In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Jessica Biles, Director of Administration and Student Services, as well as Registrar at Middle Way Acupuncture Institute. With its roots in a heartfelt story of mentorship and education, Middle Way has grown into a respected institution blending classical acupuncture traditions with modern teaching practices.
Jessica shares the inspiring journey of the institute, its dedication to providing affordable care, and the innovative approaches it uses to train the next generation of acupuncturists. Join us as we explore how Middle Way continues to make a profound impact on both students and the community it serves.
Can you share the story of how the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute was founded and its journey of growth to become what it is today?
The seed that grew to be Middle Way Acupuncture Institute was planted in 2006 when a friend asked our founder, Roland Matthews, if she could enter into apprenticeship with him. She had become unable to complete her final year of acupuncture school and needed someone to supervise her clinical internship as well as teach her remaining courses. As apprenticeship has been the primary method of transmission for this medicine for millennia, Roland felt called to accept her request and shortly became approved by Washington State to take on an apprentice.
The following year when two more people asked to join as apprentices, he was informed that teaching more than one person at a time required that he become a school. So, with its class of two, Middle Way was born.
Though Roland had not intended to start a school, his original college degree was a BA in Education and he was a teacher at heart, so it became an appropriate manifestation of his skills and interests. He also wanted to make the education more accessible for adult learners seeking a midlife career change – so it all began with monthly weekend intensive classes, and we still run things that way.
As word circulated that an opportunity to study acupuncture existed north of Seattle, the school grew. At first Roland taught all of the classes, but he quickly decided that his grounding in Five Element Acupuncture would be well complemented by seasoned practitioners from the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine as well as Japanese Acupuncture. He then hired some of the finest acupuncture instructors in the Pacific Northwest to come and teach at Middle Way.
It was with a heavy heart that we reported Roland’s passing in 2017, but Middle Way has continued to embody the vision of a deeply compassionate man that had a strong connection to the natural world.
While still grieving the loss of our Founder, the admin team and faculty at Middle Way rallied and kept things going through the trials of the COVID pandemic, each stepping up in their own way to make it all work.
And then just this last year we have taken two big steps that we hope will help us to serve our patients and students well for many years to come: the first was a creation of a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, lovingly named the Roland Matthews Community Health Foundation, whose mission is to provide affordable complementary and integrated medicine, allowing greater connectivity between the public and the practitioners that can serve them. And the second was a
move to a new campus and clinic location on the West side of Mount Vernon, WA, just over the bridge from our old location.
The new facilities were incredibly well built out for our needs when we found them – we now have four patient treatment rooms, a clinic conference room, two classrooms, a beautiful library, a spacious kitchen and a separate space with two rooms for our onsite apothecary, as well as ample parking.
How does the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute balance providing high-quality patient care with creating a hands-on learning environment for interns?
Our supervisors bring their combined decades of experience providing clinical care to help guide each patient interaction. Students begin in their Primary (“Intern”) role in the clinic during their third and final year of studies – after two other layers of steady clinical training (more on that later) – this is the part where they complete the intake process, gather all objective findings, and then present each case to their supervisor.
Discussions are then had to come up with the most appropriate plan of action in regards to that day’s treatment and a plan going forward.
Our didactic class sizes are small, and our clinic shifts are even smaller – each Supervisor works with a maximum of three Primary clinicians at a time. This ensures adequate time for both case discussions and hands-on training and demonstration where needed.
We also begin our Primary clinicians with just two patients per shift – this means two full hours to complete all aspects of each treatment for the first four months of their training. This gives the students time to work out all the wrinkles in their process – and glean all that they can from their Supervisors – while not feeling the pressure of the clock quite so much.
We then transition to one and a half hour treatments for the remainder of their training, because this is more suitable to “real-world” settings and we want our graduates to be well prepared, all around!
Our team of Supervisors is wide and varied in their treatment styles, so students have ample exposure to different approaches to treatment. And they also communicate amongst themselves about patient care and student support in quarterly meetings and whenever else it becomes necessary in regards to patient care or student learning.
What steps do you take to ensure the interns are fully prepared and confident to deliver treatments under supervision?
Our students begin their first semester with a Surface Anatomy class that is designed to bring them strongly into their eventual role as healthcare providers. They start with this immersion into the art of palpation – an art that is widely utilized for diagnostic as well as treatment purposes in Chinese Medicine, from taking the pulse and finding points, to palpating the abdomen, and even properly evaluating injuries – and cultivate their sense of the variety of ways that healthy tissues can feel, so as to inform both their future studies and then later, their administration of treatments.
They also spend their first three semesters deeply engaged with the study of the foundational theories and diagnostic frameworks of Chinese Medicine, and of course, the acupuncture points themselves, with seasoned teachers that seek to inspire curiosity and uphold rigorous academic standards with methods that have been time tested over these last 18 years.
Only after this are they allowed to begin working as an Assist in the student clinic.
And then at the end of their second year, all students must demonstrate their diagnostic and patient interaction skills by passing their Clinic Entry Exams before they are allowed to move into the role of the Primary clinician.
Middle Way’s clinic training structure is broken down into three phases for learning students: the Observer phase, the Assist phase, and the Primary, or Student Intern phase. At each level, students are expected to begin integrating the didactic and hands-on lessons of the classroom into the more practical arena of the clinic setting and the patients’ treatment.
Students start with the Observer role, the aim of which is for beginning students to simply observe the procedures of the clinic: the role of the patient and practitioner, questions asked by the practitioner and then based on a diagnosis, the tools and treatment methods the practitioner chooses to provide care for the patient.
In their second year of studies students move into the role of the Assist – this is where they begin to integrate more information. As an Assist, the student is allowed to work with the Primary clinician on setting up the room, gathering equipment needed for a treatment, and if time permits, asking any questions they may have about the case or treatment.
The last phase of training in the third year sees Primary clinicians begin to work directly with the Clinic Supervisor. The Primary conducts the patient intake and discusses a prudent diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient with the Supervisor. They then follow through with the agreed upon treatment plan on their own – still under the guidance of the Supervisor who is there to assist with proper needling location and technique and to help the Primary research any points or modalities that need clarification.
Middle Way seeks to create a supportive environment across the board. We are a small school, and so we are able to interact closely with each student, ensuring they are gathering the knowledge and skill set required to become compassionate and successful practitioners once they graduate and become licensed.
How do you see the institute’s mission of offering affordable acupuncture care impacting the local community?
There is no denying that people these days often struggle to have access to high quality care. In our student clinic, we work with everyone who comes to our doors by meeting their needs with flexible payment options. We often see patients that can “no longer afford” to see their regular acupuncturist. As well as folks that have never tried acupuncture before and of course, our regular patients that have been with us for years, following the classes of students as they move through our program and off on their own.
With our recent move to our new ground floor location, we have had an influx of walk-in patients; people that had perhaps seen our sign on the third floor of the Co-op building before, but never took the time to see what we are about.
We also offer a weekly no-charge Community clinic. We do accept donations, but have happily provided this care, free of charge to anyone that can make it in on time for the last 18 years.
We also take part in annual Veterans events, where our Supervisors show up with a handful of students and provide acupuncture to participants from this section of our community that deserve the attention so much.
And again, from our new location, we have plans for much more community involvement – everything from our upcoming Lunar New Year celebration on January 31st, to offering cooking, Qi Gong and Tai Chi classes, to hosting events that directly support our local people. We are currently planning the creation of a “Night Out” for local business owners, where we will
provide community-style acupuncture and a mini-lecture on easy to incorporate, seasonally appropriate approaches to nutrition, as well as some delicious herbal decoctions.
The impact of all of these actions would be hard to measure – it can help to think of it a bit like Dominos. If we can better one life by alleviating pain, or helping someone get good sleep, or teaching someone how to eat or breathe more effectively, then everyone around them will likewise see some benefit. As educators and practitioners, we can see that ripple effect in the world around us. It all starts with one small gesture.
Can you share insights into the training process for interns, particularly how it integrates East Asian medical theory with practical application?
The integration of East Asian medical theory with practical application starts in the classroom, but it really takes place during clinic. Students are guided by the pillars of East Asian medical theory during the patient intake interview, and then they must dive into it in order to come up with the appropriate diagnosis as they discuss their patient’s case with their Supervisor.
When we say “diagnosis”, we mean an East Asian Medicine diagnosis – and coming to the appropriate diagnosis is crucial to providing appropriate care. So much so that on each patient chart, for every visit, the diagnosis is agreed upon and whatever is stated in the diagnosis must match with the directives given by the treatment principle, which in turn guide the treatment plan.
For example, we may say a patient has a diagnosis of low back pain due to local Qi and Blood stagnation, as well as Kidney Qi deficiency.
In this case, the treatment principles would be: Stop Pain, Move Qi and Blood and Nourish the Kidney Qi.
And in turn, the treatment plan would lean on points and modalities that Stop Pain, Move Qi and Blood, and Nourish the KD Qi – it could look something like this: UB 23 with moxibustion, UB 25, UB 40 with e-stim, UB 59 with e-stim, and perhaps some cups local to the pain either before or after the acupuncture is applied.
The term “acupuncture” has taken on a wide definition in the US. By most state laws, it includes the practice of needling itself, as well as electroacupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, massage and acupressure, breathing techniques, guasha, dietetics and the use of heat and cooling measures to affect the body.
Throughout our program, Middle Way students are exposed to all of these modalities and more, including the subtle art of Hara diagnosis and Teishin treatment techniques.
They get time to practice all of these techniques on each other during class.
And as they move into the Clinic, they have plenty of opportunities to utilize all the aspects of their toolkit when it comes to putting together a treatment plan.
What unique qualities or principles set Middle Way Acupuncture Institute apart from other acupuncture training and treatment facilities?
We are a Classically inspired Five Element Acupuncture school – this means we look to the Classical texts to create the framework of our study and combine that with training from teachers who specialize in the many iterations of Five Element Acupuncture.
We offer our classes in a monthly weekend intensive format – this means students come to campus for class on Thursday – Sunday, just once a month. We also utilize an online learning management system to ensure our students have ample interaction with each other and their teachers throughout their coursework between modules.
We offer a 3 year MAc program and a 2 year CCHM program. The latter can be started at the halfway point of the MAc program, or taken by licensed acupuncturists.
We are a small school with a home-like vibe (especially with our new kitchen space! Students often create a shared meal plan for the weekends they are on campus). Because we are a small school, faculty and administration are able to give excellent support to students in a personalized way. Students begin and end their 3 year acupuncture education with the same classmates, so they become a very tight knit group of friends that offer support to each other throughout their journey.
Our modular programs provide flexibility for students so that they can attend school while maintaining a job or taking care of families or other life responsibilities.
We do not offer Federal Financial Aid – which means we can keep a smaller admin staff and keep tuition costs down. This and the modular format allow some students to graduate completely debt-free, which is nearly unheard of in the world of Chinese Medicine academia.
Overall, we strive to foster an environment that supports adult learners in their journey, providing reliable and responsive structure, exemplifying kindness and calm in all dealings within the school community to create a space of positive collaboration between faculty, students and administration. This enables students to focus on the important work of becoming excellent acupuncture practitioners.
