People often ask how I ended up here, studying acupuncture, writing about Qi, and building a women’s wellness practice rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
The truth is, this path didn’t start in a classroom. It’s been forming quietly for decades, through story, birth work, and the medicine of everyday life.
The Early Sparks
I’ve always been drawn to healing. As a kid, I was an avid reader, the kind who lived half in books, and was always partial to an adventure with herbs, ancient medicine, and the invisible forces that help the body heal itself.
I didn’t grow up in a TCM household, but I spent time in homes where food and medicine were never separate. Broths simmered on the stove. The smell of ginger and garlic meant someone was being cared for. I saw the red marks left by gua sha, made with coins or jar lids, and the familiar little jar of Tiger Balm that seemed to fix everything.
Even then, I could feel that real care had rhythm, it lived in warmth, nourishment, and attention.
From Birth Work to Body Wisdom
When I became a doula, that early curiosity found its form. I spent years supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, witnessing both the raw beauty and the depletion that can follow.
During that time, I trained in placenta encapsulation and placentophagy, and that’s when I met a TCM doctor who was also studying this practice. Training along side her, and later hearing her speak at a conference, completely expanded my understanding of what “nourishment” really means.
I learned about herbal energetics, how warmth, tonification, and gentle restoration are at the heart of postpartum recovery in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It made sense instantly. The wisdom I’d seen expressed in soups and slow care had an entire system behind it, one that honored women’s bodies, blood, and boundaries.
From that point on, I couldn’t unsee the power of this medicine.
The Marketing Years
When I moved to rural New Brunswick from Alberta, my focus shifted. I began helping wellness professionals, including acupuncturists, with their marketing. I learned their stories inside out, wrote about their work, and heard what their patients said.
Somewhere between the interviews and the healing testimonials, I realized I wasn’t just promoting this medicine. I was falling in love with it.
The Medicine Met Me Halfway
By then, my own health had worn thin. Years of mothering, stress, and over-giving had left me depleted. Acupuncture, herbs, and food energetics became my way back to balance.
It wasn’t quick or flashy. It was slow, deep, and steady, the kind of healing that feels like remembering.
When my oldest daughter sent me a copy of Between Heaven and Earth, with a note encouraging my goal to become an acupuncturist, I cried. The book gave me language for what I had already lived, the exhaustion of sinking Spleen Qi, the need for rhythm and warmth, the medicine of rest. I used it as a guide to begin healing myself.
Coming Full Circle
Now that I’m formally studying Traditional Chinese Medicine, it doesn’t feel like starting something new, it feels like coming home.
Everything I’ve done, from tending to mothers, to writing other healers’ stories, to learning how to care for my own body, has been leading me here.
Why I Chose This Path
I chose Traditional Chinese Medicine because it’s one of the few systems that holds the complexity of being human, body, mind, spirit, and story.
It’s practical, poetic, and profoundly relational.
It reminds us that healing isn’t about control; it’s about cooperation.
I’m not here to own this medicine, I’m here to learn it deeply, practice it ethically, and share it with reverence.
Because when women reconnect to their rhythm, they reconnect to their power.
And that’s the kind of healing I want to be part of.
A Gentle Note: I’m a student of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and this space reflects my learning as it unfolds. TCM is deep, layered, and complex, and I’m still finding my footing within it. I will refine my understanding over time. I will make mistakes. That’s part of doing this honestly. What I share here is my current perspective, shaped by my teachers, clinical training, lived experience, and my own biases. It’s not absolute, it’s evolving. I welcome thoughtful conversation, shared insight, and respectful correction along the way. I humbly welcome your insight. Let’s learn together. You can always find me over on Instagram to keep the conversation going.