DID YOU KNOW… that some of the most powerful formulas for treating women’s health conditions were written nearly two thousand years ago?
Many practitioners think of the Shāng Hán Zá Bìng Lùn as a book primarily concerned with external illness. Of course, this text is about so much more than this and Zhang Zhongjing devoted considerable attention to women’s medicine, particularly in the gynecology, pregnancy, postpartum, and miscellaneous women’s disease chapters of the Jīn Guì Yào Lüè . These formulas remain some of the most elegant and clinically effective treatments available for women today.
In the Women’s Great Turning Program, Sharon Weizenbaum teaches practitioners how to understand these classical formulas through the lens of physiology and pattern recognition. Rather than memorizing indications, students learn to see how formulas express both pathology and treatment strategy. When viewed through the lens of Great Turning physiology, Zhang Zhongjing’s formulas become living expressions of the body’s attempt to restore right relationship and healthy cyclical movement.
At the same time, we are not rigidly attached to classical formulas simply because they are classical. The Great Turning approach teaches us to understand physiology first and formulas second. Once the physiological pattern is clear, we can recognize that many later formulas are expressing principles that are entirely consistent with the classical tradition.
Throughout the course, students learn to understand important later formulas such as Xiao Yao San, Long Dan Xie Gan Tang, and Bi Xie Fen Qing Yin through the same physiological framework that illuminates the Shang Han Za Bing Lun. We also explore formulas from Fu Qingzhu, whose writings transformed the treatment of women’s medicine, as well as experiential formulas from Sharon’s obstetrics and gynecology teacher, Dr. Qiu Xiaomei, whose clinical methods continue to influence practitioners today.
Through detailed case studies from our own practices, you’ll see how experienced clinicians determine the underlying pattern, choose an appropriate method, and then select or modify formulas accordingly. The emphasis is never on formula loyalty. The emphasis is on understanding physiology so deeply that the appropriate treatment naturally emerges.
Students are encouraged to bring questions and cases from their own practices for discussion. These conversations provide valuable opportunities to see how classical principles can be applied to modern clinical presentations and difficult cases.
You’ll also receive exclusive eBooks compiled and translated by Sharon Weizenbaum containing classical source material, formula discussions, physician commentaries, and case studies related to women’s health. As the program progresses, these resources become a substantial clinical reference library that practitioners continue to use long after the course has ended.
When practitioners understand the physiology that unites the classical formulas, later formulas, and modern clinical experience, herbal medicine becomes simpler, deeper, and far more effective.
The Women's Great Turning one year program begins in September of 2026
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