from Practitioners

Sarah H. LaPlante: performance artist and acupuncturist, NYC and Putney, Vt

I have eternal gratitude, love, and devotion for Laura, the Teaching, and the Tradition.  I have been given life through this work.  To stand, to step, to fall, and to relate.  To choose life above all else as often as possible.  To come back to the beginning.  To remember what it means to remember.  To be reminded about what the present is made of.  To be shaved down.  To allow a movement to motivate change and stillness at the same time.  To know what it means to ask for help.

Water falls.  Windows open.  Salty water that was once poured down the face under dark blankets or in underground tunnels becomes free to flow in public.  The moments of choice are uncovered.  The pockets of space where the distinction between "yes" and "no" are tangible. The action of choice is magnified.  These moments and realizations have found me in this work.

My gratitude for the Teaching is always living, in the same way that the artist knows that he/she is an artist. My gratitude for the way the Tradition travels, weaves, and redirects is a reminder that the Teaching is happening at every moment.  To be taught that we are being taught is a lesson that is partial to life.  Every moment is reflection and a merging:  the action of a mirror and the mirror itself.  Every moment in my life is a "thank you" to the Teaching.

The combination of the Teaching and the Tradition is the reason why I am in acupuncture school studying this Medicine.  It has shown me that I have no other choice but to be trained over and over again about how to hold a needle in service…and to continue to be an artist…and to stand between Heaven and Earth as best as I can and at all times.  It is responsible for opening the way and teaching me that even with choice, there is sometimes no other option.  

The work is rigorous, generous, gentle, and fierce.  Its capacity is vast and multi-faceted.  The Teaching has forced me to face myself.  It is the most beautiful of challenges, and it has allowed what is unseen to be seen.  It is encouraging me to open the front door for others and for myself.  It continues to cultivate awareness.  It has dared me to admit that I feel the urgency to be with Truth more than anything else.  2012

Taylore Grymonnt, Acupuncturist (25 years) Montpelier, VT

This work is the most amazing and challenging work I can imagine as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine. The work I was looking for. It is both the greatest gift and the ultimate challenge. This is the work that gives life, to my practice, to my clients, and to me. 

I am blessed to have Laura visit my clinic in Vermont three times per year, offering workshops that include clinical work, study groups, and longer alchemical treatments. The experience of studying with her and a committed group of practitioners has changed life both in and out of the treatment room. It has changed the life of my clients. The effects are deep and profound.. 

Laura’s ability to teach the individual, take care of the whole, and her continual willingness to put herself on the line again and again is a great gift to the treatment room. Her knowledge of CSOE diagnosis, classical literature, and the more obscure and esoteric teachings are extensive.  She brings Five Element Acupuncture to life, giving us the option to live fully in our relationship to nature, to find our place. There is no other work I know of that does this. In this climate, I have developed profoundly as a practitioner. It has changed how I treat. What I see, ask, hear, smell, and feel. How I walk into a room. How I hold a needle.  How I hold a client’s hand. 2012

Emily Lowe, herbalist, businesswoman, Rockland Maine: 

I came to Laura many years ago for acupuncture treatment at the recommendation of a friend. Little did I know then that I would still be with her 12 years later, immersed in training with The Virtue of HeavenEarth.  I am both patient and practitioner, learning how to become a true human being. 

Over the years of being Laura’s patient Five Element Acupuncture treatment has nurtured my true nature. I began to recognize myself more clearly, to know more with more clarity what I wanted and what was right for me. It is as if she were watering something in me, the seed of who I am, and allowing the space for it to grow. In 2011 I attended my first workshop in this medicine. What I experienced, witnessed and felt in that time awakened something that had been lying dormant in me my whole life. I felt a deep resonance to the work and training. It wasn’t for another year that I attended again and had the same experience of recognition, of knowing I was with old friends and in the presence of a living Tradition and a medicine that is true. I felt like I belonged, like I was Home. 

In the spring of 2013 I was a patient for the Song of the Seven Dragons and that summer I began my training in earnest, committing myself to the rigors of the work, both during workshops and at home and work in my daily life. Since then I have watched how that treatment and the training have brought me back to the center, how the central axis of my life has truly been restored. I have re-experienced this awakening many times by sitting in the treatments of others as well, being witness to the miracle that I too was given. I am being awakened from the numbness and sleep of our contemporary culture and learning how to hear what is true within my heart. 

As my training continues I am softening, my sharp edges being pounded by Love. I am being transformed from someone who was constantly searching for Love and meaning through human relationships, to someone who is learning to feel it from both the inside and out, in all the various facets of life. With this awakening also comes a steady nurturing and cultivation of my relationship with the Divine through daily practices. I am learning how to stand upright in who I really am, to own my strengths and recognize my weaknesses, and be able to use both as guidance in my life, whether I’m at work or on retreat. I am constantly being reminded that spiritual power is only ever given in service to another, which could be one person at a time, or for the consciousness of whole planet. 

I am eternally grateful for the tireless and ceaseless efforts of Laura, the school, and the line of Masters and Teachers who came before us. Through their love and devotion I am being made whole. “When you can stand between Heaven and Earth and praise what is Holy you can become a place where the spirits reveal themselves. You become a place where the Holy becomes visible.” 2015

Travis LaPlante: performing musician & composer, Qigong/hands-on Daoist practitioner, NYC & Putney, Vt

The training at The Virtue of HeavenEarth is fully immersive and interactive, taking place in real life in real time rather than in a classroom setting.  The students learn by direct experience which, from my experience is far more powerful than anything one can learn in a book.  The environment of the school alone makes the learning remarkably accelerated. 

The school is more committed to its students than any other school of any kind, that I have ever encountered.  This commitment consists of great attentiveness and gentleness, while also pushing students out of their comfort zones in order to learn, if this is their request.  Every student is trained uniquely and precisely.  

Once I witnessed first-hand the miracles given by the Love that this tradition carries, there wasn't a question as to whether or not this was a place for me.  I am already fortunate beyond words for how the school has and will continue to teach me in so many aspects of life, and I am completely honored to be a student.

Laura is the most generous, caring, devoted, brave, and inspiring teacher, regardless of field, that I have ever had. The school not only trains practitioners of acupuncture and spiritual healing, but it also trains artists and anyone with a longing for the Real in their heart.

As an artist myself, it is important to communicate about the training to other artists who may be interested in this work.  The training is equally as serious for artists as it is for those training as acupuncturists.   Laura remembers that historically there was not such a separation between medicine and the arts, or physicians and artists.  The school provides a rare opportunity for artists to work in an environment together with physicians, where human lives are on the line instead of in an entertainment venue or museum. This environment trims the fat and gets down to working with the art as a direct means of service to Humanity, the Earth, and the Divine.  It is an opportunity to participate in life with art in its proper place.  2015