A doctor in a single room,
at the foot of the San Jacintos.
Dr. Bill Bastian, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In practice in Palm Springs since [YEAR].
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 [NEIGHBORHOOD], walking distance to [LANDMARK].
Outside the clinic: walking in Indian Canyons. Reading. A standing Tuesday at [PLACEHOLDER – local coffee / herb vendor / etc.].
Credentials & Licensing
- Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM)
- California Acupuncture Board — License [LICENSE #]
- [Additional certifications — flag for Bastian to confirm: NCCAOM, herbal certifications, continuing education]
- [Professional memberships — flag for Bastian to confirm]
Education & lineage
- [SCHOOL OF TCM] — Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, [YEAR]
- [UNDERGRADUATE OR PRIOR DEGREE, IF RELEVANT]
- [CLINICAL TRAININGS — flag for Bastian to confirm specific teachers, hospital rotations, study abroad]
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.].
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.