About Liz
Liz Asch Greenhill, LAc., MAcOM, is a trauma-informed, psychedelic-informed acupuncturist, board-certified Chinese herbalist, and shiatsu practitioner. Liz is also an artist, writer, educator, consultant, and artist’s assistant. At Vassar College, having studied poetry, art, and filmmaking, Liz graduated and began work as an artist assistant, bookbinder, and printmaker. She began her studies in Eastern Medicine in 2003 and has been practicing in Oregon since 2009. Liz is certified by the Oregon Medical Board, the NCCAOM (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), and the NADA Detoxification Association. She studied at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City and graduated from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland. She has focused her continuing education on various language-based somatic techniques for treating trauma. Liz holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Eastern Oregon University and is currently completing a certificate program in psychedelic facilitation from Synaptic Institute.
Liz is the creator and voice of Body Land Metaphor Medicine, an archive of free guided visualizations informed by Surrealist art and Chinese Medicine, which you can access on any podcast app or on her website here. Body Land is designed to be a listening experience wherein you practice qi cultivation and get saturated with lyric language and deep imagery such that you feel like you just got acupuncture without the needles.
Liz specializes in creativity, stress, pain (both physical and emotional), and embodiment. Her work is a unique combination of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu, medicinal Qi Gong, Subtle Body work, trauma-informed Somatics, and guided visualization. Liz has a strong interest in working with artists and creatives and the LGBTQ+ community, and is invested in Anti-Racism training and participating in reparative relationships with communities of culture. Liz has collaborated with the Northwest Narrative Medicine collective, Corporeal Writing, the Portland Underground Graduate School, and various MFA programs, among other institutions and organizations to lead classes and workshops on creative embodiment. Liz is also drawn to end-of-life care and working with hospice patients and has taken continuing education on that front. She is working on a guided visualization book.
ON CULTURE
I practice a cultural medicine that comes from a heritage that is not my lineage. Everything I learned about Traditional Chinese Medicine and other Eastern medicines, I learned from my teachers who trained in Asia and came to the United States as educators and practitioners of both Eastern pre-modern and Western colonized medicines. It is an honor to practice medicine cross-culturally, and, as a white person, it comes with complications of white dominance, cultural appropriation, respect, and marginalization. I am committed to continued ways of learning how to be of service, dismantling oppressive forces which I may benefit from and which may challenge my values, and continuing to open my eyes and ears to patterns and systems outside my familiarity to gain in understanding. This is a lifelong process.
In my mid-twenties, after the events of 9-11, I left the art world abruptly in search of a way to be of service. My quest was to find an earth-based, environmentally responsible, hands-on method of medicine to study and practice. I wanted to learn in a formal graduate school setting. Traditional Chinese Medicine was the educational opportunity that entered the picture and took hold. While it was a leap to study a medicine from another heritage that is not my culture, the idea of using a needle as my tool was very familiar to me, as an artist with a background in drawing, printmaking, and sewing. What has become clear to me over the last twenty years, is that I sought a medicine that connected me to my ancestry, to Eastern European Ashkenazi and Iberian Sephardic Jews. That in learning to practice medicine with herbs and my hands and slivers of metal, I have unearthed the link, deep in my body and being, to the culture I come from, proximate, and lost. This earth-based medicine connects me to my roots.
I play a rebellious role in my family, one in which I am, and have always been, queering the story, including marginalized voices, and challenging the dominant paradigm. Growing up queer and Jewish and female in the American South, I learned how to hide, how to camouflage myself, and how to be quiet. I also learned how to challenge the hegemony and how hard and necessary it is to subvert systems. As a teenage AIDS activist, I found a voice in public health. In the now, running a solo practice in a broken healthcare system, it is a constant challenge how to balance and protect my outflow and keep my inflow nourished. I don’t have it all figured out. I am open and curious and learning and striving to work with people for whom my work resonates, have my practice mirror my values, and generate security and stability for myself as a provider and caretaker.
EDUCATION
1998 BA in English with honors, Vassar College
2009 Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from OCOM (Portland, OR) with studies from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (NYC)
2016 MFA Eastern Oregon University in Creative Nonfiction Writing
Continuing Education Courses in Herbalism, Acupuncture practices and theory, Mental health care, Somatics, Hospice care, and Community involvement since 2010.
Certifications and Additional Education:
2019 Subtle Body Work somatic certification with Leslie Huddart, LAc.
2021 Healing Trauma course with Dr. Peter Levine
2021 Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism with Resmaa Menakem and Carlin Quinn
2021 Certificate Program in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy
2021-2022 Holistic Pelvic Care with Tami Kent
2020-2021 COALESCE Anti-Racism Affinity Group
2021-2022 Hospice Care
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
In 2009, at Reed College, Liz helped develop the infrastructure to integrate acupuncture into the campus clinic and served as the students' acupuncturist for several years. Liz also worked in the community acupuncture clinic at Quest Center for Integrative Health. She worked at several Chinese herbal pharmacies in New York City, both in bulk herbs and granular, in the Research department at OCOM, and as a Shiatsu teacher’s assistant and an herbal tutor.
Currently, Liz maintains a private practice in Portland, Oregon. Liz offers hotel and house calls for people who are homebound as well as for performing artists passing through Portland. Additionally, she leads group-based guided visualizations and acupuncture pop-ups that specifically spark creative ignition and build togetherness. She is invested in active Anti-Racism work as a lifelong practice of curiosity, vulnerability, and growth.
About Night Sky Acupuncture + Ideaphoria
The night sky is an image I come back to again and again, guiding the body to feel as spacious and vast as the dark lit with stars, that floating feeling of letting the edges of the body dissolve, and the idea that the acupuncture points we work with illuminate within the body like constellations.
Night Sky Acupuncture + Ideaphoria is a place where you reconnect to your creative and whole self. It is a place where I examine these same things, as an acupuncturist, writer, visual artist, collaborator and creative thinking partner. Self-expression is an integral part of the human experience, both individually and collectively. Together we can help each other discover new frontiers within our imaginations and our lived experience.
Your sessions can be hands-on with acupuncture in-person, or on the phone as talk-based sessions focused on your creative process or projects. Customized guided visualizations shift the mind’s eye and work with the body’s healing process, allowing for new insights and movement of stuck energy. Artists access new perspectives for current projects and learn things about their creative process that they might not have discovered otherwise. Through active listening, lyric guided imagery, ideaphoria, and embodiment techniques, we reinvent the body as a portal for the imagination.
How does Energy Medicine Work?
Our bodies are alive with energy. In Chinese Medicine we call this Qi (pronounced ‘chee’). Qi flows through our bodies in a geography of pathways that is known and predictable, and also changeable. Qi flows through the body in physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual layers. Through the course of our lives, through internal and externals factors, the Qi in our bodies becomes clogged in some areas and therefore runs low in other areas. Through touch and acupuncture, language, and ideas, we can shift the flow of our energy.
About Acupuncture
There are many forms of acupuncture out of China and throughout Asia, which date back at least 3,000 years. The type of acupuncture in which I am trained is called Traditional Chinese Medicine. Acupuncture according to Chinese Medicine may be used to treat virtually any illness, disease, or pain condition. It is also used for, and excels at, wellness and disease prevention, and improving vitality and longevity. Acupuncture has been proven to benefit the immune system and to release certain biochemicals that reduce pain and inflammation, and improve mood disorders, sleep problems and mental clarity.
Today’s acupuncture needles are the width of a hair, and are sterile single-use stainless steel disposable needles, so that the possibility of transmitting disease between patients has been eliminated. Because tiny acupuncture needles are the only tools we dispose of, acupuncture is praised as an Environmentally Sustainable Medicine. Acupuncture has an outstanding safety record. It is non-toxic, causes minimal adverse reactions, and has no serious side effects.
Acupuncture should not be painful. It is relaxing for some, while invigorating for others. The insertion of a needle may be imperceptible or there may be a slight pinch, a sensation of something shifting or moving, or a mild dull ache.
Accurate diagnosis and effective treatment in this medicine requires no technology, but rather is based on the skill and knowledge of the practitioner. Acupuncture engages the body’s own self-healing mechanisms and guides the body back to a state of wellness. For this reason, acupuncture requires a series of treatments. For chronic complex conditions, I usually suggest one or two treatments per week for five to eight weeks, at which point we will reassess your progress to determine the course of treatment. For simple or more recent conditions, it’s possible that only several weekly treatments will be necessary. Many people continue with acupuncture as a form of health care after the original condition they sought treatment for has been resolved, because it helps them in a variety of other ways. Acupuncture is used by 10 million Americans.
CREATIVE SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS
I have worked as an artist’s assistant since the 90s. I love helping artists make their best work, and now that I have over a decade of experience working with people in my clinic, I approach artist assistance from another level.
Curious to read more? If you know this is for you, you can Book a session online, or get in touch.
About Guided Visualizations
I integrate language and imagery into my sessions that often lull the patient into a meditative state. Working one-on-one with people is akin to the artistic process for me, like reading, editing, and revision. I understand healing to be a creative act of the body, and some people are more sparked, inspired, or coaxed open to that process through language, voice, and imagery guiding them to a place within the imagination. I like to make the possibility of traveling into a meditative state available to my patients in each session should they want it. As a practitioner, my creative process is also engaged in hands-on healing work. I often work with images that come from channel theory, 5-elements, taoism, qi gong, shiatsu, and the empirical knowledge I continue to build working with peoples' bodies. Guided visualizations are always optional; some people prefer to zone out, sleep, or meditate to music or quiet. If you would like a visualization, please let me know.
About Acupressure
I integrate acupressure with each acupuncture treatment, to maximize your benefit. The acupressure I practice is informed by my studies in Zen and Quantum shiatsu, medicinal Qi Gong, Myofascial Release, and acupuncture energetics. Acupressure is touch-based without oil or lotion and just as effective through clothing. Minimal disrobing is honored in my practice. Acupressure may be done on the head, neck and scalp, back and limbs, belly and torso. Your comfort is always my priority.
WHAT TO EXPECT
When you sign up for a session, you create an account in my HIPAA secure portal, and request an appointment. When your appointment is confirmed, you will receive online forms to fill out. You don’t need to print anything out—it’s all online. If you want me to bill your insurance, please put your insurance info into your account. If I can, I’ll check out your benefits before you arrive. Otherwise, we’ll wing it (based on my knowledge of similar plans) and adapt your co-insurance when your first EOB arrives.
Please park on the street (not the lot behind 811!). You can find free street parking on 8th, 9th, or Couch. Parking on Burnside requires payment via the Parking Kitty app. For your first visit, allow 90 minutes in the office with me. Follow-ups are 50 minutes or 75 minutes, depending on whether you sign up for a shorter session (brief intake with acupuncture/acupressure) or a longer one (more complex intake, acupuncture/acupressure, with somatic work and a deeper rest time).
In my office, we will discuss your mental and physical health concerns, questions, ideas, and goals. We will brainstorm treatment options and I’ll explain my approach. During your session you lay on a heated massage table (as minimally disrobed as possible), and we work with the design of your body to compose a session that is effective and efficient at clearing stuck energetics and allowing for positive change. I integrate with the acupuncture needles, acupressure (as shiatsu, myofascial release, and medicinal qi gong), and various forms of language based somatic work including guided visualization based on Chinese Medicine and surrealist art. I tune your body and being like an instrument, hopefully get you into a liminal state or asleep and let you rest. I stay in the room with you the whole time and I’m here if you need anything. The doors are always locked while we are in session and the curtains drawn.
I want you to be comfortable and feel safe while you are here. I welcome all your input. Please interrupt me, always, with feedback, information about what you need, or with questions or curiosity. This work is collaborative and we are effecting change through energy work, metaphors, symbolism, and language, to bring about flow in your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves. I love working on all four of those levels, and I will meet you wherever our works takes us.
