About
My Treatment Philosophy
Ideas of what health is vary between different people, throughout different stages of our lives, and in different times of the year. My clients bring their stories, desires, life circumstances, and ideas of health to our work together. I bring my care, knowledge of Chinese medicine and my own life experiences. Together we collaborate to find a treatment plan and lifestyle changes that are doable and improve both short and long term health.
My approach to treatment is informed first and foremost by the cosmology of Chinese medicine, which sees any aspect of our health as related to all others. In order to treat a particular dis-ease a person presents with (the “branch”), we must also look at and treat any underlying imbalances (the “root”). I am also influenced by Buddhism, Daoism, and modern somatics.
I believe that all people at their core have a basic goodness that can be revealed more and more deeply through various healing modalities, including Chinese medicine. As people become more healthy they become better able to serve their communities and create a more just and loving world I want to be part of.
My Teachers
Dr. Angela C. Wu
Dr. Angela Wu is a well known fertility specialist, owner and founder of, Wu’s Healing Center, and author of the bestselling book Fertility Wisdom.
I was lucky enough to work in her clinic as a massage therapist before I started acupuncture school and through much of my studies. She taught me many things, including the efficacy of diet and lifestyle changes, the power of the right question at the right time, and how to be a student. The true scope of what she taught me about life, myself, and being a practitioner is impossible to put into words.
Liu Ming
Liu Ming was a European American that spent most of his life studying and teaching Asian culture, history, and religion. He founded an acupuncture school, created Da Yuan Circle, wrote several books, taught Chinese medicine, daoism, and Tibetan buddhism, and always kept it real.
Ming immersed me the Daoist and Asian worldview that underlies Chinese medicine. He continually poked holes in any absolute reality I had created for myself in a way that expanded my experience of what is possible. And I am most certainly a better cook, more regular meditator, and have much more access to my best self because of the time I spent with him.
Dr. Tin Lui
Dr. Lui was born into a family of herbalists in China and ended up living in Oakland near Lake Merritt. His manner was gentle, his herbal prescriptions verged on magical, and his lifestyle instructions were strong verging on commands.
Dr. Lui helped me through several health issues and taught me the importance of patience. He monitored the emotional well-being of his patients as well as the physical, and “having a good heart” was a stage in the healing process for any dis-ease.
About Me
I grew up in a small Vermont town and wanted to be a doctor from a very young age. I also had a fascination with pregnancy and babies that started around five when my younger brother was born. I named the babies in the Sears catalogue (which I carried around with me) and would drop anything I was doing to go with my dad (a veterinarian) to cold barns if he was called out for a difficult animal birth. My first experience as a doula was at 14 when my pregnant cat, Telly, would not stop yowling at me until I followed her to our guest bedroom, where she promptly birthed three kittens (and ate their placentas!).
After completing three years of pre-med courses in my undergraduate studies at NYU, I lost enthusiasm for that dream when I concluded that preventative medicine and systemic changes were more interesting to me. Without much of a plan, I moved to San Francisco.
The Bay Area has been home for the last 20 years. Here I followed a circuitous path guided by my enjoyment of cooking, my own health challenges, and my love of birth and babies into Chinese medicine with a focus on fertility, pregnancy, and the postpartum period. I have been blessed with wonderful teachers, community, and spiritual guidance along the way.
I have practiced acupuncture in a variety of settings, from private one-on-one sessions in an office to community style acupuncture seeing six people an hour in one large room. I have treated a wide variety of conditions and am so thankful to all of my patients for their trust and for making me a better practitioner every day.
When I am not studying or practicing Chinese medicine, you might find me cooking up community meals, dancing, hiking in the forest, jumping in the ocean, knitting, or playing with babies, goats, or baby goats.
The Lands That Support Me
I currently live in and practice on unceded territory that was settled on with much disregard for and violence toward the indigenous people who were tending and inhabiting the land prior to colonization. The Lisjan, Muwekma, and Ramaytush Ohlone and the Coast Miwok have continued to care for the land and welcome settlers for the last 250 years. I aim to be a good guest in this place by caring for and appreciating the spaces I live in and visit, paying Shuumi Land Tax, educating myself about indigenous history and current struggles, and continuing to grapple with what it means to be a white settler inhabiting indigenous lands.