Books
Memoir, fiction, and a clear account of trauma and the brain.
View Richard’s booksRichard Grossman
L.Ac., O.M.D., Ph.D.
Books, medicine, consciousness, and a commitment to helping people improve their lives.
Richard Grossman is a Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, writer, and musician. His work draws on decades of clinical practice and the study of trauma, consciousness, plant medicine, and spiritual life.
You are welcome here
If you’ve sought treatment and still don’t feel well or want to feel better, it can be difficult to know on your own what steps you need to take next. Some things may have helped, but if you still have symptoms or questions that deserve attention, you are welcome to bring those concerns here. Your concerns are valid, and you do not have to figure this out alone. We’ll take time to explore what you’ve experienced, what you’ve already tried, and what matters most to you.
Looking at the whole picture
Your health can be compared to that of a living tree. The tree lives in soil; its roots, trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit are all connected. Each part influences the whole. Changes in the leaves or fruit are obvious. But the problem may be in the roots or the soil. Caring for the tree means considering and working with the whole.
While we are not trees, this idea carries over to our health. In our work together, that means paying attention to your symptoms while investigating what contributes to them. Your history, diet, nutrition, sleep, daily habits, psychological well-being, and lab results guide that exploration. I offer my decades of experience and knowledge, and you bring your experience of living in your body.
Before your first session
Before our first session, you’ll complete an intake form and share any recent lab results, along with information about your medications, supplements, daily habits, and concerns. During our consultation, we’ll discuss your health history, current symptoms, and any treatments or approaches you have already tried. This will help us get a clear picture of your situation. Afterward, I’ll analyze the findings and prepare a written nutritional, herbal, and lifestyle plan tailored to your needs.
Why Heart Feather?
Heart Feather takes its name from the ancient Egyptian weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma’at. The feather represents truth, balance, and right action. Richard chose it because true healing also works to make the heart lighter: by facing what the body and mind have carried, understanding how it continues to shape one’s life, and releasing what no longer needs to be carried. The aim is a heart lighter than the feather.
Explore Richard’s work
Writings
Essays on medicine, consciousness, culture, and the questions behind Richard’s books.
Read the latest writingVideos
Interviews and conversations about healing, trauma, plant medicine, and consciousness.
Watch the videosAbout
From his father’s pharmacy to Beijing, private practice, writing, and work in Peru.
Meet RichardA Guide to Working Together
This work takes commitment from both of us. My responsibility is to listen carefully, investigate, explain my thinking, and develop an individualized plan. Your part is to participate in the exploration, ask questions, put the agreed recommendations into practice, and let me know how you are responding. If something is difficult to follow or does not seem to be helping, that is important information for us to discuss. I don’t want this to be difficult!
What I offer is my attention, experience, knowledge, and heart in working with you. While I will do my best, it is important to know that even sincere effort on both sides does not guarantee improvement.
The stages we will explore
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Detective work
First, you complete the intake form and attach any recent laboratory tests you have had. This gives me in-depth information and helps you view your history, health, and current circumstances from a different vantage point. Taking time with the questions can bring connections or concerns into focus for us to explore together.
You also share existing laboratory results and other relevant tests. Sometimes the need for further testing is apparent before we meet; sometimes it becomes clear throughout our discussion. I will discuss any additional recommended testing with you.
We then meet online for a 60-minute consultation to explore your concerns, what you have already tried, and what the information gathered so far suggests.
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Analysis and a written plan
After our meeting, I will evaluate the findings and prepare an individualized written plan. Depending on your situation, recommendations may address nutrition, daily habits, lifestyle, or supplements. The plan provides a starting point for the work and a basis for assessing your response.
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Understanding the plan
Once you receive your plan, we’ll meet for the included 15-minute follow-up appointment to discuss the recommendations and leave room for your questions. If something is difficult to follow or isn’t helping, we’ll adjust the plan so it works in your life.
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Regular review
After that, we can meet as needed to review your progress and challenges, adjusting as needed to support your long-term goals. As a general guideline, we check in about two weeks after you begin the plan, again roughly a month later, and then approximately every two months. Some people need more frequent appointments; others need fewer. We’ll adapt the schedule to your needs.
When you’re ready to begin, schedule your initial consultation below.
Online patient care
Book a patient consultation
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3Your details
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Richard GrossmanL.Ac., O.M.D., Ph.D.
Richard’s fascination with healing began when he was young. It has carried him from his father’s pharmacy to India, Beijing, private practice, music, writing, and ceremonial work.
A sudden death in his family awakened questions about suffering, death, and healing that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
A pharmacist’s son with questions
Richard grew up surrounded by doctors and spent summers and weekends in his father’s pharmacy. He was especially interested in the rare occasions when prescriptions were compounded from plants.
When a school assignment asked what he wanted to become, his answer came without hesitation: he wanted to study the effects of plants and medicines on the mind. He did not yet know that such a field existed.
His search was also personal. When he was still young, an uncle died suddenly. The shock of that loss left him with questions about suffering, death, God, and what healing could actually mean. He read widely in Asian and South Asian philosophy and shamanism, looking for God and meaning and asking questions the adults around him couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.
“Without a spiritual component, you might practice medicine, but you couldn’t practice healing.”
— Richard Grossman
India, Beijing, and the clinic
At eighteen, Richard traveled to India. On the banks of the Ganges, he studied meditation and the deep connection between body, mind, and spirit. He began to understand that, without a spiritual component, you might practice medicine, but you couldn’t practice healing. The healing path had become his calling.
During the following decade, he studied Asian philosophy, Tai Chi, massage, macrobiotics, juice fasting, yoga, aikido, and herbal medicine.
In 1979, he entered the Oriental Medicine program at the California Acupuncture College in Los Angeles. Three years later, he was one of three students from the school selected for postgraduate acupuncture training in Beijing through a program sponsored by the World Health Organization.
He returned to California, opened a private practice, and continued his education, earning a master’s degree in acupuncture, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine degree, and a Ph.D. in Oriental Medicine, along with advanced credentials in pain management and acupuncture orthopedics.
“The mind says, ‘I’m fine.’ Something underneath disagrees.”
From the clinic to Peru
Not long after beginning his acupuncture practice, several strands of Richard’s life began to converge: medicine, spiritual practice, entheogens, sound, and music.
In 2005, he was invited to speak about sound healing at an international conference on Indigenous Healing in Iquitos, Peru. His travels in Ecuador and Peru allowed him to pursue a longstanding dream of studying with Indigenous teachers in their own lands and led to years of study and ceremonial work in the United States and abroad.
Over the years, music and sound became integral to his ceremonial work, drawing on instruments and traditions from several cultures. Ritual, altered states, and their relationship to healing became an increasingly important part of his work.
“Our training keeps attention fixed on what stands in front of us. The deeper layer often passes unseen.”
Writing
Over time, many of the questions Richard had pursued through medicine, spiritual practice, and ceremonial work found another form in writing.
His books include Trust and Forgive, Feather on the Heart, and The Self After Trauma. His fiction and nonfiction approach the same territory from different directions: trauma, forgiveness, identity, consciousness, healing, and the search for meaning within difficult experience.
He also writes Notes from Behind the Mesa, an ongoing series of essays on medicine, spirituality, consciousness, plant medicine, culture, and the less easily categorized places where those subjects meet.
“Different maps of the same territory.”
Today
Today, Richard’s work includes writing, teaching, music, individual consultations, and retreat preparation and support. His books and essays carry many of the questions that have accompanied him since childhood: how suffering is held, what helps it change, and what forgiveness asks of us.
Professional background
Curriculum Vitae
Richard David Grossman, L.Ac., O.M.D., Ph.D.
Educational Background
Diplomate
American Academy of Pain Management
Diplomate
National Board of Acupuncture Orthopedics
Diplomate
National Academy for Certification of Acupuncture
Doctor of Philosophy in Oriental Medicine
SAMRA University of Oriental Medicine · Los Angeles, California
Doctor of Oriental Medicine
California Acupuncture College · Los Angeles, California
Master of Science in Oriental Medicine
SAMRA University of Oriental Medicine · Los Angeles, California
Graduate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
California Acupuncture College · Los Angeles, California
Graduate of the 30th International Training Course in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine · Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Certification in Sacral Occipital Technique
Los Angeles, California
Certification in Massage Therapy
Santa Monica School of Massage · Santa Monica, California
Professional Experience
Ceremony Facilitator
Private Practice
Los Angeles, California
Founding President
Turnabout: Alternative Substance-Abuse Project · Santa Monica, California
Founding Member, Board of Directors
Chair of the Fundraising Committee · Chair of the Professional Ethics Committee · State Treasurer, 1987–1989
California Acupuncture Association · Los Angeles, California
Instructor and Clinic Supervisor
Emperor’s College of Oriental Medicine · Santa Monica, California
Instructor of Oriental Medicine
California Acupuncture College · Los Angeles, California
Private Practice of Massage Therapy
Malibu, California
Additional Areas of Expertise
- Sound healing
- Creation of health-based foods and beverages
- Orthomolecular medicine
- Systemic and hepatic detoxification procedures
- Lifestyle counseling
- Spinal mobilization
- Koryo hand therapy
Writing about trauma, healing, and the stories we carry.
Richard’s books include memoir, fiction, and an accessible look at the neuroscience of trauma.
Feather on the Heart
Six-year-old Angela dreams that a “lion” is coming for her. Soon the dream follows her into waking life, and she begins to disappear from the world around her. Doctors cannot explain what is happening or stop it.
Desperate to save his daughter, David travels deep into the Amazon. There, shamans tell him Angela’s suffering began before she was born, in wounds carried through generations. To bring her home, he must confront the deepest fears and traumas of his own life.
A novel about family, memory, sacred plant medicines, and what a father will risk to reach the child he refuses to lose.
View on Amazon
Trust and Forgive
At five years old, Richard Grossman survived a terrible accident. His body healed. The fear, shame, and memories of another world did not.
His search for what happened inside him led through Berkeley in the Vietnam era, an Oregon commune, India, Chinese medicine, music, and the Amazon. Decades later, in an ayahuasca ceremony, he entered a memory of ancestral horror and heard two words: Trust and forgive.
Trust and Forgive is the account of what childhood terror can set in motion, where one man’s search for relief led him, and why two simple words took a lifetime to understand. It is for anyone who suspects that some wounds do not begin with us—and wants to know whether they can end with us.
View on Amazon
The Self After Trauma
The danger is over. Why does your body still brace for it? Why do old fears return, relationships repeat themselves, and the person you were before trauma feel so far away?
The Self After Trauma places the brain’s Default Mode Network beside older ways of understanding suffering and repair: the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew Bible, Kabbalah’s shattered vessel, Chinese medicine’s shen, and Daoist philosophy. Each asks how a wound becomes part of the self—and how what was shattered might be repaired.
Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and clinical practice, Richard examines why understanding what happened is often not enough—and what may help loosen trauma’s hold.
View on AmazonVideos and conversations
Richard in conversation about healing, trauma, ceremony, acupuncture, forgiveness, and the stories behind his books.
What Your Body Remembers: Trauma, Ancestral Healing & Forgiveness
Ayahuasca and Trauma Healing: What’s Real, What’s Illusion
Shamanism, Mysticism & Ayahuasca Wisdom with Dr. Richard Grossman
Richard Grossman on His Work with Acupuncture and Ayahuasca
Healing That Ends in Beauty: Plant Medicine & Conscious Integration
Bridging East and Amazon: Poetry, Acupuncture and Shamanism
Transforming Trauma: The Power of Plant Medicine
What Your Body Remembers: Healing Ancestral Wounds, Trauma & Forgiveness
Notes from behind the mesa
Writings
Richard writes about medicine, consciousness, ceremony, culture, healing, and the questions that continue to occupy him.
Recent writings
See the complete archive
Hanaq Pacha - The World Above
The Cosmic Threesome, Part 4
Kay Pacha: The World We Walk In
The Cosmic Threesome, Part 3
The Cosmic Threesome, Part 2
Ukhu Pacha: The World Below
The Cosmic Threesome - Part 1
Three Worlds, Three Forces, and Finding Three Everywhere
Peptides and the Gray Market, Part 2
How cost, access, and uncertainty shape the market
Peptides and the Gray Market
A personal account of medicine outside the mainstream
I’d like to share an excerpt from the book with you
From Feather on the Heart
The Real Danger of “Chemtrails”
How perception, scale, and belief can make the body respond to what isn’t there
Trauma Isn’t a Life Sentence
Break Generational Cycles and Heal the Nervous System
Questions about consultations
What to expect from an online consultation with Richard, how to choose a session, and what happens after you book.
Working with Richard
The consultation begins with the question or situation you want help understanding and improving.
Do consultations include nutritional and lifestyle counseling?
Yes. Nutritional and lifestyle counseling are central to Richard’s consultations. A session may examine food, sleep, movement, stress, and daily routines in relation to the problem or question you bring. The aim is to identify practical changes suited to your circumstances, not to hand you a generic plan. Shortly after the appointment, you will receive Richard’s recommendations for nutritional and herbal supplements through Fullscript. Ordering is optional. If you order through Richard’s Fullscript dispensary, you receive 15% off your first order and 10% off later orders (Richard receives compensation from these purchases).
What can I bring to a consultation?
People come with questions about physical or emotional well-being, trauma, recurring patterns, consciousness, spiritual practice, plant medicine, or preparation for and integration after a retreat or ceremony. You do not need to arrive with a diagnosis or a polished explanation. Begin with what is happening and what you want help understanding.
What happens during a consultation?
Richard listens, asks questions, and helps you look closely at the situation you bring. He will review any laboratory results or other diagnostic tests you provide. Any recommended laboratory testing is optional, cash-pay, and priced before you order. When appropriate, Richard can order testing through Fullscript. He may also draw on his clinical background, his study of trauma and consciousness, and decades of work with patients. The session is a conversation shaped by what you need, not a fixed program.
Which consultation should I choose?
Choose the $350 First Visit Consultation if you are new or have not consulted with Richard in more than a year. It includes a 60-minute Zoom consultation, Richard's analysis and written plan, and a separate 15-minute explanation visit. Returning patients choose the $175 30-minute or $250 60-minute follow-up Richard has recommended.
What help is available before or after a retreat or ceremony?
Retreat appointments and their separate intake process are available only to people Richard has invited. Use the private link and password supplied with your invitation.
Is this emergency care?
No. Heart Feather does not provide emergency or crisis services. If you may be in immediate danger or need urgent medical or mental health care, contact local emergency services or your physician or mental-health professional.
Booking and privacy
Practical details about meeting online, forms, payment, and personal information.
How does an online appointment work?
Sessions take place on Zoom. Choose a private place with a reliable internet connection and allow a few minutes beforehand to settle in. The booking page offers appointments up to three calendar months ahead and shows times in your device’s time zone. Your confirmation will contain the meeting information.
Are reduced-fee consultations available?
A limited number of reduced-fee appointments are available for people who could not otherwise afford a consultation. Before booking, use the contact form, enter “Reduced-fee consultation” in the subject line, and say which session you are interested in.
What should I know about forms, payment, rescheduling, cancellation, and privacy?
Heart Feather does not bill insurance. Consultations are self-pay. When online booking is available, Stripe collects payment for paid appointments, and the appointment is confirmed after payment succeeds. New First Visit clients receive a consultation intake form; people scheduling a pre-retreat introductory meeting receive the retreat application.
Please contact Richard at least 24 hours before the appointment if you need to reschedule or cancel. Cancellations with at least 24 hours’ notice receive a refund. Contact messages and intake information are stored separately from payment-card information, and Heart Feather does not store full card numbers. Read the Privacy Policy for more detail.
What is the First Visit Fit Policy?
The first 15 minutes of your initial consultation are used to determine whether Richard’s services are appropriate for your needs. If either you or Richard decides during that time not to proceed, the session will end and your consultation fee will be refunded in full.
This policy applies once, to a new patient’s first consultation. It cannot be requested after the consultation continues beyond the first 15 minutes and does not apply to dissatisfaction with recommendations, treatment results, or outcomes, which cannot be guaranteed.
Still have a question?
If you are unsure which session fits, or your question is not answered here, contact Richard.
Contact Richard
If you have questions about a personal consultation, or would like to contact Richard about an interview, speaking invitation, or another matter, send a message below.
Send a message
Urgent concerns: This form is not monitored for emergencies. Contact local emergency services if immediate help is needed.
Privacy Policy
How Heart Feather handles information shared through this website.
Last updated October 21, 2026
Heart Feather is operated by Richard Grossman. This policy explains what information may be collected through the website, why it is used, and the choices available to you.
Information you choose to provide
Depending on how you use the website, you may provide:
- Your name, email address, and the contents of a contact message.
- Appointment details, including the service, date, time, and time zone you select.
- Information you enter on a consultation or intake form, which may include health information and other sensitive personal details.
- Messages and other information you send before or after a consultation.
Please share only the information needed for your question or consultation.
Payments
When online payments are enabled, Stripe will process card information. Heart Feather will not store full payment-card numbers. Heart Feather may receive payment status, the amount paid, and transaction details needed for receipts, refunds, and recordkeeping.
How information is used
Information may be used to respond to messages, schedule and prepare for consultations, provide requested services, process payments and refunds, maintain necessary records, protect the website, and comply with legal obligations.
When information may be shared
Information may be shared with service providers only when needed to operate the website or provide a requested service. These providers may include website hosting and secure storage services, Stripe for payments, Zoom for online appointments, and email services used for correspondence.
Information may also be disclosed when required by law or when necessary to protect a person from serious harm. Heart Feather does not sell or rent personal or health information and does not provide it to third parties for advertising.
Consultation and intake information
Heart Feather treats consultation and intake information as confidential medical information under applicable California law.
Access to consultation and intake information is limited to Richard Grossman and the service providers needed to operate the secure system. It is kept separate from payment-card information.
Contact messages are encrypted before they are stored and are available to Richard through the protected administration area.
Website data and cookies
The website host may process basic technical information, such as an IP address, browser type, device information, and security logs. The site may use essential browser storage to remember choices or support website functions. Heart Feather does not currently use advertising cookies or cross-site behavioral advertising.
On a limited set of nonsensitive public pages, Heart Feather may use Google Analytics 4 to understand visits and navigation. Analytics is not used on contact, booking, consultation, intake, administration, or other pages that could reveal service or health details. Names, email addresses, form contents, appointment or intake information, URL queries and fragments, and health information are not sent to Google Analytics. Advertising personalization and Google Signals are disabled.
For visitors in the United States, this limited public-page measurement may start unless a saved opt-out or Global Privacy Control signal is present. For visitors in the EEA or United Kingdom, analytics remains off until the visitor chooses “Accept analytics.” For Switzerland, other regions that have not been assessed, or when the hosting service cannot reliably determine a region, analytics remains off. Region handling uses the website host's country signal; Heart Feather does not use a separate geolocation provider for this choice.
When analytics is allowed, Google may receive the network and device information needed to deliver its service and may set first-party analytics cookies. Use “Analytics choices” in the footer at any time to review the current status, opt out, or withdraw consent. Turning analytics off removes Heart Feather's Google Analytics cookies from this site. Google's own privacy terms apply to its processing.
Substack may process basic technical information when article images are displayed or when you choose to read or subscribe there. Its own privacy terms apply to information you provide directly to Substack.
Security and retention
Heart Feather uses administrative and technical safeguards intended to protect personal information. No website or storage system can guarantee absolute security.
Information is retained only as long as reasonably needed to provide services, maintain necessary business or legal records, resolve disputes, and meet legal obligations. Retention may differ by type of information.
Your choices
You may ask to review, correct, or delete personal information associated with you. Some information may need to be retained for legal, financial, or recordkeeping reasons.
Use the contact form and enter “Privacy request” as the subject.
Changes to this policy
This policy may change when the website’s services or privacy practices change. The date at the top of this page will be updated when a revision is made.