Engaging Vitality

Engaging Vitality: Fundamentals introduces and explains Engaging Vitality (EV), a set of palpatory and cognitive tools developed to help practitioners of Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) gain the ability to directly perceive and interact with the bodily phenomena described in traditional medicine.

A key focus of EV is providing practitioners with reliable, real-time feedback during treatment, beyond patient verbal reports, which are often unreliable. Instead, EV teaches practitioners to use palpatory skills to detect immediate changes in the body-such as shifts in qi, blood, and fluids-during interventions like acupuncture or moxibustion. This hands-on method reduces reliance on abstract concepts or traditional charts by teaching practitioners to “listen” directly to acupuncture channels. The overarching goal is to enrich practitioners’ clinical skills and their connection to both the medicine and their patients.

Author Biography

Dan Bensky has a long-term interest in Chinese and Chinese medicine, having obtained a diploma in Chinese medicine from the Macau Institute of Chinese Medicine in 1975, a Masters in Classical Chinese from the University of Washington in 1996, and a Doctorate in the Discussion of Cold Damage from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in 2006. He also graduated with a Doctor of Osteopathy from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1982, where he was a research assistant for John Upledger. He has studied with many notable osteopathic practitioners, including Robert Fulford and Jean-Pierre Barral. With this background, Dan has been teaching for both professions and working on utilizing the connections between osteopathy and East Asian medicine for over forty years Charles ‘Chip’ Chace (1958-2018) graduated from the New EnglandSchool of Acupuncture in 1984 and had decades of experience with a wide range of palpation-based forms of practice in both the acupuncture and osteopathic traditions. This included significant training in Japanese Meridian Therapy and Biodynamic Osteopathy. He also was involved in the translation of a wide variety of books and articles from the second century CE Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion to the seventeenth century An Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels by Li Shizhen to works by the twentieth century master Qin Bowei. In addition to being a very sought after teacher, he maintained a busy clinical practice in Boulder, Colorado.