Meet Licensed Acupuncturists in Portland, Oregon,
Helen Spieth, L.Ac, and Meghan Ewing, L.Ac

Helen is passionate about Chinese Medicine and is committed to helping people find their best path to wholehearted health. She describes herself as a seeker, a guide, a teacher and a coach, with the goal of helping her patients rediscover their inner natural healing intelligence that lies ready to be awakened. She is a graduate of the Masters program at the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland and a Licensed Acupuncturist in the state of OR.

Helen grew up in rural Wales, the eldest of five children. Her parents were both high school teachers. Most of her childhood was spent on the back of a pony and caring for animals. She delivered her first lamb aged seven and always wanted to study Veterinarian Medicine. However her allergies to animals and barns had her realize that this would not be a sensible career choice. Preparing instead for Medical School, Helen felt unsure that this was the kind of doctor she wanted to be and opted to study Chemistry with French at the University of Manchester, UK and ESCIL Lyon, France, graduating with a Masters degree with high honors. She worked successfully in corporate London for several years before trading comfort and security for a one way ticket to Bangkok and the search for more balance and meaning in life. Travelling solo around Asia, she immersed herself in eastern culture and philosophy and became intrigued by an approach to life, health and disease.

Contracting Giardia in Nepal was an unfortunate aspect of her travels, leaving her very ill with a severely compromised digestive system. However the search for natural solutions to re-establish her digestive health fuels the expertise, passion and empathy she has today for treating patients with a wide variety of digestive conditions and the often concurrent mental emotional components. In Melbourne Australia, she worked one further year in the same corporate field, confirming that she was not fulfilling her calling. Her journey ultimately led her to the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland where she was trained in the art and science of Classical Chinese Medicine under the tutelage of internationally renowned Chinese Medicine scholars: Heiner Fruehauf, Arnaud Versluys, Ed Neal and Drs Jun Zhang, Haoshang Zhang, Xiaoli Chen, Youping Qin, Guangying Zhou and Master Wu.

As well as specializing in Gastrointestinal disorders, Autoimmune disease and Nutritional Therapy, Helen’s clinical expertise and interests lends her to support those with emotional disharmony such as anxiety, depression, insomnia and stress based disorders. Supporting women, post partum or at any phase of their lives is another passion of hers; helping them to re-establish their vitality, re-connect with their identity, access their inner strength and step into their power.

Helen is skilled at treating a wide range of musculoskeletal conditions, both acute and chronic. To be able to move freely with out discomfort is such an important foundation for good health and mental wellbeing. This is an area of the medicine that Helen finds very rewarding.

Her other passions are her two children, dancing, and cooking to feed the health and soul of the family. Food as medicine is a foundation of Helen’s treatment principles. She offers bi-annual nutrition classes and guided cleanses to interested patients and the public, to educate and empower them in taking an active role in their healing process as well as the prevention of disease. Helen is expertly trained in the prescription of Chinese herbs and values herbs, diet, moxa, meditation, Qi Gong and other mind body techniques, as tools that clients can take home to enhance their wellbeing.

Helen’s philosophy is that the modern age is calling all of us to integrate medical traditions to create an advanced form of medicine for the next generation. With her science background and in support of this vision, she is constantly working to understand the parallels between Chinese Medicine and Western biological models, to discover new ways to apply Chinese Medical Dietary Therapy to the latest Western research and vice versa, and novel ways to communicate holistic medical concepts to a Western-minded public. Helen has sincere caring and compassion for her patients. Her ability to listen and observe with respect, curiosity and non-judgement, plus an unending determination to improve her level of knowledge and clinical results and share this generously with her patients, is what sets her apart.