The taproot story

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How I got here

I grew up in Paris. In my early twenties I was dealing with anxiety, insomnia, and what I now recognize as a body that was completely dysregulated. Western medicine didn't have much to offer me beyond medication I didn't want to take. I started learning about yoga and Chinese medicine almost by accident, and the results were so significant that I made a decision that probably seemed strange to everyone around me at the time.

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I moved to Nanjing, China, and enrolled in a five-year medical program at Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Nanjing University of TCM is one of the three most prestigious Chinese medicine institutions in China. The program is taught entirely in Mandarin, which I had to learn before I could even start. It covers anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, internal medicine, gynecology, and classical Chinese medicine at the level of a full medical degree. It is not a certificate program or a weekend training. It is the real thing that gets you the title of MD in China.

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After finishing my coursework, I did my residency at Jiangsu Provincial Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in China — where I treated hundreds of patients every day for a year and a half. That kind of volume is something you can't manufacture. It builds a clinical instinct that takes most practitioners a decade in private practice to develop.

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When I came to the United States, I completed my Doctorate of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (DAIM) at Alhambra Medical University in California. This degree is the highest clinical degree in our profession, held by a small percentage of practicing acupuncturists. I also hold my California acupuncture license (L.Ac.), national board certification through the NCCAOM, and 500 hours of yoga teacher training, which has shaped how I think about the nervous system, stress, and the mind-body connection in my fertility patients.

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I have been in practice in California for ten years, the last six here in Sierra Madre. I work in English, French, and Mandarin.

 

What I actually do all day

About 90% of my patients come to me for fertility and women's health. The rest come for pain, stress, digestion, or general health — and often there's overlap, because hormones affect everything.

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On the fertility side, I work with people who are trying to conceive naturally, people who are in the middle of IVF or IUI cycles, people who have been through losses and are trying to figure out what comes next, and people who have been told by their RE to "just try and see."

I treat both partners. I work alongside RE clinics, not in opposition to them — I can read a stimulation protocol, an AMH panel, a semen analysis, and an embryo grading sheet, and I integrate that information into treatment rather than pretending it doesn't exist.

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On the women's health side, I see a lot of PCOS, endometriosis, perimenopause, painful cycles, thyroid issues, and post-pill recovery. I cover everything from the first periods to perimenopause. A lot of my patients come to me after years of being dismissed by doctors, being told their pain is normal, or being handed a prescription and sent home.

 

Too often, patients arrive after bouncing around for years without being taken seriously. A lot of them cry at their first appointment!  Simply because we take the time to sit down and truly listen. That should not be as rare as it is.

 

I estimate that around 90% of my patients find some real form of relief. Most experience better cycles, less pain, more regulated hormones. On the fertility side, we usually have one or two new pregnancies announced at the clinic every week.

 

There's never a promise — I won't make you one — but there is always a benefit.

I feel like I have hundreds of taproot babies. That part of the job never gets old.

 

Why I named it Taproot

 

A taproot is the main root of a plant, the one that goes deep, straight down, to find water and anchor everything above it. Western medicine often treats the branch. What I trained to do, and what I care about, is finding the root.

That is the whole philosophy.

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