About us

Dan Bensky, DO

Dan has a long-term interest in Chinese and Chinese medicine, having obtained a diploma in Chinese medicine from the Macau Institute of Chinese Medicine in 1975, a Masters 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.
He also graduated with a Doctor of Osteopathy from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1982, where he was a research assistant for John Upledger. He has studied with many notable osteopathic practitioners, including Robert Fulford and Jean-Pierre Barral.
In addition to teaching for both professions, he has been working on utilizing the connections between osteopathy and East Asian medicine for over thirty years. He is currently a medical editor at Eastland Press and has a private practice in Seattle.
Dan is a co-author of both print & app:

Chinese Herbal Medicine : Materia Medica

Chinese Herbal Medicine : Formulas & Strategies

Charles Chace (1958-2018) LAc 

As a student of Chinese medicine and palpation based forms of acupuncture for more than thirty years, Chip was uniquely positioned to teach a class such as this.

He had maintained a longstanding interest in the medical literature of China and was the translator of a wide variety of books and articles, on premodern approaches to acupuncture and Chinese medicine including a translation of the first textbook of acupuncture from 100 C.E., The Yellow Emperor’s Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Huang Di Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing), and Li Shizhen’s An Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, Acupuncture, Alchemy and Herbal Medicine (Qi Jing Ba Mai Kao), the seminal text on the extraordinary vessels. He was also a long-time student of a wide range of palpation-based forms of practice in both the acupuncture and osteopathic traditions.

Marguerite Dinkins, MAcOM - LAc

Marguerite has been a student of acupuncture and palpation since 1997, when she began her studies at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine. Since that time, she has continued to study palpation with Dan Bensky and Chip Chace, and for many years has assisted them in teaching palpation in the practice of acupuncture. She has also completed three years of osteopathic training at the Canadian College of Osteopathy in Vancouver, BC.

Since 2007, Marguerite has been instrumental in making palpation a central part of the clinical experience at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine. In addition to her extensive clinical experience, Marguerite has a unique ability to understand the specific needs of her students, especially those grappling with the early challenges of developing palpatory awareness.

Marguerite has maintained an active private practice since her graduation from SIOM in 2000.

Bart Wintjes

 is an acupuncturist with more then 25 years of clinical experience. He started 30 years ago  as a physiotherapist and manual therapist. Originally Bart followed the Anglo Dutch Program given by Ted Kaptchuk for acupuncturists and herbalists. After that he further studyed orthomolecular nutrition, and then continued deepening into different Japanese acupuncture styles as Toyohari and Manaka teached by Steven Birch, Junko Ida and Toyo Hari’s Advanced program. He studied frequently with Japanese Masters such as Yanagista Sensei and Takai Sensei. He has integrated and applied all his learned matter into practice.
As well as Felix de Haas, in 2011 Bart started studying with Charles Chace and later with Dan Bensky. Since 2014 he has been Teaching Assistant and Teacher at the Engaging Vitality core training. 
Bart has a practice in Friesland, Netherlands. Besides his practice, he is very active in pass along the Engaging Vitality approach

Felix de Haas

Felix de Haas is transmiter of the Engaging Vitality approach to acupuncture. He studies and practices East Asian medicine for more than 30 years . His own journey has been through diferent aspects of East Asian Medicine with a strong focus on the classics and the 

surrounding body of East Asian philosophical literature and history. 

He has studied and practiced over a long time diferent approaches to acupuncture and herbal medicine. The last decade he has specialized in the Engaging Vitality approach, but ultimately in the practice it is always an eclectic and individual approach. Felix tries to integrate all the styles he learned, into his own style, and that is what he tries to convey to his students as well.

Next to his long time experience with East Asian Medicine, he also has studied and practiced forms of Inner Cultivation over a similar course of time. This makes him able to transmit this specfic material even more efectively.

Felix has studied with several outstanding masters including Francois Ramakers, Bob Flaws, Stephen Birch, Yanagista Sensei, Takai Sensei, Dan Bensky , Charles Chace and Volker Scheid.

He has two clinics in the Netherlands and transmits the basic module program of Engaging Vitality as well as the intermediate modules on the Mid-space and Ignition. He also teaches 

postgraduate courses about the philosophical and historical aspects of Traditional East Asian Medicine. He is also co-author of the upcoming book on Engaging Vitality together with Dan Bensky, Charles Chace and Rayén Antón.

Ferdinand Beck

Ferdinand is learning Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and other related topics since 1995. He has been introduced to the Engaging Vitality approach by Charles Chace and Dan Bensky in 2011, where he now teaches basic classes, assists intermediate classes and supervises study groups. His clinical background ranges from TCM to Japanese Toyohari acupuncture, as well as visceral manipulation in the tradition of J.P. Barral. All now incorporated within the Engaging Vitality framework. Ferdinand maintains a private practice near Munich, Germany. 

Gemma Casasampera

Gemma has been fully integrating EV since she was first exposed to it by Charles Chace in 2011. 
After Prof. Manuel Rodriguez passing, she is now co-teaching Modules I & II in Spain. 

Gemma has formerly taught TCM at the Fundación Europea de Medicina Tradicional China. 
Currently she divides her practice time betwen Barcelona city and Sant Cugat.

Rayén Antón

Rayén started her path into chinese medicine in 2002 and 4 years later she graduated as full TCM practitioner by the Fundación Europea de Medicina Tradicional China in Barcelona. After finishing the basic Acupuncture training in 2004, she continued studying various types of Japanese acupuncture with Stephen Birch learning Manaka style, Meridian Therapy, Shonishin, and graduated as Toyohari practitioner with the European Branch of Toyohari Association in 2006. In 2011 started her path with Engaging Vitality studying with Charles Chace and later with Dan Bensky, and fully integrated the Engaging Vitality approach into her practice ever since. It was right then when she also started coordinating the Engaging Vitality Spanish study groups in Barcelona. She's been teaching EV Basic Training Module I since 2015, and in 2018 Charles Chace passed her the torch for Module III and the intermediate level class on Ba Mai and Fluids. Gemma and Rayén co-teach the Fundamentals in Spain. 

She started working in clinic in 2003 as part of Prof. Manuel Rodríguez's practice and teaching assistants’ team, to what later added running her private acupuncture practice in 2010 in two districts of Barcelona city.
 She has been coordinator and practitioner, as well as trainer, in acupuncture programs in refugee camps, and currently continues to keep a social clinic in Barcelona city.

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Manuel Rodríguez Cuadras (1947-2022)

We keep loving memory from Manuel, who was great teacher, colleague and friend. 
He was Module I teacher in Spain.