Education and Clinical Focus
I am a Nationally Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Emperor's College in Santa Monica with a Master’s in Traditional Oriental Medicine. I have been practicing for over 10 years and am board certified in California, Texas, North Dakota and Minnesota (have needles, will travel)
As a general practitioner, my area of focus shifts depending on patient population presenting. Pain or some level of annoying discomfort is the most common complaint seen in clinic, so I treat a lot of that. As an aging runner my interest in injury recovery and prevention is in full bloom. Treating pain and Orthopedics is fairly straightforward, either you feel better or not. The tools we have to treat pain set this medicine apart by leaps and bounds.
Women's Health is another clinical focus that I immensely enjoy treating, not to make it about me. We endure enough suffering, your cycle does not have to be an added insult. There is a level of functioning that we can just get used to or accept as our baseline. This does not have to be true or an issue we care about only if fertility is the end goal. This medicine can change your life and free you from that way of thinking.
Post graduate advanced trainings include: Advanced Herbal and Diagnostic Training, Sports Medicine Acupuncture, Motor Point/Muscle Activation Needling, Electro-Acupuncture for Pain and Microneedling for skincare.
Clinical experience includes treating patients across the country in both private and collaborative settings with other practitioners using multiple disciplines.
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The Roy and Patricia Disney Cancer Center - Glendale, CA
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Venice Family Clinic Simms-Mann Health and Wellness Center - Venice, CA
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Private practice at Ray of Light Acupuncture and Herbs - Los Angeles, CA & Austin, TX
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Aspen Acupuncture - Moorhead, MN
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Healing Tree - Grand Forks, ND
Currently Practicing at SomaReform and Wellness Collective
and the C4 Performance Center Wellness Center
My Story
Out In The Wild
As a human outside the clinic I am in a season of life that is pretty busy with my 5 year old daughter and 2 ancient chihuahuas. I have been in Austin for 3 years now and it is starting to feel like home.
I love to be out in the world socializing with friends, sitting out in the yard, taking on home improvement projects that are way beyond my skill level, spending long weekends visiting friends in other parts of the country, or hosting and showing them all the cool stuff that Austin has to offer.
My underground hobby is ultra running. I have had to take a break for the past few years, life, but am still chasing a buckle. Maybe 2027 will be my year.
How I Started with This Medicine
My Interest in traditional medicine began from personal experience as a patient, like first Acupuncture session as a pre-teen. I literally fell in love with the seemly magic aspect of it. In my high school years my Acupuncturist would tolerate me hanging around his office and looking at herbal text, which often included the most graphic tongue photos ever. If you think your tongue looks and feels nasty when you are sick that is nothing in comparison!
As a UCSC graduate with a Bachelor's in Environmental Science, knowledge of phenomenon in nature helped form a lens in which to view the human body through. This helped when drawing parallels between the many physical ailments of today and disharmony in ecological macrosystems, which is the same framework with which traditional medicines view the body.
I am super lucky that from a young age I knew this is what I wanted to be my life's work to be. There have been plenty exploring and maturing along the way. So not a direct A to B trajectory, which is usually how life plays out.