Medicine finds its way into our lives not through textbooks, but by getting sand in our shoes, salt in our hair, and noticing how our hands long to be in the dirt—or on people.
Liz Vitale didn’t simply move to the Oregon Coast. She rooted herself there among fishermen, surfers, firefighters, foresters, Latina moms, and retirees. Over time she became part of the village, not just as a practitioner, but as a neighbor, a volunteer firefighter, a customer at the grocery store and regular at the surfer pub.
In this conversation with Liz, we explore what happens when medicine is not practiced from behind clinic doors, but amidst the actual people it serves. We talk about treating fishermen underserved by mainstream care, how not to impose our “Chinese medicine stories” on patients, how community softens judgment, and how sometimes medicine works quietly—by helping people first feel seen.
Listen into this discussion as we explore how healing unfolds differently in rural places, why living joyfully may be part of the prescription, how treating everybody includes those who don’t agree with you, and how sometimes you find out how your treatments are working not from a clinic visit—but from the local pub, where someone shouts over fish and chips, “Liz, the herbs are working.”
Serving a rural community, meeting a patient where they’re at sometimes means stepping farther away from what the classics consider ideal – for example, in our coastal community being immersed in cold water is something to be embraced rather than avoided, so I look at how treatments can help folks thrive in our specific environment.
Liz Vitale, L.Ac
As a young kid sitting with my dad, looking at the night sky or the ocean, I remember feeling how incredibly tiny & brief we are as humans. Many years later as I began to learn about East Asian medicine and its underlying philosophy, it felt like I was returning home to those expansive moments. My hope is to help engender that sense of expansion and connection in the lives of folks I work with.
I practice in a small but mighty community on the rural & unbelievably beautiful Oregon Coast. I love that I get to work with folks from all walks of life, including people who would not typically access East Asian medicine.
My private practice is Ocean Heart Acupuncture, and my clinic space has become a hub of healing for our community: I sublet space to other providers, host a consult group for healers in our area, and organize a free community clinic every month specifically for targeted and underserved people in our community.
I graduated from NUNM in 2016 and had the privilege of completing a one-year residency there with mentors. My undergraduate degree is in classical archaeology from Duke University, and informs my love for ancient ways.
Visit Liz on her website, Ocean Heart Acupuncture.
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