Work With Me
If you resonate with my writings and resources on health, consider scheduling a consultation or face-to-face appointment with me, and please check out my and Briana’s businesses below. We make high quality products for health and body care, we create resources for learning and evolving, and we own spas where all of these things come together.
Health Care
First, there’s my own private medical practice in Boulder, Colorado. I utilize herbal medicine, acupuncture, nutrition, lifestyle modification, body work, energy work, and other modalities to help people achieve optimal health. To schedule an appointment, please call the reception desk at 303-219-1444. I also do consultations over the phone, Skype, or email. If you’re interested, please leave your contact information with the receptionist and I’ll call or email you to set it up.
I first met Dr. Borten in 2000. He was just getting started in a small office in SW Portland. One wall was shelved with large glass jars full of all the standard Chinese herbs. Even in the early days of his practice, Peter had a calm and confident persona along with an amazing healing ability.
Over the years I called on Peter for some intensive nutritional counseling. I also referred a couple people to him who had remarkable success with his healing guidance. I have trusted Peter for years with my health and well being. He is the type of person that is honest, direct, efficient and compassionate.
– Jason B.
Dr. Borten’s breadth of knowledge around health and healing is, quite simply, stunning. I’ve never met anyone else with Peter’s depth of understanding about how the mind, body and spirit work to create health or disease in a person.
On top of that, he’s one of the most caring and compassionate healers I’ve ever met. He has my complete trust and tremendous admiration as a gifted healer.
– Alice G.
Under Dr. Borten’s care I flourished and found a sense of control, vitality and self-love that I could never access before. Peter helped me to simplify and get back to the basics of health, strength and appropriate nutrition all the while encouraging me to be a kinder person to myself.
I feel, to this day, truly fortunate to have worked with him.
– Kimberly O.
How to Eat
After years of trying to teach my patients everything I thought they should know about nutrition in the small period of time we have together, I decided to make a more comprehensive online course. Whether your goal is to be healthy, to lose weight, to maintain your weight without eating in a way that feels unnatural, or just to feel good in your body, you don’t need a diet, you need a way of eating – and a way of thinking – that’s logical, sustainable, and enjoyable. That’s what this course teaches. Click the picture or heading above for more info.
Dragontree Apothecary Health and Body Products
This line of products is a dream long in the making for me and my wife. I have been studying herbal medicine since I was a teenager, frequenting the “witchcraft” stores of Salem, Massachusetts, most of which were actually just herb stores. I refined my understanding of herbs while earning my bachelor’s degree in botany at UMass Amherst and then at Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, where I earned my master’s and doctorate. My wife Briana did her studies in body work and the traditional Indian system of medicine. She is a Certified Ayurvedic Specialist. Together, we developed a suite of all natural body care products with the highest quality ingredients, and I developed several products for pain and a line of tinctures to address many common health conditions. We have put SO much time, energy, and care into these products. I hope you check them out and enjoy them. Click on the picture to check them out.
The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa
We opened The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa in 2003 in Portland. We now have two locations in Portland (one in the Portland Airport) and one in Boulder, Colorado. Click here to check them out.
Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote at our eight year anniversary:
Shortly after Briana’s 23rd birthday, we opened our doors for business. Things moved slowly at first, with Briana and her partner doing everything from making appointments to checking clients in and out, laundering the sheets and towels, mopping the floors, and performing all of the massage. It was a big, exciting step forward when we hired our first therapist and receptionist.
About a year and a half after opening, it became clear that Briana and her business partner were no longer seeing eye to eye on the overarching vision of the business, so Briana raised the money to buy her partner out. Whereas her creative expression had been somewhat stifled by this partnership, it was a learning experience, and becoming the sole owner was a liberating event. We decided it was a good time to clarify what exactly our purpose was.
We had each been involved for several years in intensive “integrity work,” which entailed things like being scrupulously clear in our communications, keeping all of our agreements, honoring the power of our words, and looking for opportunities to enhance our environment. As the spa grew, we realized it was becoming a vehicle for doing this work on a larger scale. When we aligned our intentions with the business’s mission, everything began to flow differently. We started to attract staff members and clients who really impressed us, who shared our ideals and walked their talk. The space itself has also grown, adding treatment rooms, saunas, and new services, as well as “maturing” in a less tangible, yet unmistakable way.
As for my early apprehension about having a serious medical practice in a spa, this dissolved within the first few years. I grew to appreciate the great skill my wife has at creating environments that have a natural flow, and feel good and tranquil. Also, I began to recognize the healing potential of spaces. The space we’ve cultivated is more than the sum of its warm paint colors, peaceful music, and gurgling fountains. I believe it’s also a product of everyone’s healing intentions – both the staff and the visitors – and the family-like atmosphere among all of us who work here. The UPS delivery guy will tell you, it’s why he wants to stay and hang out after dropping off a package.
This leads me to the thing I am most proud of about The Dragontree. Whenever business is lagging or we encounter some other hardship, my wife and I remind ourselves of the role this place has played in bringing good people together. As we enter our ninth year, I want to acknowledge everyone we have had the honor of knowing through this spa. Our involvement with organizations such as Nob Hill Business Association, Women Entrepreneurs of Oregon, Think Local First, innumerable schools and charities, and all of our clientele, both in town and at the airport, has helped us meet tons of wonderful business owners and community members. Many of our dearest friends started out as employees or patrons of the spa. And many other good friends have met each other through The Dragontree. We feel truly blessed.
Briana Borten – Life & Business Optimization
This is my lovely wife, Briana Borten, who is a kick-ass entrepreneur, business consultant, and coach. She has the midas touch. She can look at someone’s store/house/business/accounting/whatever and immediately see how it could be tremendously enhanced.