Beth Russell is an acupuncturist in Portland, Oregon, and co-founder of Thai Herbal Topicals. She describes the profession as an ark, a sealed system built around credentials, and community acupuncture, apprenticeships and the gig economy as rafts. Beth explains ground truthing, a practice she learned working for a forest watchdog group, and asks us to compare what we were told in school with what we found. She also tells me about working three jobs after graduating, stepping away from practice, filing a borrower defense application in 2024, and coming back. Beth said yes to mentoring students and new graduates.
Guest
Beth Russell, L.Ac., graduated from Reed College in 2005 with a BA in cultural anthropology and from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in 2011 with a master’s in acupuncture and Eastern medicine. She studied Thai traditional massage at the Wat Pho Chetawon School in Bangkok, has woven Thai massage into her acupuncture visits for a decade, and does legislative work on borrower defense claims for acupuncture graduates.
Chapters (re-check the times after you export)
* 00:00 — What’s pulling on Beth: arks and rafts
* 03:27 — A closed loop of credentials, and a federation that ended
* 14:40 — Differences as assets, and Sitting in the Fire
* 20:24 — What we were told in school
* 26:36 — Ground truthing, from a forest to a profession
* 37:54 — What a fuller picture would take, and Beth’s path out and back
Quotes
“If you’re in an ark and it’s defining itself by exclusion, it’s not able to let someone new in.” — Beth“I talked with a couple people in the field, but I didn’t ask them the money questions.” — Beth“Our first resort should be talking to each other.” — Beth
Find Beth
* Be Thistled (Substack): Beth also has a ground truthing guide there.
* Thai Herbal Topicals: Launching this winter, as of October 2026.
* Mentoring: Beth said she’s happy to mentor students and new graduates. DM her through her substack.
Corrections and updates (as of October 15, 2026)
* I called Nicholas Kent “the secretary.” His title is Under Secretary of Education, and he makes the final decision on ACAHM’s recognition. As of today, the Department has not announced a decision.
* I said the borrower defense report was from July 2027. It’s from July 2026.
* Beth mentioned a federation of state boards without naming it. The group I found that fits is the Federation of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Regulatory Agencies. If I have the wrong group, or you were part of it, tell me.
Sources and further reading (in the order they come up)
* Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore (Atheneum, 1972): Wikipedia.
* National Health Interview Survey, acupuncture use: Acupuncture Today summary.
* Possibly the federation Beth meant: Acupuncture Today, 2002; Acupuncture Today, 2000; Maryland Board of Acupuncture minutes, March 9, 2010; minutes, July 13, 2010; certification-commission newsletter, 2009.
* Arnold Mindell, Sitting in the Fire (Lao Tse Press, 1995): library record.
* HEA Group and Student Defense, Some Graduate Schools Never Pay Off (August 2023); my sorted copy of the program-level data; Slide 21.
* NACIQI and ACAHM: Report of Meeting, September 23-24, 2026; official Day 2 transcript; Department staff report; CHEA Policy Watch, October 2026; recognition review process.
* Borrower defense and the ACAHM straw poll: Federal Student Aid data; Borrower Defense Applications By School; AHM Coalition webinar, September 30, 2026; ACAHM straw poll page.
* National Certification Board for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine: 2024 job analysis; 2024 annual report.
* Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy: Compact Commission release; Oregon first to join the compact.
* Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree (2021): CBC interview; Karst, Jones and Hoeksema, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2023.
* Thai herbal compress (Luk Prakob): Dhippayom et al., Clinical Effects of Thai Herbal Compress, 2015.
* Dr. Ping Zhang, Beth’s facial gua sha teacher: practice site.
