I was born the child of a US Army officer, so we moved around every few years.

My mom is Canadian, coming from Montreal.

The most unusual place I lived as a child was Alaska.

The most unusual place I lived as an adult is Guyana.

I was always a sensitive kid, spurring my parents to have my brain scanned because of my occasional meltdowns.  Everything checked out fine. (:

I always did well in school, but wasn’t always healthy.

As a child I drank a lot of milk to help me grow, but it didn’t work (I’m 4’11”).

I had an ulcer in junior high, and frequent sinus infections we treated with antibiotics.

I’ve since not taken antibiotics in 20 years.  It took a long time to figure out how to heal my gut, but now I’m golden.  And I rarely get sick with colds.

I was very worried about the environment and animal rights as child.  I once gave Greenpeace $50 when they came to the door.  That was probably interesting for them.

In high school I did a lot of art and photography.  So when I went to college (at Ohio University), I majored in art, because of the suggestion, ‘study something you like.’

By the end of college, I still liked art, but concluded it wasn’t really going to help me reach my goal of saving the world.  I was still really into the environment, and began to study organic gardening and herbology.  

I was fortunate to spend some months driving around the US after college, and then ended up volunteering in a small farming village in Guyana, South America for a year.  There I got a good lesson in how difficult it can be to change the world, and also in how profound it can be to relate to new people.  Plus I had a lot of time to read, and I read about natural medicine.

I enjoyed some more time traveling, teaching and learning, in Mexico and Europe.  Coming back to the US, I spent some time teaching English as a second language, and trying to still figure out how to save the world.  I debated on studying environmental science or Chinese medicine.  My dad, who is an environmental lawyer, encouraged the medical choice.  

My vision at this time was to have a clinic where we’d also give lectures on environmental topics.

I thoroughly enjoyed a few years immersed in the world of Chinese medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  And then I moved, with my large, goofy pitbull, to Portland, Oregon.

Portland is a special city with lots of experts in environmentalism, cycling and social justice.  It became more of my work to support these people in their health, so they could do their work.  It’s a good fit.  

The final chapter of this tale can be read on my main ‘about me’ page.  But I’ll share a few more fun facts here:

• I have a lovely white, orange and pink office to juice up my feng shui.
• I have another pitbull now, this is a dainty one named Stella.
• I have an amazing son, Lincoln, and lately we’re into to watching Master Chef and trying to make ‘restaurant quality’ food.
• I have an amazing husband too, who keeps me active and forces me to do home improvement projects with him.  
• I learned to do a dolphin arm balance this year, and to sing a bit last year.

Thanks for reading, and should we end up working together, I look forward to learning your unique and wonderful story.