#433
November 4, 2025

Finding What You Weren’t Looking For
Dan Bensky, D.O.

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Sometimes the most interesting things happen when we stop trying to confirm what we think we know. In clinic, certainty can close doors—but curiosity opens them. There’s a kind of listening that goes beyond the intellect, a way of paying attention that allows discovery to unfold on its own time.

In this conversation with Dan Bensky, we explore the art of noticing. What it means to let medicine be a call and response rather than a performance of knowledge. We talk about the practitioner’s stance—one that values modesty over mastery, sensation before interpretation, and the quiet skill of finding something you weren’t looking for.

Listen into this discussion as we trace ideas of Tong and connection, the dance between palpation and perception, the discipline involved with not-knowing, and how true competence might simply mean being willing to check yourself.

This is a conversation for anyone who’s ever paused mid-treatment and thought, “Huh… that’s odd.” Because sometimes, that moment—the one that unsettles what you thought you knew—is where the treatment really begins.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • The Call and Response Nature of Acupuncture — How treatment is not something we do to the patient, but a dialogue; the practitioner’s action is the call, and the body’s reaction is the response.
  • Discovering What You Weren’t Looking For — The paradox of good clinical work: real insight appears when you’re open to being surprised.
  • Reframing Competence — Shifting from “knowing what you’re doing” to “knowing how to respond” and learning directly from patients as the true teachers.
  • The Role of Modesty in Practice — Recognizing limits, staying humble before the complexity of the human body, and allowing curiosity to replace certainty.
  • Palpation as Inquiry — Separating sensation from interpretation; learning to perceive before naming or categorizing what’s felt.
  • Appreciation vs. Evaluation — The difference between observing with openness versus judging; why appreciation allows a deeper, more accurate sensing.
  • Tong 通 — Understanding openness and connection as the foundational actions of acupuncture, where treatment restores communication within the body.
  • Precision over Force — From needle technique to osteopathic touch—how subtle precision creates better results than excess manipulation or effort.
  • Letting Go of Theoretical Attachments — Avoiding the trap of fitting patients into preconceived frameworks or styles; staying responsive instead of rigid.
  • The Mindset of Curiosity — Holding uncertainty as a stance of strength; approaching medicine as an ongoing conversation between practitioner, patient, and the unknown.

At the end of the interview for the first office call, I like to ask patients if they’d like to share anything with me that they have not previously shared with any health care practitioner. Often what they say to me then turns out to be extremely significant.

Dan Bensky, D.O.

I have been studying Chinese medicine and osteopathic medicine for many decades. I earned a Diploma in Chinese Medicine from the Macau Institute of Chinese Medicine in 1975, a Doctor of Osteopathy from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1982, a Master’s in Classical Chinese from the University of Washington in 1996, and a Doctorate in the Discussion of Cold Damage from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in 2006.

Over the years, With this background I have contributed to several major translation projects, which lead to me being honored in 2008 with the Wang Dingyi Cup International Prize for my contributions to Chinese medicine.

I’ve had the privilege of studying under exceptional osteopathic teachers like John Upledger, Jean-Pierre Barral, and Robert Fulford. For over four decades, I’ve been sharing my knowledge of combining osteopathy with East Asian medicine, and it remains a fascinating journey.

Links and Resources

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