346 Weaving Together East and West • Joseph and Sam Audette

You've probably heard about family lineage types of acupuncture from Asia. Here in the West, acupuncture is still a bit of a newcomer to the medical scene, but it has been around long enough that we are beginning to see second generation practitioners.

In this conversation we have a father son team, Joe and Sam Audette. Joe is a medical doctor and has deeply studied and helps to teach the work of Kiiko Matsumoto. And in this conversation you’ll get all kinds of helpful tips on areas of the abdomen to pay attention to, along with Joe’s ability to think about and use both Eastern and Western physiology.

Listen into this discussion on pursuing medicine across several different cultures, why it is important to be grounded in the fundamentals and how developing a sensitivity for our patients is essential in the work we do

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• Joe Audette’s Discovery of Chinese Medicine 
• Sam Audette on Growing Up with Acupuncturist Father 
• Need to suspend judgment to learn something in a deep way
• Working with European Acupuncturist 
• Martial arts with Master Lieung from Taiwan
• Understanding the characteristics of the Acupuncture Landscape in Germany and the United States 
• Importance of Learning the Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine 
• Joe’s Deep Dive through TCM and New Learning from Kiiko Matsumoto 
• Patients’ Feedback, TCM Approach, Learning through the years in the practice 
• Kiiko Style and TCM Approach 
• Developing Sensitivity for Patients, The Five Phases 
• The Channel System, Sam Working with Kiiko during COVID 
• Kiiko’s Idea, Deep Caves, Trigger Points, and Dry Needling  

Remember the importance of the connective tissue matrix in diagnosis and treatment

Joseph Audette, MD

I had my first acupuncture experience while in graduate school for philosophy. I had herniated a disc while changing a tire on an old VW bug and had no health insurance. A friend recommended I see a Chinese acupuncturist he knew and after one treatment I was instantly better. It turned out the acupuncturist was also a Grand Master in Martial Arts and that started me on my path of studying and practicing Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Hsingi.

I decided to go into medicine with the goal of one day learning and integrating acupuncture into my care of patients and after graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1991, I ended up in residency in New York where I met Mark Seem who was the head of the Tristate School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was able to start attending classes while in residency and it was there that I met Kiiko Matsumoto. Kiiko would do grand rounds where the teachers would bring their toughest cases for her to treat and I developed an strong affinity to her approach.

I was also influenced by Mark Seems trigger point needling methods and over the next 20 years of my practice I worked to synthesize these methods and developed the facial node needling method.

Never let knowledge get in the way of your curiosity. Respect and give thanks to our mentors and those who have come before us, bring them coffee!

Sam Audette, L.Ac
A second generation acupuncturist, I have had the opportunity to train extensively with my father Joseph Audette, MD, in myofascial trigger point therapy and palpation-based Japanese Acupuncture techniques. 

I recently completed my masters degree in acupuncture and herbal medicine from Emperor's College in Santa Monica, CA in 2023. There I had the chance to study in the clinic with amazing practitioners from Taiwan and China such as Dr. Jian Feng Li, Dr. Christine Chang, and Dr. Chungling Wang. I have spent the last 5 years filming and assisting renowned Japanese acupuncturist, Sensei Kiiko Matsumoto with continuing education classes and continue to explore how her unique style integrates with a variety of classical and modern perspectives.

​I currently work at the integrative clinic Tower Acupuncture at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with Dr. Anna Brantman and as teaching assistant and videographer for the Acumed: Integrated Structural Acupuncture course for physicians. Prior to embarking onto the journey of Chinese medicine, I worked in documentary film and graduated with my BA from The University of Chicago in 2017 with a focus on religious history, philosophy and film.

Links and Resources

Learn Fascial Node Trigger Point Needling and Practice Medical Acupuncture with Joe.
Joe's article on COVID (more to come we are publishing a more comprehensive one together soon) SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Post COVID-19 Symptoms and Acupuncture – PMC

Visit Sam on Vimeo, YouTube and Instagram.

You can learn more about Kiiko Matsumoto's work on her Website,
Here are two short clips on The Nature of Acupuncture Points and another on Ileocecal Inflammation and Serotonin Insufficiency

Henry Head Article:
Forgotten features of head zones and their relation to diagnostically relevant acupuncture points

This book on Rheumatology was mentioned in the conversation:
Guillaume, G., & Chieu, M. (1996). Rheumatology in Chinese Medicine. Eastland Press

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