Dr. Peter Borten became interested in natural medicine at a young age, writing his first report on acupuncture at age 12, counseling friends in high school, and shopping the witchcraft stores of Salem for medicinal herbs as a teenager. He earned his bachelor’s degree in botany at UMass Amherst, and then he moved to Portland to embark on a healing career that would include all of his interests. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) – which encompasses herbal medicine, acupuncture, nutrition, qi gong, and psychology – he found what he was looking for.

His insatiable curiosity and a strong drive to help others has kept him working hard. He returned to school to study Classical Five Element Acupuncture (a form that focuses on the psychological and spiritual origins of illness) and again to earn his doctorate in TCM. He has taught at Lewis and Clark College, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, and the National University of Natural Medicine. He created an online database of medicinal herbs, a collection of clinical resources for practitioners, an interactive tool for pain relief, and has authored hundreds of articles on all facets of health.

 

With his wife, Briana, he is the co-owner of The Dragontree, a wellness company with holistic spas in Portland and Boulder. He developed The Dragontree’s line of natural body care products, including the best-selling Muscle Melt line of liniments, balms, creams, and patches. In 2014, he created How to Eat, an online course to teach people the best of Eastern and Western approaches to nutrition in a way that makes sense; to optimize health, weight, and energy. Also in 2015, he and Briana published the Rituals for Living Dreambook, a system to help people organize and manage busy lives, set and achieve goals, all while prioritizing the sweet, soul-nourishing stuff.

 

In 2016, he created Live Pain Free, an online course to help people get out of pain, based on 20 years of working with patients utilizing numerous modalities. Also in 2016, Peter and Briana published The Well Life (Simon & Schuster), a book that teaches people how to achieve peace, happiness, and balance by working with the three elements of Structure, Sweetness, and Space. Peter also narrated an audio version of the book. In 2017, they wrote and published Rituals for Transformation: 108 Day Journey to Your Sacred Life. And in 2018, they created Freedom: A Simple Ritual for Letting Go, a workbook that teaches people to know themselves, to learn what the intelligence of their higher Self has to teach, and to become free of limitations and suffering.