast Issues

01/08/2020

PHANTOM LIMB TREATMENT: After several years of chemotherapy and radiation for recurring cancer in her leg, my patient rolled over in bed one night and shattered her femur last summer. They immediately amputated from above the knee, but the phantom pain persisted through her ankle for months. We treat it by using a towel or sheet as a proxy for the missing limb: even though the flesh and bone is gone, the meridians remain.
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These are all Ah Shi points, and as crazy as it sounds, they elicit a de Qi sensation when needled! Good news- the phantom pain is almost entirely resolved.

[* posted with patient’s permission] @ Poke Acupuncture

12/05/2019

Tis the season to be of service to the community!
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I am so honored to once again be part of the donation drive to benefit the started by my dear friends and
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The Trans Wellness Center is seeking donations of new personal hygiene, cosmetic products, and slightly used clothes to distribute to low-income transgender and gender nonconforming people.
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Transgender people experience higher rates of poverty and unemployment, impeding their ability to purchase clothing, personal hygiene and cosmetic products. Help support the TEEP (Transgender Economic Empowerment Project) now!
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Donate today through December 31 at:
The Sweat Spot (Silverlake)
Esquilto (Los Feliz)
RockStar Rover (Weho)
Poke Acupuncture (Hollywood)
Cool Nights (Virgil Village)
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Support the community and be of service this holiday season. Weekend pickups can be arranged. More info can be found .

11/28/2019

As an acupuncturist, when you start out, you treat your loved ones (because they have to.)
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If you're lucky, you then treat your friends (because they want to be nice.)
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If you are very lucky, your friends tell their friends and then you treat total strangers (which is both weird and great).
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If you are very very lucky, you treat those strangers long enough that they become friends.
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And if you are truly truly fortunate, and the cosmos is especially kind, like maybe it’s repaying you for some “past life good deed,” like - I don’t know- you rescued some impossibly innocent Victorian child from a well, those friends become your loved ones.
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For all my cantankerousness, I am so deeply and disproportionately grateful I get to do this work, with my patients who are among my most favorite people on the planet. Happy Thanksgiving to you. 💙rb