about ethan

As an Asian American of Chinese heritage, I grew up with some familiarity of Chinese Medicine, particularly in the form of herbs as I was a sickly child prone to respiratory issues, and in the form of Zheng Gu Tui Na (bone-setting and bodywork), as sprains are somewhat common with martial arts practice. But because the medicine was seen as cultural and folk knowledge, it never occurred to me to actually study it.

​Chinese Medicine would not strike me as a legitimate career path until I began to study the Internal Martial Arts. It was when I began to develop body sensitivity and awareness in earnest, through training Xing Yi Quan and Tai Ji Quan, that I realized I could use the same newfound knowledge to heal myself and others. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin - the more I learn about one, the deeper my understanding of the other becomes as well.

So after two years into a Clinical psychology phD program (for a long time I had aimed to be a psychotherapist), I made the hard decision to drop out and trade one healing profession for another, one that I felt better utilized all of my skills and talents. I never looked back and feel that I have grown, and continue to grow, exponentially for it.

I consider myself a general practitioner and, with a deep love for the diagnostic theory behind the medicine, am pretty much game for whatever case is presented in front of me. That said, having come to the medicine through the martial arts, I seem to have a gut instinct for treating musculoskeletal and postural problems. And because of the background in Clinical psychology, I also can have a knack for treating mental-emotional issues like depression and anxiety.