I am a white settler trans woman who came to western holistic and Chinese medicine after 8 years of work in activist communities where I honed my collectivist values. Through immersion I observed a deep need to address our physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies alongside liberation work for the social body. 

I began my studies at Pacific Rim College starting in Fall 2017, completing a Diploma of Acupuncture in December 2020. Licensed in the so-called province of British Columbia since December 2021, I am interested in the ways in which the Daoist philosophy underpinning Chinese medicine and classical Chinese medical texts makes space for identities, bodies, minds, and hearts unrecognizable to mainstream Western culture. Part of this exploration has led me to undertaking mentorship as a Balance System Acupuncture certified practitioner under Shīfu Dr. Sonia Tan. I completed the formal certification in April 2025, but the mentorship provided by BSA instructors is a lifelong path. 

As a trans woman, during a time when the rights of trans people and many other marginalized people are being offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of fear and division, I am particularly interested in how acupuncture and Chinese medicine can be accessed as an effective and financially accessible form of health care to fill in the gaps that many of us experience when engaging with the conventional medical system. I intend to provide a space where people can be seen and held in their unique embodied humanity while taking care of their earthly form and all its needs and intricacies.