Blue Sky Healing Arts Center has been serving the Gallatin Valley for over thirty years. The center is conveniently located in Bozeman, Montana at 19 Nth 10th Ave., Suite 2. It is a beautifully designed space and Owner, Thomas Sexton Licensed Acupuncturist, has over forty years experience in the healing arts, and an extensive background in Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture and Bio-energetic Therapies with a comprehensive understanding of natural healing modalities from Europe.
Thomas is one of the first class of graduates and nationally certified acupuncturists in America and attended the New England School of Acupuncture in Boston, back in 1976. Hence he has been a part of the early history, and has studied with many of the early major players in assisting acupuncture and Chinese Herbology gain a major foothold here in the US after President Nixon’s famous trip to China, bringing down the bamboo curtain in 1972.
After graduating from high school in 1971, having worked week-ends and summers in a Tool Rental Company in Newton Lower Falls Massachusetts, Thomas chose a different path from the typical college education by setting out on a life journey traveling around the world starting off in Hawaii and then to Fiji, Australia for two years and then another year in South East Asia, visiting Indonesia, Kalimantan, then to Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia while the Viet Nam War was still winding down and the US Air Force had just pulled their bases out of Thailand.
While in Bali he was involved in a motorcycle accident in Denpasar which resulted in a severe leg burn to the calf muscle which never healed properly with the use of anti biotic therapy, at the local dispensary, then choosing not to pursue his natural inclinations to swim in the ocean every day being told it was polluted with natural sewage.
Growing up every summer in Cape Cod this was always the answer to every burn, cut or wound to speed up the healing to swim in the ocean and so over a period of nine months his wound developed into a more life threatening infection, septicemia a blood disease, which over time turned into osteomyelitis of the spine having then nutritional deficiencies and a run down immune system traveling by boat, then overland to Thailand in 1973.
So exhausted and sick after nine months of travel, he sought refuge in the Buddhist Community at Wat Pho, in Bangkok Thailand, it was here that he was first exposed to Chinese Medicine assisting monks coming back for seasonal meditation retreats from the caves of Northern Thailand and hence would be of need of Chinese Herbal Medicine for chronic digestive and stress related disorders. It was not permitted for monks to carry money at that time.
It was here that Thomas learned Buddhist Philosophy and Theravada Traditions "Doctrine of the Elders" in meditation and silent retreats but soon became too ill to continue his studies and made the decision to leave Thailand and return home via Russia and England where the condition became worse and hospitalization became necessary.
For over one month he was treated in England in an isolation unit and then transported back to the US for another month of hospitalization without much success until a Cuban nurse came in and offered a back massage. It was this simple act of kindness and compassion as Thomas was near death, 128 lbs. 6'2" nothing was working with a multitude of antibiotic IV therapy in relation to turning the infection around, surgery the next option was the removal of the diseased vertebrae, while round worms were being evacuated daily from parasitic shellfish eaten while in Malaysia nine months before, but after human touch and refusing to eat, just drinking fluids and bibilical surrender he started the great turn around and the personal journey towards wholeness and healing which he has been pursuing and continuing learning about for the past 46 years.
Now well experienced and trained in both western and Chinese Herbology, (haven driven each month from his then home in Silver Spring Maryland for a year, once a month week-end course in Boston and then back again studying with Dan Bensky, Andrew Gamble, and Ted Kaptchuk to learn herb by herb the Chinese Medical System with many hours spent before , after and during with a wide variety of different spiritual and gifted healers, medical doctors, Homeopaths, Naturopaths, Chiropractors, energy healers of all types with variations, traditional, and non traditional in both classical and non classical homeopathic studies, Native American Healers, Daoist Priest's and Master's of the internal arts, as well as training and becoming a Wilderness EMT residing in the Blue Mountains of North Carolina for three months, all this following his first introduction to acupuncture in Boston with Dr. John Shen, working out of Brighton, a specialist in Chinese pulse diagnosis, and in exchange for treatments Thomas would drive Dr. Shen from Boston to New York City on Fridays then back to Boston again on Mondays in exchange for treatments and herbal therapies maintaining a practice in meditation, rest and recuperation after spending close to three months in hospitals and on his back and with a back brace on to stabilize the spine both in England and Massachusetts.
Thomas went on to pursue a career in the healing even spending a year studying to be a Physician Assistant in Medical School in Phillipi West Virginia, but that was short lived going from the medical department to the School of Philosophy , then to Art and passing classes in swimming. It was time for another adventure. So he got married at age 21 and set off with his new wife and sought out natural healing starting with a 1000 hrs training in massage, at the New Mexico school of Natural Therapuetics, then personal studies in western herbs, diet, homeopathy, colon hydrotherapy, gaining a Naturopathic degree in Europe and finishing off a degree in Chinese Acupuncture in Boston with Dr. James Tin So from Hong Kong, Ted Kaptcuk O.M.D. from Boston just back from 8 years in China, along with Bob Banover who trained in the Worsley School of Acupuncture from England. He further then completed a two and half year apprentice program with Dr. Yeh-Chong Chan OMD of Rockville MD. all the while maintaining a private practice in Silver Spring MD and Dupont Circle in Washington DC.
Thomas is one of the first class of graduates and nationally certified acupuncturists in America and attended the New England School of Acupuncture in Boston, back in 1976. Hence he has been a part of the early history, and has studied with many of the early major players in assisting acupuncture and Chinese Herbology gain a major foothold here in the US after President Nixon’s famous trip to China, bringing down the bamboo curtain in 1972.
After graduating from high school in 1971, having worked week-ends and summers in a Tool Rental Company in Newton Lower Falls Massachusetts, Thomas chose a different path from the typical college education by setting out on a life journey traveling around the world starting off in Hawaii and then to Fiji, Australia for two years and then another year in South East Asia, visiting Indonesia, Kalimantan, then to Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia while the Viet Nam War was still winding down and the US Air Force had just pulled their bases out of Thailand.
While in Bali he was involved in a motorcycle accident in Denpasar which resulted in a severe leg burn to the calf muscle which never healed properly with the use of anti biotic therapy, at the local dispensary, then choosing not to pursue his natural inclinations to swim in the ocean every day being told it was polluted with natural sewage.
Growing up every summer in Cape Cod this was always the answer to every burn, cut or wound to speed up the healing to swim in the ocean and so over a period of nine months his wound developed into a more life threatening infection, septicemia a blood disease, which over time turned into osteomyelitis of the spine having then nutritional deficiencies and a run down immune system traveling by boat, then overland to Thailand in 1973.
So exhausted and sick after nine months of travel, he sought refuge in the Buddhist Community at Wat Pho, in Bangkok Thailand, it was here that he was first exposed to Chinese Medicine assisting monks coming back for seasonal meditation retreats from the caves of Northern Thailand and hence would be of need of Chinese Herbal Medicine for chronic digestive and stress related disorders. It was not permitted for monks to carry money at that time.
It was here that Thomas learned Buddhist Philosophy and Theravada Traditions "Doctrine of the Elders" in meditation and silent retreats but soon became too ill to continue his studies and made the decision to leave Thailand and return home via Russia and England where the condition became worse and hospitalization became necessary.
For over one month he was treated in England in an isolation unit and then transported back to the US for another month of hospitalization without much success until a Cuban nurse came in and offered a back massage. It was this simple act of kindness and compassion as Thomas was near death, 128 lbs. 6'2" nothing was working with a multitude of antibiotic IV therapy in relation to turning the infection around, surgery the next option was the removal of the diseased vertebrae, while round worms were being evacuated daily from parasitic shellfish eaten while in Malaysia nine months before, but after human touch and refusing to eat, just drinking fluids and bibilical surrender he started the great turn around and the personal journey towards wholeness and healing which he has been pursuing and continuing learning about for the past 46 years.
Now well experienced and trained in both western and Chinese Herbology, (haven driven each month from his then home in Silver Spring Maryland for a year, once a month week-end course in Boston and then back again studying with Dan Bensky, Andrew Gamble, and Ted Kaptchuk to learn herb by herb the Chinese Medical System with many hours spent before , after and during with a wide variety of different spiritual and gifted healers, medical doctors, Homeopaths, Naturopaths, Chiropractors, energy healers of all types with variations, traditional, and non traditional in both classical and non classical homeopathic studies, Native American Healers, Daoist Priest's and Master's of the internal arts, as well as training and becoming a Wilderness EMT residing in the Blue Mountains of North Carolina for three months, all this following his first introduction to acupuncture in Boston with Dr. John Shen, working out of Brighton, a specialist in Chinese pulse diagnosis, and in exchange for treatments Thomas would drive Dr. Shen from Boston to New York City on Fridays then back to Boston again on Mondays in exchange for treatments and herbal therapies maintaining a practice in meditation, rest and recuperation after spending close to three months in hospitals and on his back and with a back brace on to stabilize the spine both in England and Massachusetts.
Thomas went on to pursue a career in the healing even spending a year studying to be a Physician Assistant in Medical School in Phillipi West Virginia, but that was short lived going from the medical department to the School of Philosophy , then to Art and passing classes in swimming. It was time for another adventure. So he got married at age 21 and set off with his new wife and sought out natural healing starting with a 1000 hrs training in massage, at the New Mexico school of Natural Therapuetics, then personal studies in western herbs, diet, homeopathy, colon hydrotherapy, gaining a Naturopathic degree in Europe and finishing off a degree in Chinese Acupuncture in Boston with Dr. James Tin So from Hong Kong, Ted Kaptcuk O.M.D. from Boston just back from 8 years in China, along with Bob Banover who trained in the Worsley School of Acupuncture from England. He further then completed a two and half year apprentice program with Dr. Yeh-Chong Chan OMD of Rockville MD. all the while maintaining a private practice in Silver Spring MD and Dupont Circle in Washington DC.
