Ross Moore, LAc.
I am often asked how I came to be an acupuncturist. In my mid-20s I began experiencing severe pain in my body. I went to allopathic doctors, none of whom were able to help. They invariably suggested pharmaceuticals and surgeries. I declined these options and hoped I would get better. But after about a year and a half of failing to make progress, I followed their advice and scheduled a surgery even though I didn't feel right about it. I had noticed they all went through the same process of assessing me and then making the diagnosis that most closely matched my symptoms, even though it didn't really match up that well.
They were not really looking at me or my individual situation, they were simply cross-referencing with a centralized database in service of the medical industrial complex. I realized it was more about business than my health. I was shocked to realize this, and I was now ready to look elsewhere for a solution. But I didn't know where to look.
Fortunately, I soon experienced a breakthrough. I began researching alternative ideas on the internet and found some ideas that made sense to me. I read some suggested books and eventually began to understand that my physical pain was not of physical origin. Simply understanding that emotions and environment could impact my physical body was enough to convince me to try some new things.
I began listening deeply to my body and found myself doing self-guided yoga and qi gong. I read a book about trigger points and began to apply what I learned on myself. I very quickly made progress with my pain and knew I was on the right track. As I did more yoga and qi gong I became attuned to subtle energy in my body that I previously did not even know existed. I began to attune to the emotional and spiritual levels of myself and this quickly snowballed into a huge turning point in my life. Needless to say I cancelled the surgery.
Now out of pain and more centered in myself I knew that some kind of healing work was in my future. I could now feel what the Chinese refer to as "Qi", the Hindus call
"Prana", and in the west is known generally as "vital energy". Because acupuncture directly works with these levels of the human being I decided to pursue acupuncture.
I graduated in 2016 from NCNM in Portland, Oregon with a Masters in Acupuncture. Much of my work with others is still informed by those early experiences of learning to attune to the subtle energies in the body, which are more primarily real and essential to who we are than the gross physical and personality levels. It is also an enormous advantage as an acupuncturist that I can feel the "Qi" I am working with rather than simply working from a theoretical level.