About

Jeremy Rothenberg, LAc, MSTCM, Dipl. OM

Acupuncturist · Herbalist · Coach

I help people navigating illness, pain, stress, and complex health challenges find a clearer path forward, using acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and coaching.

For decades, I lived with what doctors called mysterious symptoms. Bloating, weird pains, irregular rhythms, fatigue that wouldn't go away. Nothing that added up. Nothing that could be explained. “Go see a psychologist,” I would hear.

A few years ago, an alert on my Apple Watch flagged an irregular heart rhythm. Getting to a cardiologist took months. I needed a cardioversion, a strong shock to my heart, to get it beating normally again.

But what about the weird symptoms? My cardiologist didn’t know, but referred me for GI tests.

After a battery of tests, I was completely blindsided with a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis.

Just three weeks before that result, I lost a close friend to cancer. I had sat with him through his diagnosis, his treatment, his final months. And now, without warning, I was on the other side of that life-threatening line.

My own life was in danger.

Years of meditation practice and self-inquiry had given me something I didn't know I'd need: the capacity to meet uncertainty head on. Not to manage it or survive it, but to fully inhabit it.

There is something that becomes possible in those moments — even in the middle of serious illness — when we stop fighting what's happening and come fully alive to it. That's what happened to me.

My diagnosis became my purpose. To get the best care I could. To mount the best recovery I could. To find out what was actually possible on the other side.

More tests followed with no clear explanation for the cirrhosis. Then a wise hepatologist suggested something unexpected: the liver damage might be coming from my heart.

She was right. A severe, undiagnosed cardiac condition had been slowly restricting blood flow for years… decades. Open heart surgery fixed the problem that no amount of acupuncture and herbal medicine could.

I was given a new opening in life.

Six months after surgery, I ran a mountain half-marathon that climbs 5,500 feet. I've done that same climb two more years running. I'm currently training for my first 50K.

Because I can.

My diagnosis and surgery didn't shake me. It clarified me. It reminded me that health isn't just about managing symptoms or preventing disease. It's about building the practices and perspectives that let us face anything with steadiness and a sense of possibility.

I call this orientation the Joyful Rebellion: the choice to stop following and start listening, to turn toward what's real rather than numbing out or overriding our instincts.

In my work, I blend Chinese medicine, herbal therapeutics, nervous system coaching, and decades of experience helping people navigate chronic pain, serious illness, burnout, and complex health challenges.

Sometimes we work on mindset. Sometimes physiology. Usually both. Because real change doesn't happen in theory. It happens in the body.

If you're curious about what your own symptoms might be trying to tell you, or what might be possible if you had someone in your corner, I'd love to connect.

Credentials & Background
Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc), Oregon, California
Master of Science, Traditional Chinese Medicine (MSTCM)
Diplomate of Oriental Medicine (Dipl. OM), NCCAOM
Board-certified herbalist
17 years in clinical practice, Ashland, OR and San Francisco, CA
43,000+ meditation plays on Insight Timer
Writer: The Joyful Rebellion on Substack