Joanne Chang 
M.S., L.Ac.

I was 33 years old and in the middle of a major life transition when I became mesmerized by the world of Chinese Medicine.  Learning about the polarity of Yin and Yang – opposing primal forces that also depend on and transform each other in a constantly changing and mutually supportive relationship, forming the basis of all life – felt like being seen for the first time.  Because life is not one thing, one flavor, one way.  Nor are we.  We are a multi-dimensional process of ongoing change and transformation.  We are a forever evolving paradox.

 

Having lived most of my life with the edict that hard work, professional success, and financial stability were the building blocks of a happy life, I felt lost and confused when these things did not bring me joy, but instead depression, anxiety, addiction, and attachment to external things.  When my marriage crumbled in 2009, I took it as the perfect opportunity to leave my cushy corporate job, travel the world, and ask myself for the first time:  What does a meaningful life look and feel like?

 

Healing myself.  Helping others heal.  Holding the tension of polarities so that we may find a new way, one that is not what we’ve been told, but one that we create by listening to our body, trusting our intuition, and uncovering what longs to be seen.

​

My experience as a young widow, a single mother, a child of immigrants, and a woman of color who has journeyed through many lifetimes does not make me an expert on the human experience, but it has allowed me to hold others in grief, loss, loneliness, uncertainty, change, fear, and rejection from a place of true understanding and compassion.  I feel honored to be doing work that I love in partnership with my patients and in integrity with my personal path as a healer and empath.