Forrest Wilburn, LAc

Forrest graduated from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine with a masters degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. He is board certified to practice acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and Asian body-work modalities. Forrest practices several styles of acupuncture, but prefers Japanese Meridian Therapy (Kieraku Chiryo), a gentle and profound therapy based on pulse and abdominal (hara) palpation. In addition to acupuncture, his treatments often include sotai, a style of Japanese bodywork used to improve patients’ structural alignment, various qigong healing therapies, and herbal or dietary recommendations.

When he was ten years old, his father suggested that perhaps learning a martial art would benefit him with the neighborhood bullies. Unbeknownst at the time, he began a wending path into the East Asian martial and healing traditions that continues through the present.

Prior to practicing acupuncture and East Asian medicine, Forrest, spent two decades in the outdoor industry in education and sales. The wilderness was his classroom as he educated clients and deepened his knowledge about natural history, backcountry travel, and experiential education. His trainings for EMT, Wilderness First Responder, and herbal pharmacopeia ignited an interest in medicine. He graduated from The Ohio State University, cum laude, in Comparative Religious Studies in which he focused on the religious and folkloric traditions of Japan. Eventually, he found himself in Portland studying Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine, the wending intersection of all his interests: natural cycles, personal development, body-mind somatics, and living histories.

For more information about his treatment modalities please visit the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine section.