Who we are
The Center for Sustainable Medicine was created to:
- Educate the public and scientific community about the need for sustainable and ecologically sound forms of medicine.
- Help preserve indigenous medicinal plants and knowledge for future generations.
- Create dialogue between practitioners, thinkers, and visionaries in the fields of Medicine, Alternative Healing, and Environmental Studies
- Support the worldwide development of clinics and hospitals providing sustainable healthcare
Didi Pershouse, Director
In 2006, Didi Pershouse founded The Center for Sustainable Medicine with the goal of bringing together cutting-edge thinking in the fields of environmental studies, health care, and systems theory, in order to create a new model of care. This work inspired her book, "The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities." During her time running the Center for Sustainable Medicine, Didi Pershouse was well known as a health-care provider in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, with more than twenty years of experience treating patients with gentle and respectful care.
Didi grew up in a family of medical and educational pioneers, and spent her childhood bicycling through the hallways of her world-famous neurosurgeon grandfather’s house and attending experimental schools in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as Mexico City. She received her B.A. in Asian Studies from Barnard College in New York City, and did extensive coursework at the Institute for Depth Psychology in Rye, New York.
After college, she worked as an editor and writer in the Creative Services Department at New York Magazine for five years, then embarked on a multidisciplinary career in health care, beginning with a teacher’s training course at Integral Yoga Institute, where she used to go to recover after long days in the smoke-filled editorial office. She did an internship in Shiatsu, then attended Seattle Massage School. She obtained her license in Acupuncture after completing four years of training in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine at the Northwest Institute for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and the New England School of Acupuncture. She did postgraduate studies in Acupuncture with both blind and sighted teachers from China and Japan. She also became nationally certified as a classical homeopath by the Council for Homeopathic Certification, and co-authored “Vital Expression, A Workbook on Homeopathic Casetaking," published by Inner Health Publications.
Since moving to Vermont, she founded the multidisciplinary Two Rivers Clinic, which later became the Center for Sustainable Medicine. She spearheaded a successful effort to preserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland as a conservation commissioner, and for years, maintained a sliding-scale private practice in acupuncture and health counseling.
To learn about Didi's current work related soil health, community resiliency, leadership, and more, visit her current website.
Didi grew up in a family of medical and educational pioneers, and spent her childhood bicycling through the hallways of her world-famous neurosurgeon grandfather’s house and attending experimental schools in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as Mexico City. She received her B.A. in Asian Studies from Barnard College in New York City, and did extensive coursework at the Institute for Depth Psychology in Rye, New York.
After college, she worked as an editor and writer in the Creative Services Department at New York Magazine for five years, then embarked on a multidisciplinary career in health care, beginning with a teacher’s training course at Integral Yoga Institute, where she used to go to recover after long days in the smoke-filled editorial office. She did an internship in Shiatsu, then attended Seattle Massage School. She obtained her license in Acupuncture after completing four years of training in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine at the Northwest Institute for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and the New England School of Acupuncture. She did postgraduate studies in Acupuncture with both blind and sighted teachers from China and Japan. She also became nationally certified as a classical homeopath by the Council for Homeopathic Certification, and co-authored “Vital Expression, A Workbook on Homeopathic Casetaking," published by Inner Health Publications.
Since moving to Vermont, she founded the multidisciplinary Two Rivers Clinic, which later became the Center for Sustainable Medicine. She spearheaded a successful effort to preserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland as a conservation commissioner, and for years, maintained a sliding-scale private practice in acupuncture and health counseling.
To learn about Didi's current work related soil health, community resiliency, leadership, and more, visit her current website.