Regenerative Health Practitioner

I’ve been on the journey of wellness and natural healing since the turn of the century. It was my own health challenges followed by my baby girl’s cancer diagnosis that led me onto this path.

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The old Chinese saying “Crisis is opportunity” really sums up my journey. While not pleasant at times, I’ve experienced the most healing and personal growth during the dark days of dealing with physical discomfort and great loss.    

 

Growing up in the countryside of Taiwan in the 70s and 80s, when the industrialized food had limited role in most people’s life there, I was a pretty healthy kid fed on mostly homegrown and homeraised foods up to the point of college. 

 

Throughout my college and the subsequent years as a journalist, I barely cooked and dined out often. The food culture there was so different that I was still able to eat mostly real food even without cooking it myself. But I was constantly stressed due to the nature of a profession that demanded speed, meeting deadlines, and fierce competition among reporters for the next big scoop.          

 

I moved to the US in my early 30s after my husband took a teaching job in a university. While I was very excited and relaxed to explore the new life, the years of stress prior to my move combined with the new-found convenient foods didn’t go well for my body. I already had some digestive issues due to frequent use of antibiotics in my reporting years, as a result of a habit of holding bathroom trips for the entire morning before my deadline at noon. Then the delicious cheese and dairy products, the dinner rolls and biscuits that twisted out of paper can, the Doritos chips and canned salsa for game days, the salad dressing in a bottle… all these exotic Western foods that had never part of my life soon gave me various health challenges. 

 

I started having seasonal allergy issues, an irritable bowel that gave me excruciating pain and frequent diarrhea after eating, chronic UTI symptoms that couldn’t be confirmed by tests and wouldn’t go away with antibiotics, then chemical sensitivity and food intolerance… I’d seen multiple specialists and gone through major medical workups. None of them could decide or find anything wrong with me. Yet I was prescribed with all kinds of meds and continued to struggle without much help. 

 

I eventually got fed up with doctor visits and prescription drugs. I decided to take the healing in my own hand. This was the days when Internet was at the enfant stage and the term "microbiome" was unheard of.  After extensive research, I started implementing diet and lifestyle changes. I  eliminated dairy-- which turned out not agreeable with my body--, processed food and refined sugar; I made green juice every day and exercise regularly. I also threw in occasional green juice fasts-- sometimes over the weekends or as a monthly 3-day cleanse. Miraculously, almost all of my symptoms went away within just two months. I was overjoyed and have since never waved on the power of food and natural healing. 

 

In 2002, my daughter and first child Vivian arrived full-term and healthy, conceived during the healthiest season of my life. I had just reversed severe IBS and immune dysfunction using the same regenerative principles I now share with my clients. In many ways, her life was a fruit of my healing.

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Soon strategy struck. 

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At five months old, Vivian was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Childhood cancers can move fast—within a week of noticing subtle changes, we learned that 94% of her blood cells were leukemic. Overnight, our world turned upside down.

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She endured 2½ years of intense chemotherapy. It held the cancer at bay for 11 months before it relapsed, and her oncologist told us the drugs were no longer effective. A stem-cell transplant became our only option. The conditioning regimen—chemo plus total-body radiation—ultimately damaged her lungs. Four months after transplant, our little girl passed away at 4½ years old.

 

If you knew Vivian, you knew her sparkle. She was a little ham—joyful, expressive, determined to dance. After her initial chemo ended, she fell in love with her first dance class and never stopped twirling—at home in the living room, at friends’ houses, even in hospital rooms. She’d shuffle down the ward in tiny sandals and a recital tutu, infusion pump in tow, those little kala-kala footsteps echoing down the hall like bells of hope.

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I’m forever grateful for everyone who loved and delighted her—especially in those last months. Through the generosity of family, friends, colleagues, and their fundraising, we were able to take her to Germany for two weeks of complementary, whole-person care. For the first time since diagnosis, she roamed outside a hospital floor—fresh air, sun on her face, nourishing food, a gentle routine. She rode her first (and last) train, and her joy felt light and unburdened. That trip was a gift—our best decision as a family.

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I have no regrets about what we tried for her. Of course I’ve wondered what I might do differently knowing what I know now, but a quiet truth always returns: everything has its purpose. Vivian’s life—and her passing—placed me on the path I walk today.

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Even with my spiritual awakening and trying many natural healing modalities, it still took me more than a decade to completely resolve my grief and its grip on my body. I moved through my deepest grief around 2017-2018, and since then, thoughts of Vivian bring more smiles than heartache.  

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In 2024, on Vivian's 22nd heavenly birthday, I enrolled in the Institute of Regenerative Health to deepen training in the very principles that supported my own healing before her birth. Looking back, I can see the thread: my healing that preceded her arrival, our holistic efforts in Germany, and the work I now do—all rooted in regenerative, terrain-based care.

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This journey has shaped me, and our family, beyond measure. Tragedy and great loss can be profound teachers. Seeing the gifts inside of pain doesn’t make the pain “good,” but it does reveal grace. When life doesn’t go as we hope, the Universe sometimes has a wiser plan than the one we can see.

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It's all good.

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