Hello,

I am a DACM, or Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. In 2001, I graduated from Bastyr University in Bothell, Washington just north of Seattle. I completed the University's 4 year MSAOM or masters program of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. At the time it was the highest education available in order to practice. I organized and participated in the university's first preceptorship of EAM (East Asian medicine) in Wakayama, Japan.

In the fall of 2001, I finished my studies at Longhua hospital in Shanghai, China. I did rounds in the internal medicine, gynecology and traumatology departments. The hospital is known for its integrated use of both Western and Eastern medicines.

In 2018, I completed the doctorate program at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego CA. In total, I've been privileged to help people using traditional East Asian medicine for over 15 years.

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What started me on the path to practicing EAM?

Needing it as a patient first to help with chronic back pain convinced me almost immediately that EAM was something great. One day I realized that I had become part of a statistic: I was one of the 80% of Americans who have lower back pain. It was concerning, I had no history of any long-term, chronic health problems and I couldn't remember any trauma which might have explained why I "suddenly" had pain.

After thinking it over, I had to admit that there had been prior contributors to the problem. My pain had finally gotten strong enough to show up on what I call a person's "radar screen of awareness" but the problem had been growing long before the pain.

I had worked at jobs which could've helped lead to the pain, plus I had fallen in a skiing accident, years earlier. At the time I believed it hadn't affected me  but later I realized it did have a long-term impact on my health. Also, after spending 4+ years learning about East Asian medicine, I could look back and know that there were other factors contributing to my chronic pain.

By the time the pain had grown strong enough to have a negative impact on my activities of daily life, I was about 3 weeks away from moving to Japan. I didn't know it at the time, but I was about to start my education in integrative medicine. I started chiropractic visits and boy did that feel great! But because of the looming deadline to move and all the time and effort required for that, there wasn't enough time for the adjustments to "take".

When I arrived in Japan I had no idea whether they had chiropractic medicine and I didn't feel entirely comfortable getting adjustments from someone with whom I couldn't yet communicate. The cousin of the family who "adopted me" happened to be an acupuncturist.

With the help of my bi-lingual Japanese friend I started going to Akio, my acupuncturist. At first I went twice a week. Not only did my back begin to feel great but I had an overall feeling of mind/body balance and at times I even felt euphoric.

It took about two months of bi-weekly visits, eventually reducing to once a week then reducing my visits to once every other week for a few weeks to resolve my back pain. Long after my back felt fine I was still looking for excuses to go see Akio because I would always feel so good after his treatments.

16+ years later and I still think it's a great tool from which we can all benefit. I hope it's a great tool for you too.

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And the learning never stops- while continuing to offer East Asian medicine, clinical hypnotherapy is a new and exciting addition to our menu of healthcare options to bring about true, deep, lasting change to your health.

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Come try us out!