Hello there! I’m Carolyn and I am the creator behind Acknowledge Wellness LLC. I am happy to welcome you to this space and hope you take some time to become familiar with who I am, what we do at Acknowledge Wellness LLC, learn more about Chinese Medicine, ways to support ourselves during the seasons, herbal medicine and the many ways to use them in your life to support your particular health needs.
Since I was young, I’ve always had a passion for learning and as a child, I was so curious about the world around me. I deeply loved the natural world, science, languages, learning about culture and connecting with others.
This strong desire of mine led me to receive two bachelor’s degrees in Social Work and Spanish with a minor in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. While all of these studies brought me a lot of joy, my life turned upside down during my last year of school as I became extremely ill. Over the course of a couple of months, my health began to deteriorate rapidly and I had gone to so many doctors without receiving an answer to what was going on with my body. Towards the end of the third month, I was finally referred to a rheumatologist by my primary care physician who later diagnosed me with fibromyalgia and have been learning how to navigate this condition for the last eight years.
After graduating from my undergrad programs, my health had improved enough to be able to teach abroad which was one of my dreams. The teaching position that I received was in Beijing, China where I ended up teaching and living for three years. My primary focus was on teaching preschool but I ended up teaching a variety of ages from three to sixty years old while I was living there.
Within the first six months of living in Beijing, I suffered a major concussion with one of my students during class. During the time I was recovering from the concussion, I was introduced to two Chinese Medicine doctors that changed the trajectory of my life to eventually pursue a degree in Chinese Medicine. These two doctors were Dr. Li who was primarily an herbalist and Dr. Gao who was mainly an acupuncturist. Dr. Li had come to my apartment soon after my concussion as I could barely get out of bed. When she came to do her assessment, she ended up making an herbal formula for me at my home and made three weeks worth of prepared herbs that I drank each day. After the round of herbs, I had felt much better. A few weeks later, a friend of mine introduced me to Dr. Gao where I ended up spending two and a half years receiving acupuncture and cupping treatment from him.
When I first started seeing Dr. Gao, it was primarily to support my health after experiencing the concussion but as the treatments continued, it was to support my fibromyalgia episodes, past traumas and finding ways to help support my health conditions through lifestyle practices, food therapy, cupping and acupuncture.
One of the most important lessons that I learned from Dr. Gao was the importance of community care. This was the thing that left the deepest impact on me as well as my deep love of tea. Dr. Gao never gave up on me even during the height of the worst of my episodes. He helped me understand that what I was dealing with, I did not have to heal and do all of this alone which was what I had experienced in the US before I had come to China. I also received acupuncture with other people who were going through other health concerns which created a network of people that could bond over our shared need for wanting to feel better in the vast ways that looked like for us individually. Going to acupuncture for me was not just to receive acupuncture, it was also a time to connect with others, chat, have tea together and talk about our lives which was very deeply healing.
Along with these things, tea was also given during our treatments which provided another connection and healing that was not only connecting with those in the room but also to nature itself. Having tea with the others in Dr. Gao’s office reminded my of the ways I connected with others when I was not feeling well, even before I lived in China. When I was having episodes, my closest friends would come over to have tea (herbal teas and tea referring to the plant camellia sinensis). Even now, it is a ritual that means the most to me and the reason behind my passion and love for creating herbal tea blends. Yes, they are based in Chinese Medicine theory and there is a lot of time spent creating them and it is also a way for me to honor my teacher to share a small piece of community with you while you drink your tea.
After my time living in Beijing, I moved back to Seattle, Washington to do a Masters Degree in Acupuncture and a Certificate of Chinese Herbal Medicine at Bastyr University, obtaining over 800 hours of clinical training in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. Along with this, I also have over four and a half years of working in herbal dispensaries (3.5 years at Bastyr’s Chinese Herbal Medicine Dispensary and over a year and a half at working at Seattle Acupuncture and Herb Clinic). My studies and how I practice Chinese Medicine are related to honoring Dr. Gao as he encouraged me to study this medicine and Dr. Xie who continues to teach and mold how I practice Chinese Medicine through the time spent at Seattle Acupuncture and Herb Clinic. I am forever a student of this medicine as there are never enough hours in the day to learn all there is to know about it and that is also what keeps me curious.
This year, our main focus of Acknowledge Wellness is selling our tea blends, sharing our monthly spotlights and later in the year opening up to having online herbal consultations. Along with running this business, I also work at Seattle Acupuncture and Herb Clinic where I work the front desk and fill herbal prescriptions and am starting a second masters in herbalism at the Irish School of Herbal Medicine in Portlaoise, Ireland.
Looking forward to connecting with you,
Carolyn
