I didn't come to this work from a textbook.

Raised between science and the holistic

My father was the family health nut: a daily jogger with a cabinet full of supplements and an endless curiosity. My mother spent 40 years as a labor and delivery nurse, with a gift for making people feel safe and cared for. I grew up where both the scientific and the holistic were valued, where healing meant truly understanding the body and mind.

The moment that changed everything

During my first year of an intensive master's in Chinese Medicine, my sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I watched powerful treatment after powerful treatment wear her down, while no one was supporting her body through it, helping her stay strong enough to tolerate what she was given, or tending to what those treatments took out of her. The problem was never the treatment. It was that no one was caring for the whole person going through it. That lit a fire in me to learn a different way to heal, one that supports the body's own ability to recover, not only the disease.

My own road back to health

In the middle of my studies, my own health unraveled under stress and grief. Over the next decade, acupuncture, herbal medicine, targeted nutrition, and lifestyle change helped me rebalance my hormones and restore my energy. I went on to earn my clinical doctorate, specialize in women's health and reproductive medicine, and train in integrative hospitals in China.

The missing piece: functional medicine

Even then, certain symptoms lingered. Discovering functional medicine changed everything. I dove into thousands of hours of advanced training, and finally found my own answer: celiac disease. Within two months of removing gluten, I felt like myself again. That's the power of finding the root cause, and it's what I bring to every client.