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Our Philosophy

What is "health" and how did we get here?

 

There has always been a conflict between organized religion and science. Churches did not allow the human body to be dissected and explored. To actually be able to study the human body, scientists needed to separate the spirit and the body, which led to dualism philosophy in the 17th century by philosopher René Descartes. Western philosophers and scientists began viewing disease as a deviation from the biological norms and health was defined as the absence of disease and synonymous with medicine. Western intellectuals then accepted French chemist Louis Pastaeur's "kill the disease/germ" approach as the secret to health.

 

However, there was another way of tackling germ theory by Antoine Bechamp: if we made our "inner terrain" of the human body as healthy as possible, germs cannot grow and gain traction in the body. Focused on human immunity, Russian scientist Ilya Metchnikoff experimented this theory on himself. During the 1892 cholera epidemic in France, he drank a glass cholera infected water. He didn't get sick. Within the same community, some people contracted it while others seemed immune. We continue to see that those with more robust immune systems are more resilient to disease. I suspect it follows that our own innate immunity extends to mental health because again, the mind and body are not separate. 

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Fast forward to the current times: Western medicine is a brief visit to the primary care office and sent off to specialists.  its parts and mental health care gets pushed on to primary care providers who often see the symptoms, but don't have the capacity to deeply engage with it. Patients then are referred to the mental health providers where patients are grouped in the DiagDSM 5 into categories for emotional and psychological symptoms and are defined as such. The DSM 5 is a guide to help us treat the symptoms, but you are not your mental health diagnosis. I believe we all hold these emotions and parts (Internal Family Systems) inside of us and can learn to manage these with and without medications. From somatic lens, I can support you to ground into the present moment, and better understanding your experience to use it to guide your thoughts and decisions. 

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However, it leaves out the fact that there are systemic and cultural pressures that causes trauma. Instead of recognizing that the system is inherently traumatic and in place before our existence, we internalize the confusion and self-hatred. 

 The question is how do we conform without losing ourselves?

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As a family nurse practitioner, there are various conditions I prescribe medications for. Some of these conditions can be cured (like bacterial and fungal infections), but most chronic conditions including hypertension, diabetes cannot be cured with medications. These are lifestyle diseases. Medications mange these disease states, basically like a bandaid. I've had patients with controlled blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol who still would get cerebrovascular accidents, or strokes. It dawned on me that medications do not prevent poor outcomes. Your body is letting you know that something is wrong and needs to be changed. I am here to help you understand your body and make those changes. 

 

The hardest part is recognizing the problem and being ready to make the change. In our role, I am can provide primary care the way I've hoped it to be: with more guidance and teaching instead of just preaching. I can guide you with creating the structure needed to make changes. With SMART goals, mindfulness interventions such IFS and meditations, learning more about the body and how to best use it, we can help you live in your physical body with grace and acceptance. 

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I particularly enjoy working with patients on treating symptoms of unease, including hypertension, insomnia, diabetes, chronic pain, and psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar, and life transitions, loneliness, burnout, life dissatisfaction. I work on root issues to address these issues, but do not offer long-term stimulants, benzodiazepines, or opioids. I do not offer treatment for those with personality disorders.  

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Services Offered

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  • Coaching

  • Compassion Focused

  • Culturally Sensitive

  • Mindfulness-Based (MBCT)

  • Motivational Interviewing

  • Parts (IFS based)

Experience & Education

2017-2021

Family Nurse Practitioner 
Asian Health Services

  • Provided care for underserved communities in Oakland Chinatown, primarily low-income, refugee, immigrant, and communities of color. 

  • Managed a panel of 900 patients with a comprehensive scope: adult preventative and chronic conditions, urgent care, COVID care, OB, adult/geriatrics, and pediatrics chronic conditions (exercise, nutrition, mental health management), infectious diseases (tuberculosis, hepatitis B), psychiatry.

  • Special interests: integrative medicine, dermatology, reproductive health, kinesiology, nutrition, psychiatry/psychology, minor surgery procedures.

  • Certifications: UC Irvine TNT Primary Care Psychiatry Fellowship, Basic Life Support

2014-2017

RN, MSN - Family Nurse Practice

Yale University

  • Selected as NURSE Corps Scholarship Program recipient via US Department of Health and Human Services for commitment to working in health care facility with a critical shortage of nurses

  • Awarded Elizabeth Robb Merit Scholarship for academic excellence

  • Selected as a Global Health Justice Partnership Fellow, which trains scholars and practitioners to tackle complex interdisciplinary challenges affecting the well-being of people around the world

  • Committed HAVEN Free Clinic Reproductive Health Director (2015-2016), a student-run primary care clinic serving uninsured patients

  • Co-founded Minority Student Nurses, which focused on community building meetings and events to support the success of students of color in nursing school

2012-2014

MPH - Epidemiology/Biostatistics
UC Berkeley

  • Kaiser Permenente Public Health Scholar

  • Coordinated student-run group School of Public Health Asian Pacific-Islander Women’s Circle; organized and facilitated meetings to bring together diverse AAPI students to foster support, leadership development, and networking

  • Health Careers Opportunity Program Co-Director

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