#472
August 4, 2026

Art of Medicine
Bonnie Wright

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Jessica Parker Functional Medicine

Much of what happens in the treatment room never makes it onto an intake form, yet it often shapes the outcome as much as anything measurable does.

In this conversation with Bonnie Wright, we explore what she calls the art of medicine, the intuitive, relational sense of truly knowing the patient in front of you, and how the body’s structures act less as separate parts than as one continuously adapting whole.

We also touch on what gets lost when certainty crowds out listening, and why the most useful insights often arrive in the things we weren’t looking for.

Listen in for a conversation that moves between anatomy and intuition, structure and change, and the practice of staying open to what doesn’t yet fit.

In this episode, we discuss:

  •       The art of medicine – What it means to treat the patient, not just the condition, and why that skill resists easy definition.
  •       Implicit knowing – The intuitive, often wordless understanding that develops through years of clinical experience.
  •       Confirmation bias in the clinic – Why reading a patient’s chart too early can shape, and limit, what a practitioner is able to see.
  •       Listening beyond words – How subtle cues from a patient can reveal more than direct questioning ever could.
  •       The unexpected as teacher – Why the most valuable discoveries often come from what you weren’t looking for.
  •       Swimming in your own lane – Staying grounded in one’s own clinical perspective while remaining open to complexity.
  •       The nervous system, myofascia, and interstitium – Exploring these structures as an interconnected, dynamic network rather than separate systems.
  •       Homeostasis versus homeodynamics – Rethinking balance as an ongoing, ever-shifting process rather than a fixed state.
  •       Compensation and its limits – How the body adapts to dysfunction, and what happens when that adaptation breaks down.
  •       Maladaptive pain – Distinguishing pain that protects from pain that persists without clear purpose.
  •       Moving forward, not backward – Why healing may be less about returning to a previous state and more about finding a new one.
  •       Uncertainty in clinical practice – Sitting with the unpredictability of how treatments unfold, even with experience.
  •       Distributed control in the body – Considering how bottom-up relationships between tissues may shape what looks like top-down order.
  •       The ongoing practice of not knowing – Why staying curious, even after years of practice, remains essential to good medicine.

The phenomenal complexity of biological systems is just waiting for a small, local interaction to nudge it in the direction of comfort and healing.

Dr. Bonnie D. Wright, DVM, DACVAA

I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico and accomplished my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University. After a brief stint in practice I completed a residency in Anesthesia and Critical Patient Care at The University of California, Davis. 

I have lived in Northern Colorado since 2001, and part-time in Hawaii since 2017.

I am board certified in Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia, but quickly fell for treating pain in geriatric animals of all varieties (dogs, cats, horses, small ruminants, exotic hoofstock, penguins, lions, hyenas, primates, reptiles, really anyone!). This passion led to certificates in Medical Acupuncture, Veterinary Pain Practitioner, Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner, Canine Rehabilitation Therapist and advanced training in canine musculo-skeletal imaging and regenerative medicine.   

I work and teach nationally and internationally in veterinary anesthesia, pain medicine, the science of non-pharmaceutical pain medicine, evidence-based acupuncture, regenerative medicine and rehabilitation. I am the lead faculty for the Evidence Based Veterinary Acupuncture program.  

Outside of my professional work, I have two adult sons, several wonderful dogs, a red-headed pre-teen mare, and an unknown number of wild hogs and turkeys. I spend time exercising and building my off-grid Hawaiian farm with my wife and scent-trained service dogs, and scattering the seeds of acupuncture practice to veterinarians everywhere I walk.

Links and Resources

Learn more from Dr. Bonnie Wright about evidence-based veterinary acupuncture

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