Jade (she/her) is a white, trans woman settler who came to Chinese medicine after 8 years of work in activist communities. In them she honed collectivist values and observed a shared need to address our physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies alongside liberation work for the social body.

Jade studied Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at Pacific Rim College starting in September 2017, completing a Diploma of Acupuncture in December 2020. Licensed since December 2021, she is interested in the ways in which Daoist philosophy underpinning Chinese medicine makes space for identities, bodies, and hearts unrecognizable to Western culture.

As a practitioner Jade is especially curious how she can intervene in the world of often-inaccessible and expensive transgender medical care, a community that has overall lower earnings and less access to stable employment. She has focused her education on interrogating the unique ways Chinese medical modalities can be used to supplement many of the medical interventions trans people receive for gender-affirming care.

She is also deeply passionate about the role acupuncture - and community acupuncture in particular - can play in helping communities and individuals to be more engaged in their own health care. Jade finds the accessible, gentle, and effective medicine we practice to be a radical intervention in the health of our culture as a whole.

Jade (she/her) is a white, trans woman settler who came to Chinese medicine after 8 years of work... Read More

Jade or JO (she/her) is a Registered Acupuncturist (R.Ac.) and TCM practitioner R.TCMP.). In 2021 Jade completed a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner program at Kootenay Columbia College of Integrative Health Sciences on the unceded territories of the Sinixt, Syilx, and the Ktunaxa peoples (Nelson, BC). Studying both acupuncture & East Asian Herbal medicine. Shortly afterwards in 2021 they completed the NADA Acudetox Certification.

JO came to studying acupuncture and TCM with an interest in providing accessible care and working in outreach. They believe acupuncture and TCM can be a powerful tool to build resiliency, restore a sense of connection and safety within the body and can help support and manage a diverse range of conditions.

JO is passionate about providing compassionate, weight-inclusive care and practice from a HAES (Health at Every Size) approach. They believe deeply in body liberation, and that everyone has a right to exist in their bodies and the world free from shame, blame and stigma. JO looks to have deeper, more radical and expansive conversations around health and wellness outside of the dominant cultures ideas about what it means to exist and occupy a body. They strive to provide a safe, inclusive environment that is affirming to all genders, orientations, abilities, ages, bodies and beings!

JO has an exciting year ahead of studies and personal development including taking the Balance System foundations with Dr. Sonia Tan, and a year long Body Trust Certification program offered by the Center for Body Trust. They look forward to offering their expanding skills at Heart & Hands!

After a year living on the East Coast, JO landed on Lekwungen Territories last fall and have been keeping life pretty simple these days. They like playing the banjo, cycling around the city and would love to get another dog companion in the next few years.

JO is excited to meet folks and be part of the Heart & Hands community!

Jade or JO (she/her) is a Registered Acupuncturist (R.Ac.) and TCM practitioner R.TCMP.). In 2021... Read More

West (they/them) is a Somatic Sex Educator (SSE), painter, kitchen witch, and a Pisces. Blending science, spirituality, care work, and relationships has always been at the core of West’s learning and it brings them joy to continue down this path and to share this learning with others.

West has been working with bodies since 2013 but started their formal training with Caffyn Jesse and their in-person Intimacy Educators Training in 2018. West completed their Somatic Sex Educators Certification 4 years later in 2022 at the Institute For the Study of Somatic Sexology (practicum supervised by Katie Spataro). Further trainings completed with Holistic Resistance (“Disrupting Our Whiteness” - 2022) and Dr. Betty Martin (“Like A Pro: Wheel Of Consent Training For Practitioners” - 2022).

West is particularly excited about how SSE can be of service to the communities they are a part of with a lens of harm reduction, Disability Justice, and creativity as a way towards joyful survival. For many years West witnessed a need in their communities for competent and affirming care for folks who have had gender affirming surgeries. As well as education and tools for accessing pleasure communication and embodiment. West has focused their training on working within their queer, trans, and sex working communities.

Living with chronic pain unexplained by western medicine led West down a path of endless learning and informs their deep respect for the body’s mysteries and inherent wisdoms.

West is in the process of completing certification as a Death Doula with the Home Hospice Association and also works on the Peer Health Advocate Training Team at PEERS.

When they are not working one on one with people West can be found following their dog through the tall grass, reading stacks of books in their arm chair, and making dinner for a kitchen filled with friends.

Note: If cost is prohibitive please reach out - I reserve a portion of my practice as “Pay What You Can” for clients who require it access my services.

West (they/them) is a Somatic Sex Educator (SSE), painter, kitchen witch, and a Pisces. Blending ... Read More

Brianna (she/her) is a holistic bodyworker, herbal enthusiast, movement facilitator, community builder, and folklorist. She is a settler who grew up in the Comox Valley and for the past 4 years, residing on unceded Lekwungen territories. In December 2023, she completed the Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Diploma program at Pacific Rim College and will obtain her license as a Registered Acupuncturist fall of 2024. She intends to work as a Community Acupuncturist alongside her massage practice.

In 2012, Brianna became certified in Reiki and Quantum Touch energy work, and later on, studied Thai Massage, Jin Shin Do Acupressure and Somatic Therapies such as Gestalt and Feldenkrais. For the past 12 years, she has been devoted to practicing, and more recently, teaching Contact Improvisation dance, which merges somatics, martial arts, and contemporary dance.

As a practitioner, Brianna is passionate about guiding her clients into deeper self awareness and body attunement so they can resource strong tools for self regulation. Brianna is a strong advocate for accessible health care services and strives to provide a trauma informed, inclusive environment that is affirming to all genders, orientations, abilities, ages and bodies.

Brianna (she/her) is a holistic bodyworker, herbal enthusiast, movement facilitator, community bu... Read More

Alyssa (she/they) lives as a white, neurodiverse settler on the unceded ancestral lands of the Lkwungen-speaking peoples. Drawing from her lived experiences as a patient with invisible disabilities within the Western healthcare system, Alyssa is dedicated to providing non-judgmental, neuro-affirmative, trauma-informed, compassionate, and accessible care. Alyssa’s holistic approach integrates mind, body, and spirit. Recognizing the interconnectedness of all of these aspects of a person’s well-being, Alyssa views energy work as a complementary modality to enhance and support clients’ ongoing journey towards stress reduction and improved quality of life.

As a Usui Reiki Level II Practitioner, Alyssa channels universal life energy (Ki) through traditional hands-on (or off your choice!) healing techniques to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Usui Reiki focuses on restoring the flow of life energy, which, when blocked or imbalanced, can cause undesired chronic symptoms like illness, pain, anxiety, and depression. Alyssa aims to rebalance this energy and work with clients towards increased relaxation and stress reduction. Since beginning her training to be a Qigong practitioner, a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine, she has begun to integrate some Qigong techniques like gentle movements, breathing exercises, and meditations, all harnessing the body’s innate and intuitive ability to channel and balance energy in the body further helping to remove blockages, and supporting stress reduction.

After completing her Reiki level II Practitioner certification in 2022, Alyssa decided to expand her holistic studies to deepen her knowledge base and skills to better help clients. In 2025 she will be completing both her Usui Master level III and Medical Qigong Practitioner certifications. Outside of her energy practice, Alyssa is completing her Master of Science in Clinical Counselling, with a focus on substance use and addictions, neuro-affirmative care, and trauma and somatic therapies.

Outside of her professional work, Alyssa is passionate about advocating for patient safety and care as well as disability equity and rights through local and provincial organizations. When seeking balance in her life, Alyssa finds joy in connecting with the natural world, cooking with her family, sharing a tarot reading with friends, tending to plants, storm-watching at the beach, and finding inspiration for her abstract paintings and sculptures.

Alyssa (she/they) lives as a white, neurodiverse settler on the unceded ancestral lands of the Lk... Read More

Bara Hladik is an experienced wellness massage practitioner certified in Acupressure, Reflexology, and Tui Na techniques. She is an Acupuncture Diploma graduate at Oshio College and a Bachelor of Arts alumni from the University of British Columbia with a specialization in Health Research, Human Rights, and Disability Justice. As a practitioner living with Ankylosing Spondylitis, she has experienced first-hand the life changing results of TCM modalities and is passionate about providing accessible health, wellness, and pain relief.

Bara offers treatments to support recovery from pain, injury and chronic illness using techniques of Hot Stone, Gua Sha, Fire Cupping, Lymphatic Drainage and Facial Rejuvenation in combination with Acupressure Wellness Massage.

Bara Hladik is an experienced wellness massage practitioner certified in Acupressure, Reflexology... Read More

Christina (she/her) is a first generation, Hong Konger Chinese-Canadian originally from the Greater Toronto Area, the traditional territory of the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Anishinaabeg, including the Chippewas and the Mississaugas of the Credit and since 2005, has resided on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples. She is a Community Acupuncturist, community organizer, educator, rider of many things with 2 wheels, martial artist, immunocompromised lupus survivor and high functioning spoonie. In 2006, Christina became certified as an National Acupuncture Detox Association (NADA) provider. Then completed her training as a Registered Acupuncturist at the Canadian College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM) in Victoria, BC in 2009.

Christina is a Balance Method practitioner, training in the system since 2010, initially with the late Dr. Richard Teh-Fu Tan, Si Yuan Balance Acupuncture based in the EU and in November 2023, completed the Balance System Acupuncture certification with Gold Level certified Dr. Sonia Tan, based in Vancouver, BC.

Active in the community, she is passionate about using acupuncture as a tool for positive social change through providing outreach, increasing accessibility and bringing the practice back to its traditional roots. She continues to explore her own personal experiences as a woman of colour living with chronic illness, Asian diaspora, grassroots organizer-educator, and founder of an unorthodox social enterprise in Lekwungen Territories, otherwise known as Victoria BC.

Christina (she/her) is a first generation, Hong Konger Chinese-Canadian originally from the Great... Read More