A doctor in a single room,
at the foot of the San Jacintos.
Dr. Bill Bastian, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In clinical practice since 1992.
Dr. Bill Bastian, DACM.
Bill Bastian holds a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine — the full doctoral credential in the field, earned over several years of clinical study and supervised practice. He treats patients in a single-room practice in Palm Springs, California.
The work begins at the pulse. Before anything else — before the first needle, before the first question about sleep or digestion or grief — Bill takes the pulse at three depths on each wrist, noting the quality, the rate, the shape of the beat. In Chinese medicine, the pulse is not a vital sign. It is a paragraph. A wiry pulse reads differently than a slippery one. A thin pulse in the left guan reads differently than a thin pulse in the right chi. A patient who has been told, repeatedly, that nothing is wrong will often find that something is being read — accurately, for the first time — at their wrist.
From there: an intake that takes as long as it takes. Questions about temperature, about digestion, about where in the body the tension sits. The tongue, briefly. Then the first treatment.
Bill practices acupuncture, moxibustion, fire cupping, breathwork, somatic release, and the prescribing of herbal formulas through the Fullscript dispensary. Over the last decade he has developed a ninety-minute integration — The Somatic Shen Method — that combines the needle work, the breath, and the somatic layer into a single session. Most of the patients who come to him arrive after a longer path through conventional medicine and functional medicine and were looking for something more specific.
Palm Springs
Bill lives and practices in Palm Springs. The desert shows up in the medicine — dryness as a pattern, heat as a pattern, wind as a pattern. The clinic is in the Palm Canyon area at 1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 315.
Outside the clinic: walking in Indian Canyons. Reading. The San Jacintos in the near distance, a constant.
Credentials & Licensing
- Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM)
- Masters of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture
- Licensed Acupuncturist & Clinical Herbalist (California Acupuncture Board — License [LICENSE #])
- Board Certified, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
- Licensed Massage Therapist (since 1997)
- Hypnotherapist — Ericksonian Hypnosis, The New York Training Institute for NLP
- Phlebotomist
Education & lineage
- Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego — Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM), graduated with high honors
- Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine, Santa Monica — Masters of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, graduated with honors
- The New York Training Institute for NLP — Ericksonian Hypnosis
- Early clinical practice at The Jacob Perlow Hospice, Beth Israel Hospital, New York City (1992) — hypnotherapy for pain management, stress, and bereavement
- Meditation instruction for cancer-therapy patients in New York City
- Breathwork teaching and corporate retreats since 1992
What Bill reads
A short, rotating list. Currently: [PLACEHOLDER — 3–5 books Bill is reading / returns to. Classical: e.g., Giovanni Maciocia, Paul Unschuld translations. Contemporary: whatever Bill actually reads.].
What patients and participants say.
"This was truly an experience of a lifetime for the participants. I would highly recommend you and your team to any organization that is looking for a firewalking team-building experience."
— Mark Burnett · Executive Producer, Survivor, CBS Television
"I've known Bill for many years and know him to be an inborn healer — be it in massage, breathwork, herbal medicine, or acupuncture. Anyone who has the good fortune to work with Bill will benefit, sometimes for the rest of their lives, even from a single session."
— D.D. · Acupuncture patient
"I visited Bill to hopefully get some relief from headaches. I had suffered from them for twenty-plus years — MDs provided no help. In five minutes he suggested I was allergic to nuts. I eliminated them from my diet and haven't had a headache since."
— G.H. · Acupuncture patient
"My first session with Bill was an out-of-body experience. I saw my world purely from the perspective of my soul — all heart, no brain. Bill's guidance combined with the breathing session is powerful, beyond description."
— M.S. · Breathwork participant
"Your speech was one of the absolute best I've heard at any of the Chamber of Commerce events. Smart, specific, entertaining. The lessons I learned have more than covered the cost of the workshop and my time."
— Allison Bliss · Marketing & Communications Consultant
"Just an update on my frozen shoulder — it is significantly better since our round of acupuncture. Thank you for being so available and seeing me through this."
— Linda C. · Acupuncture patient
If you would like to talk first.
A fifteen-minute call is the most useful first step. It's free, and it answers most of what you need to know before committing to a session.