FOR seekers from all walks of life
Teaching & Mentorship
Rooted in Presence
The longer I live and practice, the more I see that technique or knowledge isn’t what makes you great — presence is.
When you listen within, oriented to your own knowing, you can respond from the living body of resource within you, life then becomes art, the art of being present, whole, and available to your world.
Developing your capacity to meet the moment with your wholeness and presence is first, mobilizing your learning and wisdom is second. The result is a level of insight, clarity and care that will enliven you and all who you touch.
No matter where you are in your practice or personal path, we can begin with a Cocoa Chat to explore what to plant, what to compost and what to harvest in your life and work.
For licensed practitioners and advanced students who wish to deepen their skill, embodiment, and clinical confidence.
We explore cases, treatment strategies, and the long arc of care — working with the five channel systems to refine perception and practice.
This mentorship may unfold as one-to-one study or through small group learning, depending on what best serves your growth.
A Year includes:
1:1 Sessions - Making Medicine Together:
a relational, guided mentorship for practitioners or students wanting sustained, personalized support.
Group Sessions - Classical Chinese Medicine:
a small, six-person circle for shared study, case exploration, and clinical refinement.The Heart in the Clinic - Intensive In-Person
limited to a total of six participants, where each person contributes to the content of our time.
The content of your mentorship will always be customized to you, following your areas of interest and unfolding at your pace.
1. Clinical Mentorship
clinical mentorship
The Heart in the Clinic
This intimate 3-day practicum is the core of your clinical mentorship year. In each year, The Heart in the Clinic is offered 2-3 times and can be the doorway to the deepening and refining that is the goal of your mentorship.
Areas of study and development include refining theory, developing strategy, listening to pulses, practicing needle techniques, and long-view treatment plans across the five channel systems.
Space in each year of mentorship is limited to a maximum of 6 participants to ensure the quality of your experience.
The Heart in the Clinic is offered as part of a year-long clinical mentorship program for both new and experienced practitioners of classical Chinese medicine.
Mentorship often unfolds alongside ongoing study.
If you’d like to explore Chinese medicine, essential oils, or clinical strategy in depth, these courses can complement or precede private mentorship:
The Nectar of Plants — Essential oils as living teachers (30 hours, CEU-approved).
Body Geography — Mapping the five channel systems.
The Three-Legged Vessel — Working with the Primary Channels.
continuing study
Structured Learning for Practitioners
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2. Spiritual Mentorship
For those cultivating presence, compassion, and awareness — whether in practice, meditation, or life — spiritual mentorship is a collaboration and investigation tailored to you. Open to anyone at any level of experience with spiritual practice, mentorship provides a spiritual friendship that will support and strengthen your particular path.
Together, we explore all kinds of practice drawing from Buddhist, Daoist and Animist traditions. Through the flowing river of experience, your own awareness itself becomes medicine for yourself and others.
Spiritual mentorship may take the form of 1:1 sessions, group gatherings or days of deep retreat.
Quarterly group gatherings happen online and in person. Retreats are offered twice a year
3. Personal Health Mentorship
For individuals ready to enter a guided relationship with their own health and healing.
We listen together to clarify what your body is saying, responding with creative collaboration to bring conscious choice to your healing process.
These sessions bring Chinese medicine, meditation, and self-cultivation practices to our collaboration, giving you tools for self-care, choice and reflection. Your health mentorship may include retreat time as well as your 1:1 sessions.
one-to-one or small group
The Mentorship Path
“Knowing of any sort is relational, animated by a desire to come into deeper community with what we know.”
Parker Palmer
Mentorship is, at its heart, a relationship — what I call making medicine together. It’s a shared journey of refinement, exploration, and transformation — whether your path is clinical, spiritual, or personal health.
Want help choosing which path is most suitable for you? Consider beginning with a Cocoa Chat, a chance for us to collaborate, explore your options, refine your choices, and simplify where to place your attention on your next step.
“I have been on an accelerated path to awakening under Josephine’s guidance for over a year now. (I had been on that path for many years, but the pace was sluggish.) Josephine’s mysterious combination of direct instruction (from her seemingly bottomless wisdom from various traditions) and her encouragement for me to stay open to my own wisdom is exquisite. Anyone wanting and willing to experience a richer, deeper, more authentic life should meet Josephine Spilka.”
-Peggy, Weaverville, NC
the next step in your study
Begin the Conversation
If you feel called to deepen your study or mentorship, the first step is the Cocoa Chat — a 45-minute, session where we can listen for what’s true and determine the best vessel for your growth.