Cultivating Our Future Together on our ASA Tenth Anniversary
2025 ASA Annual Conference, April 25 – 28, 2025
Held in Residence Inn Arlington Capitol View, April 25-27
and in
Capitol Hill, Washington DC, April 28
Review by Dr. Yvonne Wylie Walston, DOM
NMSAAM Immediate Past President and ASA Primary Delegate
Friday ASA Council Meeting, April 25
Presided by ASA Chair Olivia Hsu Friedman with her thorough, unmatchable grace and style.
It was attended by the delegates from each of the ASA member states that were there, sponsors, and ASA committee chairs. The number of attendees was quite large, thanks to Olivia’s guiding vision of committees and task forces. Our alternate NMSAAM ASA delegate, Dr. Steven Malins, did not attend. Generally, only one of the delegates from each member state attended, but few have both the Primary and Alternate Delegates from member states.
After meet and greet interactions, each of the state delegates gave a 2-minute presentations of the state of their state acupuncture and herbal medicine situations.
Lunch was provided by the recently organized Acupuncture & Herb Venders Coalition, AHVC, including our own Golden Flower Chinese Herbs in Albuquerque, NM and Dr. John Scott, DOM.
Presentations were given by the committees:
- Medicare,
- State Advocacy,
- Medicaid,
- Insurance,
- Herbal Committee,
- Student Committee,
- Social Media,
- Web Platform,
- Member/Benefits,
- Strategic Planning,
- School Path Task Force,
- Governance, and
- Nominating Committee.
ASA Conference Chair, LiMing Tseng, MAOM, LicAc., Dipl OM (NCCAOM) shared a delightful celestial observation and insight:
On the early morning of our Council Meeting (4/25) Venus, Saturn and the crescent moon created a smiley face. I thought how great it would be to start our 10th anniversary with a big smile. Unfortunately, despite my efforts, I didn’t actually “see” it with my eyes that morning. However, when I slowed down and reviewed my photos on my way home, I saw it! Saturn was very faint, but I circled it here. If you tilt your head a little bit, you can see the smile. . . .
Moral of the story: review everything, slow down, focus, be patient, and you will be rewarded with a smiley face!
In summary, our Conference was one huge celestial smile!
Saturday and Sunday Conference April 26 and 27
Presided by ASA Chair Olivia Hsu Friedman
CEU’s earned:13
Each day included plenty of time to visit the Exhibitors area for tools of our trade, coalitions, networking, connections, discount certificates, samples, demonstrations, and food. Golden Flower Chinese Herbs had an exhibit, which was manned by Dr. Pamela Barrett, DOM and Dr. John Scott, DOM, both NMSAAM members.
Healthy buffet lunches were provided on Saturday and Sunday again by Acupuncture & Herb Venders Coalition, AHVC.
There was a lovely section remembering our deceased acupuncturists from recent to further passed. Included was a certificate about New Mexico’s Dr. Linda “Skya” Abbate; 1951-2025. She is noted as an esteemed leader and proponent of advancing acupuncture education in the USA. Her impact is lasting and profound.
Saturday:
Saturday began with Tai Chi and Qigong Essentials for Health and Wellness.
Presentations:
- Welcome & Intro to ASA’s work,
- Traditional Chinese Medicine for Allergy and Immunology: From Research and Practice Perspective
- Motion Acupuncture for Soft Tissue Pain;
- Trauma-Informed Service Delivery;
- Scalp, Back Shu, and Front Mu Acupuncture Techniques for Alzheimer’s Disease; and
- An Introduction to Acupuncture Trigger Point Therapy/Advanced Dry Needling.
Celebrating our tenth anniversary, there was a 10 course Chinese banquet Saturday night at renowned Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant.
- Amusing anecdotes and frank history were shared about the ASA by some seasoned ASA folks.
- Entertainment included the debut of ASA Social Media Committee Chair, Louis Lei Jin’s impressive original song, AcupunctureAnthem by DocJin which was a special treat.
- You can watch and listen by pasting this address in your browser: https://vimeo.com/1081178595
- The words and Doc Jin’s creative thoughts about it are in another Update on the NMSAAM website: https://nmsaam.org/acupuncture-anthem-unity-in-strength/ (paste the address in your browser)
Sunday:
Sunday began with Martial Applications of Tai Chi and Qi Gong for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Practitioners.
Presentations included:
- Cultivating Collaborations,
- Trauma-Informed Acupuncture Care,
- The State of 21st-Century Acupuncture in the United States,
- Tongue Diagnosis: Integration with Integrity, and
- Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Coalition.
- Training also occurred for those acupuncturists who signed up to give acupuncture demonstrations on Monday, April 28, to our legislators & staff on Capitol Hill.
III. Monday April 28 Acupuncture for Our Public Servants
Capitol Hill, Washington, DC
Acupuncture & Ear Seed Demonstrations event was held in the Rayburn building in room 2045.
- Seven qualified acupuncturists were available to provide care for all legislators and staff members to experience this multi modal evidence based non-pharmacological treatment for pain, PTSD, nausea, stress and more.
- Boxed Lunch was provided for all attendees.
- The demonstrations have been reported as well attended and successful.
- This was the only part of the conference that I, Yvonne Walston, personally did not participate in.
Bonus Webinars with CEUs
Image from Pre-Conference Webinar, Tuina Techniques for Headaches
by Paul Olko, one of the 1st NCCAOM certified Asian Bodywork practitioners
Sponsored by Blue Poppy
Pre-Conference Live Webinar Series:
Excellent! The is first time that I was able to made time to take all 16 of these 1-2 hr. webinars in the three years that they have been part of the annual conference. Quite a few of my webinars were completed during the conference evenings, since I was busy putting in my vegetable garden the few weeks before the conference (still too cold in the east for that!). I was able to complete the quiz and review on time in order to submit by April 27 midnight. It is only the last three conferences that these webinars have been available, and they were a variety of pertinent CEU’s.
Post Conference Live Webinar Series:
The webinar held on May 14 was of particular interest. It was State Advocacy – Three Pathways for Impacting Healthcare Policies in Your State. The other two were about communication skills and organizing a union representation in CA hospitals, that could be pertinent to NM in the future. Nurses and PTs find the unions very helpful there, while acupuncturists in that setting lose out. These three webinars earned 4 CEU’s
Personal relationships:
Yvonne Wylie Walston and Jennifer Biggs
Reagan Airport April 28.
Networking is a huge part of the ASA conferences. Sometimes it is the airport. While leaving the conference on April 28th, fellow ASA delegate Jennifer Briggs and I had a delightful unplanned time for relaxed continued communications after delayed flights adventures. She went to acupuncture school in Santa Fe, NM, years ago. She is the VP of Oregon Association of Acupuncturists. While waiting, we had the opportunity to team teach about acupuncture to a grade school and junior high school teacher who had just chaperoned a still energetic group of students who were together for the last leg of their journey. They had been in Washington DC for a prestigious science contest, and they did very well. The teacher now knows about acupuncture, which he had never heard about before.
This article expresses the opinions, observations, and research of the author, and does not necessarily reflect all views or policies of NMSAAM members, the NMSAAM BOD, or the ASA.