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Caring with great resolve.

The Gilbert Clinical Team

Jonathan Gilbert NCCAOM

Biography

Jonathan GilbertIf Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is going to become a credible and worthy component in the future health care available for Americans, then it may well happen as a result of the work of Jonathan Gilbert. It is his passion, deep knowledge of TCM and international experience that is allowing for this incredibly powerful, yet mostly forgotten and often misrepresented tradition to not only become available to us today, but which is transforming medical care and how we look at disease. Jonathan is both a dynamic force and a visionary who has spent years honing his skills to become one of the premier practitioners of TCM in the USA today. The Gilbert Clinic is the physical representation of Jonathan’s 20+ years of study and practice. The Gilbert Clinic is a center for excellence regarding optimal care for people with chronic conditions and for people desiring to improve their lives.
 
Jonathan’s journey into Asian philosophy began at the tender age of 13 when he began training as a Practitioner of Shintaido at the Kitaiso School of Movement in England. He was subsequently granted permission from Head Instructor Ken Waight to teach at the age of 19. During this same time period, he studied Shiatsu massage, a Japanese form of healing, and earned his diploma from the British School of Oriental Therapy and Movement in 1988. Although he would eventually continue on for many more years of formal Japanese martial arts and movement training and even more in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jonathan took a significant change in the course of his life to pursue a separate dream of serving his native country in the military.

 

Jonathan spent 2½ rewarding years in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain as an Aircrew Officer. At 18 years of age he was one of the youngest ever fully Commissioned Officers serving in the whole of the British Military. Meanwhile though, his early formative years of Asian training grew into an unrelenting yearning to pursue Oriental Medicine. To follow his dream, Jonathan resigned his commission and with it, the surety of a promising career in order to take up another field of service.

 

After resigning his commission in the RAF, Jonathan enrolled at the London Academy of Oriental Medicine London (LAOM), England in 1991 at 22 years of age. At that time, the LAOM was seen as one of the foremost schools of Oriental Medicine in Europe. Graduating in 1995 from this Vietnamese school, he continued his studies by taking an advanced course in “Stems and Branches Theory” taught by the world renown Professor Truong Thin (the Director of Traditional Medicine for South Vietnam). This study gave Jonathan the opportunity to travel to Vietnam where he completed his post-graduate training at The Traditional Medical Institute (TMI), Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. The TMI is a 500-bed state teaching hospital, and it was there that Jonathan embarked on his rigorous and thorough clinical training in Oriental Medicine as he worked in collaboration with western-trained medical doctors and observed the blending of Oriental Medicine with Western medicine in this hospital environment.

 

Additionally during the time of his studies at the LAOM, he was selected to be an apprentice with Dr. Phouc Huynh in the study of Jinkui Yaolue Theory and Practice, which spanned a 12-year period of study. The teaching of this ancient form of herbal medicine is restricted to a select few, as only a few have the foundation and character necessary for its study and application. Jonathan Gilbert has been recognized as one of these individuals. Some say he is a genius with his ability to understand, create and manipulate herbal formulas. Others say he is a maverick in his approaches. Many of his thankful patients say both are true.

 

Jonathan is board-certified in the U.S. in both acupuncture and herbal medicine by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM). He has also been an exam writer for the NCCAOM since 2003, and has recently come under consideration for membership on the Board and various committees of the NCCAOM. Active participation in the NCCAOM is Jonathan’s way to express his passion to ensure and raise the standards of study and care within his own profession.

 

Jonathan’s first private practice as an Oriental Medicine physician began in London in 1995 and continued successfully until 1998 when he made a personal decision to move to the United States. After some time visiting and living in various cities in the U.S., he settled in the Baltimore-Washington area and set up private practices in Towson, Maryland and Arlington, Virginia. Word of his remarkable affect on seriously ill patients spread quickly. He was invited to become the Senior Consultant of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Center for Integrative Medicine at University of Maryland in Baltimore, as his expertise was recognized as unique and superior even amongst the Chinese practitioners and researchers on the University of Maryland faculty.

 

Jonathan continues to be an invited teacher at both the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He has lectured on TCM and Integrative Medicine for various medical conferences throughout the U.S.A. including the American Academy of Pain Management, the American Holistic Medical Association, and the Arthritis Foundation of Maryland. Jonathan also continues to be a highly requested speaker by numerous patient support groups throughout the U.S.A.

 

As a result of Jonathan’s wide experience in Oriental Medicine and collaboration with western medical doctors, his vision of a truly integrative center came into fruition with the creation of The Gilbert Clinic in 2005, which opened premises in the northern Bethesda area of Washington, DC in 2006. The Gilbert Clinic mission is focused on the resolution of conditions – not just the management of symptoms – for which Western medicine alone has no cure.

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