Alumni Spotlight: Robert Leversee, MD, MSA, LAc

When the family legacy calls for listening to your heart, even the impossible seems possible

Because Robert "Bob" Leversee, MD, MSA, LAc, grew up in an unconventional family in very conventional Bellevue, Washington, he tends to be drawn to the path less traveled. In fact, not only does he march to the beat of a different drummer, he dances to the unpredictable beat of an entire percussion band.

"My folks were rather liberal free-thinkers in a community known for being conservative," says Dr. Leversee. "They taught me to follow my heart, to listen to what is authentically coming out of you."

Leversee's free spirit may very well be hardwired into his genes, since his grandfather was a rather unique Minnesota high-school shop teacher who, during the Depression, built a large wooden boat in his backyard with dreams of someday spending summers living on it. Treated like a modern-day Noah by his skeptical neighbors, he regularly heard pronouncements about the foolishness of his project. A few years later those naysayers had to eat their words when Grandfather Leversee did the "impossible" by launching his boat on a nearby river and happily spending summer vacations living out his dream.

Although Leversee was adept at gardening and woodworking, his preferred medium of expression was water. During his college years, he took off to Hawaii to lifeguard, and later he lived on a boat in Rhode Island while teaching windsurfing. Between his recreational pursuits, Leversee studied at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, following an academic track (Philosophy of Science) he'd created himself in consultation with his professors.

Somewhere between his books and the beach, Leversee found time to go on a blind date with Heidi Wasch, a fellow student ... and now his wife. "We've been together 20 years, so I guess it was one of the few blind dates in history that actually worked," he laughs.

After receiving his BA in 1985, Leversee remained in Connecticut while Heidi worked on a PhD in psychology. This provided the perfect opportunity for Leversee to return to school to pick up pre-med credits because, by then, he'd decided to become a medical doctor. "My father had been one of the first family practice physicians in Bellevue, and he later taught at the University of Washington School of Medicine," says Leversee. "Since I was fascinated by the science of the body and healing, the study of medicine seemed like a natural step for me."

Later, while living in Connecticut, Leversee began seeing a highly respected acupuncturist, John Shen, famous for his "pulse systems" approach. Having already traveled with Heidi for eight months throughout Asia and observing the widespread use and effectiveness of Chinese medicine, Leversee was this time more receptive to the ancient practice of healing. "Dr. Shen opened my eyes to the power of acupuncture," he says. "It was transformative."

So impressed was Leversee, in fact, that after finishing his pre-med requirements, he moved to Boston to study Chinese medicine in more depth at the New England School of Acupuncture. Leversee, however, soon found himself at the proverbial fork in the road when, after his first year of acupuncture training, he was accepted into the University of Connecticut's medical school. But, rather than choosing between the two schools and two very different medical philosophies, he detoured back to Washington where he entered Bastyr's acupuncture program and he applied to University of Washington's School of Medicine.

In his second year at Bastyr, Leversee felt the pressure once again to choose between Western and Eastern medicine. In the spirit of his grand-father, he decided to do the "impossible" and study both . . . simultaneously.

It helped that he found the faculty at both campuses to be excellent. "I really enjoyed Western medicine at UW," he says. "They were an amazing group of people. And I also liked my teachers and classmates at Bastyr; they were warm and generous. I discovered that Bastyr instructors were really gifted at teaching students to sit in the presence of all that the patient brings to the treatment room."

Leversee does confess that during this time he felt buffeted by the initial cognitive dissonance of trying to wrap his brain around two totally different approaches to medicine. "I felt split," he says. "How could both systems be right? But then I realized they're just two different maps to the body. It's not either/or. It's both. Both systems have validity."

In 1997, Leversee graduated from Bastyr with a master's degree in acupuncture. Then, in 1998, he received his MD degree from University of Washington. That was when Leversee finally felt he needed to choose between the two medical systems. "I was at a point where I realized I could do one or the other really well, but not both. It was a very difficult decision, but eventually my heart told me to choose Chinese medicine. I've found that Chinese medicine is more of an art than a science, and that's what I love about it."

Leversee is very satisfied with his choice. He continues to be surprised and intrigued by the power of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and he's seen the tremendous results patients experience when they're taught and encouraged to tap into their own healing strengths. "What fascinates me is the newness of each patient," says Leversee, describing his current practice. "I'm encouraged to investigate my own patterns of balance and imbalance. That makes the encounters with my patients really rich."

Leversee is already busy building that bridge by lecturing on natural medicine to University of Washington second-year medical students in their required Introduction to Clinical Medicine course. This is something that surprises and delights his father who admits he never thought he'd see the day. "As you can imagine, my choice of acupuncture over conventional medicine was difficult on my dad at first," says Leversee. "But he's a convert now, and he even receives acupuncture treatments himself."

When Leversee isn't busy practicing or lecturing, he's enjoying the company of Heidi (who shares an office building with him in the Wallingford area of Seattle) and their 51/2-year-old daughter Maya, adopted from China. In 2002, he and his wife traveled to China to help build children's playgrounds in orphanages throughout the country. While their efforts didn't involve the building of any wooden boats, they did invoke the Leversee spirit of fashioning reality out of the dreams of one's heart. And that, it would seem, is a legacy any family could be proud of.