I began practicing Aikido as a middle school student in 1983, which led to a lifelong study of Chinese and Japanese language, religion, martial arts and medicine. From the age of about 13, I was convinced that I wanted to be an East Asian Studies scholar.

After receiving a BA in East Asian Studies from UNC - Chapel Hill, I decided to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and work towards a PhD in Buddhist Studies. After a year there, I realized I wanted to *do* things, instead of reading about things that others had done. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine were the obvious choice - they would allow me to help people, using all of the physical and academic skills and talents I had cultivated my entire life.  Not wanting to waste my first year of grad school, I spent one more year finishing an MA in Japanese Literature, and then enrolled in the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle, WA, graduating with a Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine (MTCM) degree in 2001. I have been in private practice in Renton since then.

Over the years, I also expanded my martial arts practice to include taijiquan and other internal martial arts, classical Japanese martial arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission grappling.

Starting in 2006, I began an in-depth study of orthopedic conditions, sports medicine and traumatic injury with a number of outstanding teachers, beginning with Tom Bisio and Frank Butler’s Zhenggu Tuina system, and eventually including teachers of trigger point dry needling with Myopain Seminars, the SFMA system of Grey Cook, the Champion Performance Specialist program of Mike Reinold, and the sports medicine acupuncture program of Matt Callison. I am also an instructor and clinical supervisor at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine (formerly the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine), where I teach tuina, qigong, orthopedic medicine, trigger point theory, musculoskeletal anatomy and physiology, and the treatment of traumatic injury.