My Journey into Healing and Acupuncture
My interest in food, health, and healing began long before I became an acupuncture physician. I started working in professional kitchens at about age 16 and spent much of my early adult life as a chef.
In the late 1980s, I became fascinated by the relationship between food, nutrition, energy, and health. I began studying natural approaches to nutrition, including veganism, macrobiotics, and the Pritikin approach, and eventually opened a small health-food café where I could put many of these ideas into practice.
As much as I enjoyed working with food and nutrition, I felt there was something deeper I wanted to understand about the human body and the healing process.
That changed when I attended an open house at a school of Traditional Chinese Medicine and listened to a presentation about acupuncture. Its approach to understanding the body as an interconnected system immediately made sense to me. I knew I had found the direction I wanted to pursue.
I sold the café, moved to Miami, and began my formal education in Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture. I attended school during the day and continued working as a chef at night to support myself.
After completing my training, I helped manage a nonprofit acupuncture clinic associated with the school. In 1992, I entered private practice and established Alive and Well Acupuncture Clinic in Delray Beach, Florida.
Over the years, my approach has continued to evolve. Acupuncture remains at the foundation of my work, while continued postgraduate education has expanded my perspective to include Biological Medicine, ART and EAV assessment, herbal and nutritional medicine, advanced laboratory analysis, and genetic and methylation assessment.
What has remained constant is my belief that every person should be looked at as an individual—not simply as a diagnosis or collection of symptoms.
For me, good healthcare begins with listening, understanding the whole person, and looking for underlying patterns that may be contributing to a problem.
After more than three decades in practice, I remain fascinated by the body’s ability to adapt, restore balance, and heal when given the appropriate support. That curiosity—and the desire to help people feel and function better—is still what motivates my work today.