A Path Toward Healing
My path into East Asian medicine emerged from several lifelong interests that gradually converged into the work I do today. Growing up in Savannah, I was immersed in a community that valued natural health, environmental stewardship, lifelong learning, and holistic approaches to well-being through my family’s involvement with Brighter Day Natural Foods. At the same time, I was deeply involved in theater, music, movement, and the performing arts, experiences that fostered a lasting fascination with embodiment, breath, awareness, and human potential. Later, my studies in Anthropology at the University of Georgia expanded my appreciation for culture, meaning, and the many ways people understand health, healing, and what it means to live well.
Looking back, I can see that my interests were developing along several parallel paths: a fascination with healing, a fascination with human experience, and a fascination with movement and personal cultivation.
East Asian medicine and Qigong became the place where these interests converged.
East Asian Medicine and Qigong
My early experiences as an acupuncture patient sparked a curiosity about East Asian medicine, while years of study in movement practices and martial arts naturally drew me toward Qigong.
What began as a personal interest inspired by Robin Murphy, ND my first qigong teacher eventually became a lifelong practice and professional calling. I earned my Master’s Degree in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine from the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine , where Qigong was woven into the study of East Asian medicine itself. Since then, I have continued my training with various respected teachers including Roger Jahnke, O.M.D., Francesco Garripoli, and John Munro.
Today, Qigong remains one of the most meaningful parts of both my personal life and professional practice. While acupuncture and herbal medicine are powerful therapeutic tools, Qigong offers something unique: practical skills that people can carry into daily life to cultivate resilience, vitality, and self-awareness.
An Integrative Approach
My interest in healing extends beyond acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Qigong.
Over the years, I have explored the therapeutic applications of sound, light, and micropoint stimulation as additional ways of supporting the body’s capacity for adaptation, regulation, and healing. While some of these approaches arise from different traditions and technologies, they share a common theme: helping support health through the body’s natural ability to respond, adapt, and grow.
Whether through acupuncture, movement practices, herbs, diet, education, or emerging therapeutic technologies, my interests remain centered on understanding how people cultivate health, resilience, and well-being.
My Philosophy of Care
I believe health is more than the absence of symptoms.
Healing often involves restoring balance, strengthening resilience, cultivating awareness, and creating conditions in which meaningful change can occur. The traditions of East Asian medicine offer many pathways toward that process, and my goal is to help patients reconnect with their own capacity for healing, growth, and well-being.
In many ways, my work continues to sit at the intersection of several lifelong interests: healing and art, movement and stillness, culture and medicine, self-cultivation, and service to others.
That is why I continue to study, practice, and share these traditions today.
Professional Background
Ben Brodhead is a licensed acupuncturist and nationally board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine. He earned a Master’s Degree in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (formerly called Master’s of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) from the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine (formerly called the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine) and has pursued extensive study in acupuncture, herbal medicine, Chinese medical bodywork, and Qigong. He serves patients through Eight Cranes Acupuncture & Counseling in Savannah, Georgia.
Interested in learning more about Ben’s education, training, and continuing professional development?