I didn't find traditional Chinese medicine — it found me when I needed it most.

Like a lot of people who end up in integrative medicine, I got here because Western medicine failed me. Five different doctors either couldn't or wouldn't treat my walking pneumonia. I was sick, frustrated, and running out of options. Out of desperation, I enrolled in a TCM course on Coursera, found a simple ginger tea formula, and healed myself.

That was the moment everything changed. But honestly, the seeds were always there. I've always been drawn to herbalism, to alternative and integrative medicine, to the idea that the body has an innate capacity to heal when given the right support. I've studied Western herbalism, Ayurvedic herbalism, and now traditional Chinese medicine. And of all the traditions I've explored, TCM feels most like home.

I chose to train at Yosan University in Los Angeles deliberately. Yosan holds something rare. They've maintained the Taoist philosophy — a philosophical foundation that is so deeply woven into TCM that separating them feels like gutting the medicine. Under Dr. Mao Xing Ni and within the Ni family Daoist lineage, I'm not just learning how to treat symptoms, I'm learning to understand health as a reflection of balance, self-cultivation, and our relationship with the natural world.

I want to graduate confident and capable, the kind of practitioner who hits the ground running and actually makes a difference in people's lives. The clients I most want to serve are the ones who've been told, your numbers look fine, while they're clearly suffering. The ones who've been dismissed, given no answers, or handed a prescription that treats a label instead of a person. I know that experience intimately, I've lived it, and I've been failed by Western medicine in ways that left me feeling alone with my own health.

I also watched somebody that I love navigate years of unanswered medical questions, and I believe integrative medicine could offer what conventional medicine hasn't. A framework that sees the whole person, not just the lab reports. TCM doesn't ask what disease do you have. It asks, what's out of balance, and how do we bring you back to yourself? That question guides everything I do.

My training spans acupuncture, herbal medicine, both Chinese and Western, self-healing Qigong, Infinichi-style energy healing, I Ching consultation, and animal acupuncture and herbs. I believe healing is rarely a straight line, which is why this practice is called the winding path. The path matters as much as the destination, and I want to walk it alongside you.

Outside the clinic, I'm what most people would generously call eclectic. I work with animals at a veterinary clinic, and I'm training in animal acupuncture because, honestly, animals deserve good medicine too. I raise chickens, share my home with two dogs and four cats, grow my own herbs and vegetables, and cook most things from scratch, including my own herbal formulas. I play piano, sing, and I'm making sure my son learns the violin because music is non-negotiable in our house. I have a serious spiritual practice, a home altar, and an embarrassingly large collection of murder mysteries.

There's always a new project in progress and something simmering on the stove. If you felt failed, dismissed, or like your help is too complicated to be helped, you're exactly who I'm here for.