Bess Dallal, LAc, MS

She received her Masters in Science from The Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences. Her Bachelors Degree is from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with an individual concentration in “Healing through the Scientific Arts”. During her medical studies, she received training from a variety of healthcare providers including acupuncturists, naturopathic doctors and yoga teachers in the U.S. and India. She has a strong background in Western, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. She has also studied and practiced abdominal massage for 15 years. She is trained as a spiritual caregiver and grief counselor with the Zen Hospice Project. Through many different internships and deep curiosity, she has developed her own style as a practitioner with eclectic influence.

Her yoga training is in Emodyoga. She studied under Patricia Townsend in MA, in Northern India through the Himalayan Health Exchange, and in the Shadow yoga tradition with Andy Matinog.

Bess sees a variety of patients and concerns ranging from pain management, mental health, chronic autoimmune illness, dermatological disease and terminal illness.

Bess utilizes a functional medicine approach to her patients’ health. Some of the medical therapies used include: acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, gua sha, abdominal massage, microneedling, individualized herbal formulations (botanical medicine), detoxification, diet and lifestyle counseling, yoga therapeutics, and referencing lab reports as necessary.

As a white, Italian-Scottish-mishmash-mut, Bess was hesitant to take on the study of Chinese Medicine because of the risk of appropriation of this already under-valued medicine. Having a strong foundation in the biological sciences, she considered going down the allopathic route and applying a holistic framework to it. But this approach to medicine simply did not feel like a compatible fit for how she believed she could be of the most service to people. At the end of the day she chose Chinese Medicine most importantly for the growing awareness and accessibility it is gaining as she is committed to contributing to improved equity in healthcare. She loves and believes strongly in her specific modality, but also believes the type of medicine used in someone’s healing process is of less importance than the experience of the medicinal process itself. She believes that any medicine can be effective, whether it’s emergency medicine or any specialization, as long as the practitioner-patient relationship is strong and fulfilling the current needs of the patient, namely that a strong sense of trust and safety is established. Working as an integrative team across specializations is of high priority for Bess to enhance each patient’s coordination of care.

Bess lives in Oregon City, Oregon with her partner-in-crime Amir, miracle-daughter Miele, many plants and two cats David Bowie and Rebecca Welton. They spend their free time making stuff, hanging out with friends, exploring, listening to music, gardening, watching and playing soccer and basketball and relaxing. Walking, jogging, pilates, bar method and yoga are Bess's exercises of choice and she's does them religiously. She has traveled through Asia, the Middle East, Central and South America and Europe which has greatly influenced her perspective on the many ways that people can find health and satisfaction.

The foundation of natural medicine, Chinese Medicine and many useful theoretical frameworks comes from dialectics like yin and yang, form and function, shadows and light, 0 and 1. These dialectics form the foundation for which we seek a balance through the life affirming tension of elements in their seemingly opposite characteristics. In natural medicine, the idea of the opposites are always keeping each other in check. Without darkness, there can’t be light; yet with too much darkness, there’s not enough light and vice versa. These are tools for thinking about health as both relative and dynamic. Based on the ancient roots of Chinese Medicine - Yin and Yang - these concepts are universally applicable in the observation of life.

Our culture often focuses either too heavily on the “form” of health - how the body looks and what its measurements are OR too heavily on the “function” of health - how much we are able to do or not do. We believe that if we can listen deeply to the needs of a person, and go into more detail and subtlety of a person’s unique experience of life - and treat that responsibly - that the relationship of their form and function will find it’s way into a fluid, more adaptable balance and way of being in the world. They can then reclaim their innate internal humanness - in relationship and response to the world around them, with the understanding that they are part of this bigger thing: nature.