I am a first generation Chinese American born on Jackson Street and raised in the outer Richmond District in San Francisco. My parents were Chinese immigrants, and I’ve always known I wanted to be a doctor. As a child, images from Alex Haley’s “Roots” and Sally Struther’s “Christian Children’s Fund” commercials profoundly imprinted on me that human suffering hurt everyone. So unknowingly everything I have done in my life has led me to become a Chinese Medicine practitioner.
I was a volunteer for the San Francisco Suicide Prevention throughout high school and college. In fact, it was only after earning my massage certification in my 20s and began working full time that I stopped my volunteer work as a telephone peer counselor. I was a massage therapist for 10 years until I developed arthritis in my thumbs. My joints were deformed and calcified as a result of applying constant pressure during massage. In addition, I developed tennis elbow and shoulder stiffness so I decided to take time off from massage and work in the field of Cartography.
Shortly after the death of my father I realized that the time had come to fully accept my ancestry and integrate the “better” ideals from my family life. It was while trying to find my life’s path that I remembered a pivotal moment in my life. At 19 I stayed with a wonderful Filipino family in London and they took me to a “fortune teller” who said I was to be a doctor. At the time, I didn’t want to believe nor was I ready to accept the responsibility, but ten years later I finally confronted my truth: I wanted to be a doctor.
I chose Chinese Medicine because it resonated with who I am. My Great Grandfather and Grandfather were Chinese herbalists, so the smells, looks and feels of herbs were familiar and relatively comforting. I took an introductory Chinese herbal class through my local community college to see if I wanted to follow this path and fell in love with the philosophy, history, complexity, and the medicine itself.
It took me eight long years to finally complete my training at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. During my schooling, I had two lovely children which lead to the realization that I wanted to specialize in Pediatrics and Nutrition. If we can feed our children the right foods when they are young, they will be healthy throughout their adult life into old age.
I will always continue to learn. Experience has taught me that that nutrition plays an important part in preventing cardiovascular diseases like high cholesterol and high blood pressure and childhood diseases like ADD, ADHD and Autism, as well as Aging. Therefore I am constantly seeking further education in those areas – all with the goal of providing the most holistic treatment possible for my clients.
