Hi, I’m Monica (they/them).
I’m an acupuncturist, herbalist, and a practitioner of classical East Asian medicine and politicized somatics. My role is to support you and your body reconnect and remember your innate ability to heal.
I’m a Southern queer human born in the Piedmont of North Carolina and raised along the banks of the Mississippi in Memphis. I began my study of medicine in the mountains of Southern Appalachia and deepened it in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. I have a deep reverence for the land and the histories it holds that have shaped me. I now live and practice in the Dutchtown neighborhood of Saint Louis, back to what feels like a home on the Mississippi.
Much of my life's attention turns towards studying and experiencing the natural world, the body, relationships, ecosystems, social movements, and the impacts of structural oppression and our individual and collective traumas on our health. This experience and connection is always present as a backdrop to our work together.
Classical East Asian medicine looks at the whole. Any symptom cannot be isolated on its own. We’re beautiful complex beings and all parts of our experience (physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.) are connected. Our body’s interconnection is a microcosm of the interconnectedness of all life.
I use acupuncture, herbal medicine, hands-on bodywork, acupressure, moxabustion, cupping, qigong, and somatic-based therapies as a part of your holistic treatments.
Movement organizing is what first brought me to and constantly recommits me to my role as an acupuncturist. Classical East Asian medicine practitioners carry a mandate to “nurture life”. I am a commitment to lifelong movement organizing and politicized healing work for the sake of all of our liberation.
I work with a number of community groups at the intersection of social justice, mental health, trauma, and community care, including Queer Hearts and St. Louis Queer Support & Healing (SQSH). I also facilitate and organize somatics offerings for organizations, organizers, activists, and politicize healers at the intersection of movement strategy and embodiment.
Lineage & Training
In 2021, I received my doctorate at the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon after the completion of a 5-year program and my capstone, Jailbreak of the Imagination: Abolitionist Praxis in Classical East Asian Medicine.
Classical East Asian medicine is an ancient thousands year old medicine. There are many lineages within the vastness of this medicine, and I practice and continue to study the lineages that I have chosen and have chosen me. My main teachers and mentors are Brandt Stickley, Stephen Higgins, Melinda Iglesias Wheeler, Ann Cecil-Sterman, Heiner Freuhauf, Bob Quinn, Joon Hee Lee, Michael McMahon, and Laurie Reagan.
Since 2020, I have practiced politicized somatics, in 2024 completed a year-long program Opening to Freedom: Embodied Facilitation for White Folks with Embodying Racial Justice, and continue to be supervised and developed by my somatics teachers. My teachers include Dara Silvermann, Amanda Ream, Zoe Paulette, Eliana Rubin, M Stromm, Cari Caldwell, Susan Raffo, Sarah Abbott, B Stepp, and Prentis Hemphill.
I weave these learnings into the work we do in the treatment room in 1:1 sessions, with small groups I facilitate, and in various movement organizing across the region.
I enjoy working with:
community organizers and activists
queer and trans folks
people with a history of relational or collective trauma
mental health & neurodivergence in all its forms
people with autoimmune & chronic conditions
everyday people looking for support with their physical, emotional, and spiritual well being
most likely, you!