Jane Grissmer

Background

About Jane Grissmer

As one of the early pioneers in the recovery of the healing arts in our American culture, I founded Crossings: A Center for the Healing Traditions to anchor their presence here. Today I continue in my role as Director of Crossings Healing and Wellness with an ongoing vision to increase collaboration with western medical care practices for the sake of improving health care outcomes and partnership in patient care. That the healing traditions have recovered is without question. The challenge and risk of today is forcing them into a biomedical model. Every study which says acupuncture improves back pain or headaches or depression is true, worth researching and citing; but it is not because there is a formulaic answer to how any of these traditions treat a unique patient with back pain. It is because these traditions teach practitioners how to be present to human beings and how to respond to them with an art form based on assessing Qi and the laws of nature, an art form more congruent with physics than biomedicine. Through my 30 years of clinical experience I have come to know that healing and living is a journey.we are surely not constant. and that the goal in any treatment room is to recover and grow our highest potential in living the moment. This can mean anything from improved functionality in one’s physical structure or organs, to a renewed spirit or zest for life, to growth in our mental/emotional awareness, to beauty in aging and dying. As an ongoing commitment to sustaining acupuncture as a 'healing art' for generations to come, I also serve acupuncture students in the classroom at Maryland Institute for Integrative Health (formerly Tai Sophia Institute). Publications include a range of articles on Chinese Medicine, Healing, Emotions and the role of the Seasons in our health and well-being. My last publication is: The Geometry of Emotion: Healing Emotions through the Lens of Chinese Medicine, The American Acupuncturist, Winter 2015.