I have worked in various capacities within healthcare for the past eighteen years. After earning my B.S. and M.S. in Health Policy and Administration, I spent the first part of my career consulting with hospitals and corporations on how to improve the health of patients and employees. Many of us spend the majority of our time in our working environment. Although individuals can make many healthy choices for themselves, if their work environment is not conducive to health, it will be difficult for them to feel well. Helping organizations make investments in creating a healthy workplace benefits, not only the employees, but the corporation.

As time passed, I felt I could have a greater impact on individual wellness as a practitioner. Through a unique opportunity, I was hired to design a patient advocacy program in an emergency department of a hospital. After designing it, I chose to leave the corporate world and become certified in counseling and work as one of the patient advocates in order to gain clinical experience. To this day, I tell people that my time spent in that ER was some of my best training! It confirmed my desire to work with patients but also confirmed that I wanted to study alternative medicine. I returned to school and earned a master’s degree in Asian medicine in Boston. While studying, I worked as a group therapist in with adolescents and adults. After graduating, I joined a wellness center with a group of holistic practitioners where I then worked as an acupuncturist. With time, I began to specialize in women’s health issues, digestive disorders and autoimmune diseases.

Until that time, most of my moves had been for school or work. However, it was love that took me to California. My husband had applied to do his fellowship in Orthopedics Sports Medicine in northern California. As an alternative medicine practitioner, it was like being a kid in a candy shop. There were so many opportunities to learn new techniques and mentor with skilled practitioners. I began to see that although Asian medicine holds the wisdom of thousands of years, it is not entirely equipped to treat the complex health challenges that our modern environment present. I grew to appreciate the effectiveness of integrating Asian medicine with nutrition and functional medicine to better identify the root cause of someone’s ailment in addition to alleviating their symptoms.

Functional Medicine incorporates several of the diagnostic tools of western medicine but focuses on the use of nutrition, herbs and alternative. Our bodies give us many warning signs before we are actually sick. By incorporating objective diagnostic tests into my Asian medicine and nutrition practice, I am better able to assess deficiencies and identify specific patterns of imbalance before pathology is apparent. This is true preventative medicine.

My husband and I moved to Charleston in the spring of 2011.  I'm in the process of launching my new practice, Living Natural Medicine.  Although, digestion, woman’s health and autoimmune diseases continue to be the main aspects of my work, I’m always surprising to find how many symptoms are improved by working on digestion and removing allergens. Some of the most common symptoms that I see improve: headaches/migraines, chronic infections, fatigue, painful joints, acne and other skin problems, fertility, GI upset, insomnia, mood, focus and weight loss. I always emphasize the role that food and lifestyle play in our healing. Providing education on wellness and the medicinal use of food empowers patients with the knowledge to heal themselves and their families.