Category: Alumni

One of the gifts of becoming an Acupuncturist is the capacity to build your dream practice, and in Erin Langley’s case, she’s done that quite literally. Dreams, the spirits of the body and the lands, and ancestral connections are all fundamental pieces of how she practices and connects with East Asian medicine.

Meet Dr. Kim Peirano, DACM, LAc., an Alumni of AIMC Berkeley. She has a thriving practice in Marin focused on Facial Acupuncture & spiritual development. She recently founded the Integrative Healing Institute, a non-profit focused on providing high-quality continuing education courses.

Are you wanting to learn more about acupuncture and Integrative medicine? Learn more about how our school changed Sapho’s life and what they’re doing now.

“When people come to us for help, they may not necessarily be their best selves, so how do we meet them where they are and do something that’s really with them, and not for them or in spite of them… that relationship is really a sacred one. I’m not doing anything for you, I’m just with you– I’ve had my own journey, and I can share with you my experience and I can share with you my experience with other people, and then together we get to figure out what works best for you.”

The “Reluctant” Healer

Before starting Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine school, Karen Villanueva was a nurse for over 20 years; she worked in the ER, ICU, prison system, and even at the ballpark. …

“Every person who comes to a queer self-understanding knows in one way or another that her stigmatization is intricated with gender, with the family, with notions of individual freedom, the state, public speech, consumption and desire, nature and culture, maturation, reproductive politics, racial and national fantasy, class identity, truth and trust, censorship, intimate life and social display, terror and violence, health care, and deep cultural norms about the bearing of the body.[…]Queers do a kind of practical social reflection just in finding ways of being queer.”
-Michael Warner, Fear of a Queer Planet

East Asian Medicine as a liberation practice?

Acupuncturists are always fundamentally focused on the free flow of energy in the body– the “Qi”. You may have heard your acupuncturist talk about “Qi stagnation” as …

It’s been three years since our first Doctoral Cohort began. We wondered, “what are our graduates doing with their Doctoral degrees?” It turns out, they’re pushing our field forward by teaching, publishing books, working alongside physicians in hospitals, physical therapy clinics, & integrative medicine clinics, founding their very own wellness centers, and even growing organic herbal medicine to make our field more sustainable.

Teach

Many of our doctoral graduates are teaching or supervising Clinic Interns right here at AIMC. The list includes Dr. Nishanga Bliss, DAIM, DSc., LAc.; Dr. Hideko Pelzer, DAIM, LAc.; Dr. Joyce Kwok, DAIM, PT, LAc.; Dr. Jody James, DAIM, LAc.; Dr. David Caruso-Radin, DAIM, LAc.; & Dr. Christine Tarradelles, DAIM, LAc.

Dr. Jody James is the most recent …

Opening a private practice during a pandemic may seem daunting, but AIMC graduate Syndey Malewar made it happen. She’s now successfully working as a practitioner here in Berkeley. To find out how she made this happen, check out this blog post!

In this interview, AIMC graduate Ra shares her experience using the wisdom of Chinese Medicine, what she calls “Acu-therapy,” at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Ra’s day-to-day in the hospital keeps her on her toes as she offers pain relief and palliative care to a wide range of pediatric patients from neonates to young adults. In addition to her usual work in the hospital, they discuss her experience as a clinician doing Telemedicine during Covid 19 & returning to work with the hospital’s new protective protocols. Ra’s expertise working in an integrative setting and blending the wisdom of Western and Eastern medical knowledge are on full display in this fun interview.

About Dr. Ra, DACM, LAc.

Robyn “Ra” Adcock is a California licensed acupuncturist, graduate …

AIMC recently celebrated the graduation of candidates for the Masters and Doctoral programs.  The ceremony was held at Grandview Pavilion in Alameda, CA.  Graduates and guests were treated to a celebratory performance by Emeryville Taiko Drummers followed by a reception for graduates and their guests. Check out photo highlights below.

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Last August, exactly one week after taking the California Licensing Exam (CALE) in Sacramento, I was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer, secondary to a cancer that started somewhere below my diaphragm. It was a shock to get that diagnosis.

I was so excited to begin my new career as an acupuncturist after being a poor college student for four years. It’s been an incredible journey – incredibly painful and at the same time incredibly healing. I first debated whether or not to go to the emergency room for a pain in my right rib cage. It turned out to be a pleural effusion – the emergency room doctors and nurses thought it was strange that I wanted to take a picture of the fluid they drained …