I’ll share a little about my journey toward becoming certified as Zhu’s Scalp Acupuncturist in 2017.
I started studying Taoism and Buddhism at around 11 years of age. It was largely due to my interest in the Shaolin Temple after watching the television show, Kung Fu starring David Carradine.
My formal study and use of I Ching as a divinatory system and source of wisdom began in 1997. I have worked with the concept of modesty on numerous occasions thanks to one particular translation, I Ching: Oracle of the Cosmic Way, which espouses:
“Modesty, equality, uniqueness – three principles in harmony with the Cosmic Way.”1
I believe that it was in 1979 that my grandmother Nadine bought me my first book on acupuncture. In the mid-1980s, I picked up a softcover copy of The Barefoot Doctor’s Manual and continued my informal studies. Acupuncture charts adorned the walls of my bedroom growing up.
In 2000 I was accepted at Five Branches and started my formal study of Chinese medicine. That study has not ceased. I do not expect that it ever will. It seems to me that it’s a lifelong pursuit to achieve the bar set by Dr. Zhu for his practitioners.
I spent more than eight years working as an acupuncturist on staff at a local hospital. I was the sole provider in the Acupuncture Department there and gave approximately 30,000 treatments. This experience has enabled me to better traverse the bridge between East and West.
In 2013 I took Dr. Zhu’s basics class and started applying Zhu’s Scalp Acupuncture in my clinical practice.
In 2015, I started working and apprenticing at Dr. Zhu’s San Jose, California clinic. Over the next two years, I worked to complete my training and submit the Case History which allowed me full certification in ZSA.
I have “touched many heads” as Dr. Zhu would have put it since then. I want to be able to bring these life-changing skills to bear in the Chico community.
I am grateful and glad to say that I have, in my ways, made some headway along the path of clinical excellence.
1 Anthony, C.K and Moog, H. I Ching: Oracle of the Cosmic Way. 2002, I Ching Books, Stow, MA.