Not just pins and needles, Josh Geetter brings integrative Chinese medicine to Telluride

Josh Geetter comes from a long line of medical providers. Growing up, while his dad served as a doctor during the Vietnam War, he lived with his grandfather, the founder of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Conn.

But when it came time to choose his own path, he took a somewhat defiant route and decided to study Chinese medicine.

“It was in my blood to do medicine, but I was rebellious,” he said. “But I feel like I stepped right into what I’m supposed to do.”

Geetter owns and runs Resource Oriental Medical Services, which brings Telluride an integrative approach to Chinese medicine.

“In our society a lot of people think of an acupuncturist as someone who throws needles at you,” Geetter said. “But Chinese medicine is not just acupuncture, there are five formal branches; I practice all of them.”

Those five branches are: acupuncture, herbology, bodywork, energy and nutrition.

To people who try to label his practice as New Age, he quips, “This is extremely old age … modern medicine is the radical new stuff.”

Upon meeting Geetter it is immediately evident he is passionate about his practice and helping heal the people of Telluride.

He originally came to Telluride for the winter in 1982 to work the Coonskin Lift. Telluride soon had a firm grasp on his soul and was always his home base. After years of guiding, finishing undergrad at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and time as a ski bum, he went to Hawaii to begin his medical studies.

“By the time I got to school, I knew who I was going to serve,” he said. “I knew I was coming back here.” During his time studying Chinese medicine he paid close attention to sports injuries or orthopedic-oriented classes because he knew he would see a lot of those injuries in such an active town.

“All the outdoor stuff just honed me in preparation for medicine and assuming my place in the community,” Geetter said.

He has one of the most extensive Chinese herbal pharmacies on the Western Slope and doctors from Telluride and elsewhere will refer patients to him.

“In Telluride we have better integrative medical care than any of the big hospitals, we have an unusually high level of commitment from the medical practitioners in this town,” he said. “We all know each other, we all ski together and we all know many of the patients.”

Kirsten Farris is visiting from Dallas and was referred to Geetter by a friend to treat her vertigo.

“For two months, I couldn’t function,” she said after an acupuncture appointment with him. She visited him three times over nine days and said she has seen dramatic results.

“My energy is back, I’m more focused,” Farris said.

Unfortunately she has to return to Dallas, but Geetter has referred her to practitioners in the area for further treatments. “I wish I could take him back with me,” she said.