About Mark Gearing
My Journey with Chinese Medicine
Early Years
I have been studying Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 30 years, however my first introduction to Chinese Medicine began in 1985 when my mother completed a Chinese Medicine course in Hangzhou, China. At this time I was introduced to basic Chinese Medicine concepts and treatments and met Chinese Medicine students and teachers in China.
After completing an Advanced Diploma in Chinese Medicine in 1998, I continued on to complete a Bachelor Degree of Health Science in Chinese Medicine in Brisbane at the “Australian College of Natural Medicine”. This was followed up in 2001 by an extended four-month internship in Nanning City Guangxi Province, China at the Guangxi Traditional Chinese Medicine University Hospitals.
Here I focused on learning both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. I observed very experienced teachers practicing Chinese Herbal Medicine and I practiced Acupuncture personally on Chinese patients in the outpatient department of the Chinese Medicine hospital in Nanning city, under the supervision of experienced Acupuncture Doctors.
Mark in China
Post-graduate Acupuncture Training
Upon returning to Australia in 2002, I resumed full-time practice of Chinese Medicine and began to travel interstate regularly to Sydney and Melbourne to attend Chinese Medicine seminars on both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine.
I completed a year-long training in Toyohari style Japanese Acupuncture in 2011-2012, but eventually gravitated towards the Acupuncture style of Kiiko Matsumoto and Tsuyoshi Shimamura Sensei. Both of these teachers are disciples of the famous blind Acupuncturist Master Kiyoshi Nagano. This gentle style of acupuncture focuses on finding Acupuncture points that are imbalanced such as being tender, blocked or weak. Or by focusing on a symptom such as pain or decreased movement, and then finding points that improve or resolve the symptom or resolve the palpable tenderness at a specific point, thus giving direct feedback while the client is on the treatment table.
I completed several certificate courses over the years in Kiiko Style Acupuncture including the foundations of Kiiko Style Acupuncture course, gynaecology, digestive conditions, neurological and pain conditions, fertility, and the topic of chronic fatigue. Plus I attended live clinical training directly with Kiiko Matsumoto Sensei.
In addition to this I studied directly with Tsuyoshi Shimamura Sensei in his style of Master Nagano Acupuncture. This included Acupuncture Channel and Abdominal Diagnosis palpation training, Master Nagano Pulse Diagnosis training, needle techniques and many treatment methods. Eventually I travelled to Japan and studied directly one-on-one with Shimamura Sensei, seeing live patients in his private clinic.
I continue to expand my studies every year. In early 2023 I travelled to Melbourne to study the Acupuncture Channel Palpation methods of the famous Beijing Acupuncture Master, Dr Wang Ju Yi with his direct student, Jason Robertson.
Over the years beginning in my undergraduate days, I have also studied extensively with the well known international lecturer and author Dr John McDonald on the topics of traditional needle techniques, traditional point combinations and modern Acupuncture research.
Mark with Shimamura sensei
Post-graduate Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine training
Over the years I attended numerous Chinese Herbal Medicine seminars with visiting famous Doctors from all around China. I also began to learn from the organiser of some these seminars, Dr Greta Young who is herself a teacher of Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine.
Training directly with Professor Huang Huang in Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine
Dr Huang Huang receiving the prestigious award of Nationally Famous
Chinese Medicine Doctor “全国名中医”
It was at one of these seminars in 2008 that I first met Professor Huang Huang (黄煌教授), the world famous teacher of Classical Chinese Medical Formulas (“Jing Fang” 经方). These formulas come from a clinical medical treatise called the “Shang Han Za Bing Lun” (伤寒杂病论) which was compiled sometime before the end of the Han Dynasty in 220 A.D.
The Han Dynasty herbal formulas historically have practical clinical indications based on the vast experience of ancient Chinese Medicine Doctors. These ancient herbal formulas support the individual’s healthy physiology as well as addressing the presenting discomforts. Dr Huang Huang often says: “Jing Fang treats the person not the disease”. And so because human physiology remains the same, “Jing Fang” is still very useful for today’s ever changing health problems and has a legacy of empirical use dating back more than 1,800 years.
From 2008 I then began to travel to China every year to study with Dr Huang Huang in his clinic in Nanjing. From 2013 I began to personally lead clinically intensive Study Tours to Dr Huang Huang’s clinic in Nanjing. This was to give English-speaking Chinese Medicine practitioners and students access to the vast Chinese Medicine patient population available at the hospitals in China, thus improving their clinical experience using “Jing Fang” for patients in their own clinics. The Study Tours also allow Professor Huang Huang to share the wealth of his clinical experience gained from seeing patients for over 40+ years. During each Clinical Study Tour we observe several hundred patients over two weeks.
Mark with Dr Huang Huang at the Nanjing Jing Fang Conference in 2013
Dr Huang Huang and Mark outside the famous doctor’s clinic in Nanjing
Mark has personally observed in Professor Huang Huang's clinic over many years.
I also travelled to Beijing to learn from other famous Chinese Medicine Professors who specialise in different traditions of Classical Herbal Formulas (“Jing Fang”). Most notably Professor Feng Shi-Lun and Professor Fu Yan-Ling, who are the inheritors of the medical linages of the famous Jing Fang Doctors Hu Xi-Shu (胡希恕), and Liu Du Zhou (刘渡舟) respectively.
Professor Huang Huang’s medical lineage was passed down to him from two disciples of the famous Shang Han Za Bing Lun Doctor, Zhu Xin-Nong (朱莘农) of the southern Shang Han Lun School (苏南伤寒派). Zhu Xin-Nong himself inherited his family’s traditional medical lineage. The two disciples who taught Dr Huang were Dr Xia Yi-Jun (夏奕钧) and Dr Xing Li-Jiang (邢鹂江). Dr Huang Huang’s traditional abdominal diagnosis skills were first taught to him through the students of the Zhu Xin-Nong lineage.
Dr Huang’s third important teacher was also a famous Doctor named Ye Bing Ren (叶秉仁 ).
Dr Ye- Bing Ren taught Dr Huang Huang about integrating Chinese Medicine with Western Medicine as well as his own traditional medical knowledge. Later Dr Huang Huang conducted post-graduate research in Japan where he also investigated the Japanese Herbal Medicine traditions, and also taught classical Chinese herbal medicine to Doctors in Japan.
In 2014 I was one of the first westerners to be invited by Professor Huang Huang to become his PhD student, and I began to study even more closely with him. I travelled back to Nanjing every year between 2014 and 2019 and each year I spent one month with Professor Huang Huang in his herbal medicine clinic. This was in addition to running the Clinical Study Tours for other Chinese Medicine practitioners during separate trips to Nanjing.
Dr Huang Huang in his youth
with his teacher Dr Ye Bing Ren
Post-graduate training with Dr Arnaud Versluys in Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine
Mark with Dr Arnaud Versluys
at the Chinese Gardens in
Portland, Oregon USA
Concurrently alongside other studies, in 2012 I began to study with Dr Arnaud Versluys who is the chief disciple of Dr Zeng Rong-Xiu (曾榮修) of the Canonical Chinese Herbal Medicine® lineage. This lineage belongs to the famous Pulse Diagnosis and “Shang Han Za Bing Lun” Master , Dr Tian He Ming (田鶴鳴). Dr Versluys is the Senior Lineage Holder of the Tian-Zeng Lineage of Canonical Formulas.
I completed the course with Dr Versluys and became a Diplomate in Canonical Medicine® in January 2014. In 2015 was invited by Dr Versluys to become an Assistant Instructor in the Institute of Classics in East Asian Medicine® (ICEAM®). In 2024 I began serving as an ICEAM® Clinical Coordinator. I have co-organised and attended ICEAM lectures and Pulse Diagnosis clinics in Sydney and Brisbane over many years. In 2023 I have organised two advanced ICEAM training seminars in Byron Bay.
In 2017 I flew to Kansas City, Missouri in the United States to attend a specialized teaching clinic with Dr Versluys. This live patient clinic was entirely focused on the research and application of Chinese Herbal Medicine for Cancer patients that Dr Versluys has been conducting over several years in conjunction with local hospitals in Kansas City.
In 2018 I completed advanced clinical training in the Tian-Zeng Lineage Pulse Diagnosis and treatment style, and was awarded the title of “Fellow of The Institute of Classics in East Asian Medicine”® (FICEAM®) after seeing over 700 patients in the ICEAM Pulse Diagnosis clinics under the guidance of Dr Versluys and ICEAM teachers.
Mark with Dr Versluys becoming a Diplomate in Canonical Medicine in 2014
Mark organising a Pulse Diagnosis teaching clinic with Dr Verlsuys in Sydney, NSW, Australia in 2016
Mark with Dr Verlsuys in Fiji at the ten day Advanced Seminar on the “Shang Han Lun”伤寒论 /傷寒論 2015
Local and international lectures and awards
Later in 2017, I was invited by Professor Huang Huang to give lectures and a key-note speech at the prestigious International Jing Fang Conference to commemorate the passing of the Jing Fang Master Cao Ying Fu (经方派大师-曹颖甫) in Jiang-yin city, Jiangsu Provence China.
In 2020 and 2022 I was an invited guest international speaker at the bi-annual Nanjing International Jing Fang Conference online where I presented lectures on the clinical application of Jing Fang.
In June 2022, I presented my first official public lecture in Australia on Jing Fang at the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association Conference. I was awarded the national conference prize for “Best Presentation in Chinese Herbal Medicine”.
Mark giving a key note lecture at the
International Jing Fang Conference
to commemorate the life of
Jing Fang Master Cao Ying Fu
Mark at the Jiang-yin conference
Mark and Professor Huang Huang
at the conference in 2017
Mark in Jiangyin with the memorial to Master Herbalist Cao Ying Fu
Mark lecturing at the AACMA National Conference 2022. His lecture was awarded the "Best Presentation on Chinese Herbal Medicine".
Mark leading a Study Tour for Chinese Medicine practitioners to Dr Huang Huang’s clinic
Following this in September 2022, I was invited back by the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association (AACMA) to present an online lecture for AACMA members that was very well received.
In January 2023 I was part of a select international group given an honorary award by the Nanjing International Jing Fang Research Institute for “Outstanding services in the promotion of Jing Fang”.
Award for outstanding services in
the promotion of Jing Fang
Later in 2023, I completed my Doctoral studies in China through the Nanjing International Jing Fang Research Institute and was awarded the title “Doctor of Jing Fang” (经方医师).
I am one of only a few Westerners to be given direct permission by Professor Huang Huang to teach his protocols of Classical Chinese Herbal Medicine (Jing Fang 经方). After many years of studying closely with him in his clinic, Professor Huang Huang regards me as his direct personal student.
All teaching and clinical practice is endorsed by the Nanjing International Jing Fang Research Institute, and personally endorsed by Professor Huang Huang.
Wishing everybody health
and happiness!
