Welcome to Healing Medicine
Start here to begin your journey with systems medicine—a clear, step-by-step entry point to viewing health as a living system, allowing you to make wiser, more integrated choices for care.
Healing Medicine is a welcoming, research-informed space where Western precision and Chinese pattern recognition unite. We translate across paradigms to help you navigate the complexity of health and healing.
Why complexity matters and how we navigate it
Health isn’t a single puzzle with one missing piece. It’s a complex, living system in which many factors interact, amplify, or dampen one another over time. Instead of forcing simple answers onto tangled problems, we map the terrain so patterns become visible and choices become clearer. That’s why our posts are organized into a few complementary series:
Systems Thinking in Medicine 🏛️
Builds shared concepts for thinking in systems. When issues feel tangled, these ideas help you see structure instead of noise.
Clinical Insights 🧠
Explore the Four Layers framework from Chinese medicine to understand a practical way to read the body as a living system and design care accordingly.
Connects Eastern pattern language with Western precision so you can reason across methods without collapsing nuance.
Patient Perspectives 👤
Real‑world narratives that show how overlapping problems emerge and how stepwise, systems‑aware care reduces unintended consequences.
Research Deep Dives 🤝
What does the research show? For those who want to get more technical, this section dives into the science.
Each series caters to a different type of reader and a different stage in care, such as learning the model, applying it to a body system, understanding a complex case, or connecting frameworks across traditions.
How to use this site
Start with the Systems Thinking in Medicine series to learn the core ideas we’ll reference everywhere else.
Explore the Clinical Insights to learn about the Four Layers framework from Chinese medicine to understand a practical way to read the body as a living system and design care accordingly.
Read Alice’s Journey in Patient Perspectives for a real‑world narrative that shows how fragmented care creates new problems, and how whole‑systems thinking brings coherence.
Skim the “In Brief” at the beginning of posts if you’re short on time.
This site is designed so you can dip in anywhere and still build a coherent mental model. You don’t have to read in order, but the Foundation posts make everything easier.
Who this is for
Patients and families navigating complex or chronic conditions who want clarity and agency
Practitioners seeking a shared language across paradigms
Curious readers who want principled, non‑dogmatic guidance rooted in both science and tradition
We avoid silver bullets and quick fixes. Instead, we teach you how to think, choose, and iterate.
What you’ll find in a typical post
A clear statement of the problem in plain language
The big‑picture model view, then the zoom‑in details
Practical steps and decision trees you can use today
Key Takeaways and, when useful, a One‑page Summary
Citations or further reading for deeper dives
Suggested starting points
What is Health? A hero’s journey to wholeness
Why Medicine 3.0?
What Does It Mean to Be in Balance?
Meet Alice: When cancer treatment creates ten new problems
If you’re here for a specific concern, use the tags at the top of any post to jump straight to related topics.
How posts are organized
Posts, Authors, and Tags are managed behind the scenes so you can browse by topic or by series.
The URL slugs and meta descriptions aim to be readable and shareable.
When a post is updated, we add a brief changelog at the end so you can see what changed and why.
Our voice and values
Translation over tribalism
Systems thinking before protocols
Rhythm, relationships, and resilience over dashboard‑heavy control
Compassionate, clear, and practical writing
We write to make care safer, smarter, and more human.
How to engage
Subscribe to the newsletter to receive new essays and practical guides.
Share posts with a friend or clinician who would benefit from a shared map.
Send questions you’d like us to tackle in future posts.
Thank you for reading. We’re glad you’re here.
Maile McKain, L.Ac., and Nate Handley, MD