Chi Wilburn L.Ac, MAcOM
& Forrest Wilburn L.Ac, MAcOM
Chi and Forrest are partners in life and co-owner clinicians at Benevolence Healing Arts LLC. They are also the parents of fraternal twins and enjoy the rural lifestyle on their small homestead.
Chi is a graduate of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, spent 5 years studying various modalities of Asian medicine. She is a nationally board certified acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist. Her particular interests include Western and Eastern pharmacopeias, Japanese meridian therapy, shiatsu, chi nei tsang (Chinese abdominal massage), and pediatrics (tuina and shonishin).
Chi studied botany and ecology during her undergraduate education at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas where she obtained her BS in biology. Her interest in environmental ecology led her to spend a year abroad studying environmental and marine ecology in Copenhagen, Denmark. She spent several years cultivating her love of nature and plants while living on the rural Oregon coast, growing organic gardens, milking goats, spinning wool, and studying western herbalism and nutrition. During this time Chi started a small organic herbal products line which she sold locally. The desire to practice herbalism and nutrition was the impetus for continuing her education in the healing arts. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine had become an integral part of her own healing path, and her personal experience and love of the art inspired her to move to Portland to attend graduate school.
Chi’s experience with pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and motherhood inspired her to learn more about how this medicine can help women through pregnancy and postpartum as well as what it offers children in the way of alternative care. Her graduate research paper, “Enhancing Childhood Immunity with Chinese Medicine”, allowed for advanced pediatric study, and she finds working with children and families to be a great way to support healthy community.
When not tending the garden, spinning wool, chasing tweens, or practicing her healing art, Chi relaxes for mere moments. She enjoys yoga, hot springs, a great hike, and a good nap. She prefers two wheels over four and keeps her focus on the natural calendar. Chi is a present and nurturing person and is enthusiastic about the medicine she practices.
Forrest graduated from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in 2010. He is certified by the Oregon Medical Board to practice acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and Asian body-work. Forrest practices several styles of acupuncture, including Master Tan and Japanese Meridian Therapy (Kieraku Chiryo). In addition to acupuncture, his treatments often include sotai, a style of Japanese bodywork used to improve 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, natural living, and herbal pharmacopeia ignited an interest in medicine. Eventually, he found himself in Portland, Oregon studying Traditional East Asian Medicine, the cumulative intersection of all his interests: natural cycles, personal development, body-mind somatics, and living histories.