healing happens in pairs
Healing begins with being heard. Whether or not you have told your story before, you deserve to be heard. At your first session, I will invite you to share your experiences, observations and concerns. And, I will listen. I will listen with an openness to the uniqueness of your story, and I will listen with the benefit of twenty years of clinical practice. This interest in and respect for your story initiates a partnership dedicated to your healing.
By nature, Chinese medicine is personalized medicine. The focus is on the person rather than the disease. You will be at the center of a new and evolving narrative that we will create together.
Chinese medicine is a medical system based on close observation of nature and the human experience. living in accordance with the rhythms of nature is the number one prescription for safeguarding good health.
However, for as long as times have been “modern,” living in harmony with natural rhythms has been a challenge for humans. As we occupy an increasingly precarious landscape, there is more need than ever to cultivate a flexible resilience.
One’s inherited constitution, environment, emotional landscape and lifestyle interact to create an ever-changing, dynamic state of health. In treatment, we closely follow this ebb and flow, boosting resilience along the way.
day and night
The sunrise and sunset - opening to the day and closing into the night. What could be more mundane? Yet too much or too little of either can show up with symptoms such as insomnia and fatigue, anxiety and depression. Finding the right balance between stimulation and rest can be quite challenging in the current era. Acupuncture, herbs and small (well, sometimes not small) lifestyle adjustments can do a lot to restore this balance.
the moon cycle
Chinese medicine is well known for treating gynecological conditions including amenorrhea, cycle irregularities, PMS, painful periods, endometriosis, PCOS, vulvodynia, infertility, and postpartum conditions. Peri-menopause, the transition away from monthly cycling, is acknowledged in the ancient texts as a key phase in the cycle of life. Treatment offers relief from symptoms and support for this transition with an eye toward setting up the conditions for optimal health in menopause.
the daily beat of the drum
The digestive system is known as the Earth system. This system’s happy place is seasonally appropriate, wholesome meals, lovingly prepared and eaten at regular times, ideally with pleasant company. When intact, this system produces a steady stream of energy to fuel activity all through the day. When out of balance, there can be fatigue and all manner of digestive issues - constipation, diarrhea, bloating, IBS, SIBO, heart burn, reflux, and inflammatory bowel disease.
for thousands of years, Practitioners of chinese medicine have observed the tendency to flow in and out of harmony with nature’s rhythms. Today, we benefit from the fruits of this work - methods to treat a multitude of conditions.
the rivers
The acupuncture meridians are like rivers and streams flowing through the body. When they are blocked, there can be pain - pain in muscles and joints, as well as pain from injury. Common postural issues related to sitting at computers and over-use of keyboards and phones can lead to shoulder, back and neck pain as well as headaches. Acupuncture frees up the blockages, so that the rivers in the body flow abundantly, nourishing tissue and supporting all of the activities we need and love to do.
the seasons
The four seasons have a significant impact on health. When we begin to notice this and live in harmony with seasonal shifts, we become more robust and less apt to fall prey to each season’s pitfalls. That means fewer colds and flus in the fall and winter, more emotional stability in the spring, and better digestion and heat tolerance in the summer. We enjoy the full expression of a yearly cycle - quiet and inspiration in the winter, new beginnings in the spring, full blooming in the summer and letting go in the fall to allow the whole process to begin again.
storms and complex rhythms
Sometimes nature acts up. There is a central concept in Chinese medicine known as counterflow, which simply means going against the flow. Headaches and nausea are examples of counterflow - energy that should be moving downward is going up instead. Inflammation is a more complex version of counterflow found in many auto-immune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and fibromyalgia. Migraines, long Covid, dizziness and vertigo are also treated by correcting counterflow to re-establish proper physiology.
meet your practitioner
My first experience with acupuncture was in South Korea, where I taught English after completing a B.A. in liberal arts at Oberlin College. I had injured my knee doing Hapkido and was treated with acupuncture and herbal medicine. My knee made a full recovery, but in the process, I noticed something beyond a return to function - an unnamable yet palpable sense of healing that was new to me. I appreciated the quiet sanctuary of the clinic, the calm focused attention of the practitioner, and the internal connection to the body elicited by the acupuncture treatments.
I decided to study the medicine formally and completed a four-year masters of science in Chinese medicine at Pacific College of Health Science in 2002 and opened my practice in April of 2003.
My focus is on classical Chinese medicine, which seeks to revive the full healing potential of Chinese medicine by a deep reading of the cannon of classical texts, which have been continuously studied since ancient times. I have studied with the preeminent teachers of this tradition, including extensive studies of acupuncture, bodywork and herbal medicine with Andrew and JulieAnn Nugent-Head. I had the rare opportunity to refine my knowledge of this medicine in the traditional way, through clinical observation, and have completed over 400 hours of clinical observation in the Nugent-Heads’ clinic in Asheville, NC.
My work is also informed by a lifelong interest in movement, including modern dance, yoga, acrobatics, aerial arts and qi cultivation (pictured). I am board certified in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine and am a licensed acupuncturist in the state of New York.