ACUPUNCTURIST JOHN TIMM recently joined the team at Clearwater Escape, a massage and healing arts center located at 1419 W. Main St., suite 110, in Battle Ground. Timm offers a range of eastern medicine healing modalities, including acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, moxibustion and Shiatsu massage.
If there’s one thing Battle Ground acupuncturist John Timm understands, it’s how to integrate the best of two very different worlds. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Timm was working as a pharmacist, filling prescriptions for western medicine doctors and helping patients treat every pain and illness imaginable with pharmaceutical drugs.
But after 28 years in the pharmacy business, Timm craved a change. He was tired of seeing patients at the very end of the health care cycle and wanted to help people fix the root cause of their illness. He considered becoming a naturopathic physician, but found himself drawn toward eastern medicine instead.
“I wanted to be able to see a patient through the whole process,” Timm says. “In the West we’re taught to go see a doctor and treat the symptom. With (eastern medicine), we treat the root cause … we prevent those symptoms.”
Timm uses the example of patients who come in with allergies. As a pharmacist, he may have filled a prescription for a heavy duty antihistamine, steroid or decongestant. As an eastern medicine practitioner, however, Timm could treat the acute illness – clear up the watery eyes and running nose – but he would also try to treat the root cause of the allergy and help his patient avoid having a similar allergic response in the future.
“Traditional Chinese Medicine acknowledges that there is a vital life force called qi that flows through all living things,” Timm explains. “Qi flows along pathways, known as meridians, within the human body that connect the organs, muscular system and nervous system.”
When a person’s qi (pronounced “chee”) is balanced, the body’s systems work with each other and achieve an optimal state of health. However, says Timm, “when the balance of this energy is disrupted due to poor diet, medication, stress, hereditary conditions, environmental factors or emotional issues, pain or illness results.”
Timm trained at the renowned Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) in Portland for four years, and earned his LAc and EAMP (Licensed Acupuncturist and East Asian Medicine Practitioner) certifications. In early April, Timm joined forces with the eight massage therapists at Clearwater Escape in Battle Ground to offer Clearwater clients an even more thorough approach to health care and health maintenance.
His combined knowledge of eastern and western medicine – in addition to being a clinical and retail pharmacist for nearly 30 years, Timm also worked as an EMT and as a member of a back-country search and rescue team while living in Wyoming – makes Timm the ideal person to join the Clearwater Escape team, says owner Kristen Clearwater.
“I personally wanted to work with an acupuncturist, to help take my clients to the next level,” Clearwater says. “When I met John, I knew he would be a great addition.”
Not only was Timm already a member of the Battle Ground community, able to prescribe traditional chinese herbal remedies and trained in a variety of eastern medicine healing techniques – including acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, gua sha, electro-acupuncture and shiatsu massage – but Clearwater appreciated Timm’s approach to holistic healing and the fact that he specializes in treating men’s health issues.
Although Timm is able to treat all ages and a vast variety of ailments, he specializes in helping men solve their reproductive and urological health issues, such as erectile dysfunction and prostate problems.
“That’s great,” Clearwater says of Timm’s ability to treat men’s health issues. “We do want more men to come in here.”
The nearly 10-year-old Clearwater Escape has long offered a variety of massage and body-work services, including sports, Thai, deep tissue, pregnancy, hot stone, mobile and Swedish massage as well as reflexology, body scrubs and henna body art. With Timm on staff, the healing center can now offer the following services:
Acupuncture
The practice of inserting thin needles into the skin at specific points along the body’s meridian pathways to balance the patient’s qi.
Chinese herbal medicine
Remedies that help build or decrease qi, using natural substances such as leaves, roots, bark, flowers, fruit and minerals.
Cupping
A suction therapy that increases qi and blood flow to a particular area of the body.
Electro-acupuncture
A gentle, effective practice that sends a low electrical current into a patient’s body by attaching small electrode clips to acupuncture needles.
Gua Sha
Instead of inserting needles into the median points, this practice involves lightly scraping an instrument along the meridian pathways to increase qi and blood flow.
Moxibustion
A heat therapy that uses an herb known as mugwort in western herbal medicine, or Ai Ye in eastern medicine, to help heat and tonify the body.
Shiatsu
A Japanese massage style in which a practitioner applies pressure to various points along the meridian pathways using their fingers, hands and arms to enhance the flow of qi.
Tuina
A Chinese massage style that uses kneading, rolling, pressing, shaking and stretching techniques to treat musculo-skeletal issues and improve the functions of the meridian pathways, internal organs, tendons, bones and joints.
Timm is currently accepting new patients and has evening and weekend availability. To find out more about Timm’s practice, to make an online appointment, or to learn more about Clearwater Escape, www.clearwaterescape.com.
The healing center is located at 1419 W. Main St., suite 110, in Battle Ground. For more information, call (360) 666-7755.
