I grew up in China and came to the United States at 25. I earned two master's degrees, one in computer science and one in electrical engineering, and spent years working as a software engineer.
In 2013 I gave away almost everything I owned and lived in an old RV until 2015. Those two years were not a vacation. Living outside and mostly alone gave me room to look at the social anxiety, the depression, and the sense of not belonging that I had been outrunning. I came out of it knowing what I wanted to do with my life: learn to take care of myself, then take care of other people.
Since then I have studied with traditional healers in Thailand, Peru, Guatemala and Colombia, and with Earthskills communities across the United States. Elders and friends taught me plant knowledge, ancestral living skills, and one thing I did not expect: you can be fully yourself and still belong somewhere.
I think health for a modern person rests on three relationships.
With the natural world. Real time outside, regularly.
With your own history. Personal, family, inherited. Most of us are carrying more than we have actually looked at.
With other people. You need a community to recover in, and to play in.
I learned fascia acupuncture from Dr. Chen Decheng, who taught anatomy and needling better than anyone I had studied under. His own training at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine ran through Qiu Maoliang, which turns out to be the same lineage Dr. Wang came up in. I did not know that when we met. It explains why we agree about so much.
Now I live on a farm near SW Portland, on land held by an intentional community, still down by the river. I forage in every season and I teach people to identify wild plants. I still go to therapy, not because something is wrong, but because it works.
In the treatment room the job is simple. Reduce your pain, find what is driving it, help your body hold steady on its own. Come get out of pain. Bring your questions. I usually have a story.
