Biography

Brendan is an herbalist of 25 years with training in eastern and western healing traditions and has been practicing Chinese medicine full-time for 15 years. He works with a wide range of patients—from toddlers to seniors--with a wide range of physical, mental and emotional conditions. A significant part of his clinical practice is treating patients with all stage of Lyme disease, having worked with several hundred patients from initial tick bite through late-stage neurological symptoms. To date, he has administered over 25,000 acupuncture treatments and prescribed over 10,000 customized herbal formulas. He holds a Master’s of Acupuncture degree from the Academy of Five Element Acupuncture (AFEA) and a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College. He is on the faculty at AFEA in Florida and an adjunct professor at Johnson State College in VT. Brendan has been a western herbal business owner and consultant to natural product companies and western medical practitioners. He teaches about various aspects of Chinese medicine and herbal medicine at schools, universities, educational centers and conferences around the US, including at Yale University, Swarthmore College, the University of Montana and the University of Vermont. He also writes and teaches about the connection between personal, societal and environmental well-being, including the connection between climate change and Chinese medical thought and diagnosis. In September, 2015, North Atlantic Books will publish his first book The Yin and Yang of Climate Crisis: Healing Personal, Cultural and Ecological Imbalance with Chinese Medicine, which looks at the underlying causes of our warming planet through the lens of Chinese medicine. Brendan is a long-time student and practitioner of Tai Chi Ch’uan, having studied with Wolfe Lowenthal weekly for 10 years. He was authorized to teach by Wolfe, who was a senior student of Cheng Man Ch’ing, the creator of the Yang style short form. He was the founder and primary instructor of an outdoor based western herbal school in Vermont and teaches about harvesting and using wild plants for food and medicine, and herbal medicine preparation in a wide variety of settings. For the past decade, he has been integrating clinically the potency of local, western medicinal plants with the depth of Chinese diagnostic traditions and is the past president of the Vermont Acupuncture Association. Find him online at jademtwellness.com and personalasecological.com