Many Roads Lead to One Path

Chief Strategist at UCSF Benioff Integrative Hospital. Nurse. Doula, Mental Health Researcher/Yoga Teacher, Veterinarian Acupuncturist Assistant These are the diverse positions held by our Summer 2017 students. Now they share a new title: Student of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Here is what our new students say about what made them take this important step in their lives—embarking on the path to become acupuncturists: “Oriental medicine, herbs and acupuncture have healed me more than all other health modalities combined,” said Hali Hanson. Rahanna Frykberg sees firsthand the benefits of acupuncture at her job at the Holistic Veterinary Care in Oakland: “Time and again I witness the healing, regenerative, rebalancing powers of acupuncture in combination with herbal medicine and the true transformative magic of integrative medicine.” Yaminah Abdur-Rahim comes from a background in Psychology. She chose to pursue Chinese Medicine instead, seeing it as a more comprehensive and ancient medical modality. With her education, she hopes to make Traditional Chinese Medicine accessible to more people through community style clinics. Maya Zitrin, R.N. worked as a nurse for three years but then became frustrated: “I wanted to give them more than just medications to address their issues. I knew I had to leave my position in order to explore other ways to view the body as more than a machine with different systems, and to heal the body and mind with more than just a pill” said Zitrin. Lisa Ozaeta, DrPh, JD, MBA who worked as a Chief Strategist at UCSF Benioff, with whom AIMC Berkeley has a partnership, said “I want to transition from the board room to the treatment room. I want to work directly with patients and provide the answers to their health that can be so difficult to find in our current Western healthcare system.”