Avery (she/her) is a Registered Acupuncturist and Clinical Herbalist, with a passion for holistic healthcare. Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Avery graduated with honours from Pacific Rim College, where she studied Western Herbalism and Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture.
With a deep understanding of biomedical sciences, herbal energetics, and nutrition, Avery uses a combination of Western herbal medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine philosophy, and holistic nutrition to assess and treat each person based on their constitution.
As a Registered Acupuncturist with the CTCMA and a professional member of the British Columbia Herbalist Association, Avery aims to make holistic healthcare accessible while providing a safe and inclusive space for healing. She is passionate about working with all types of health concerns, including digestive concerns, chronic stress, chronic pain, gynecological conditions, nervous system regulation, and mental-emotional conditions.
Avery has a special interest in treating addictions and trauma and takes a trauma-informed approach to acupuncture. She approaches each patient with empathy and compassion as part of a multifaceted approach to healing. Her studies have brought her all around the world - in 2012 and 2015, Avery studied Ayurveda under her teacher in Kerala, India. In 2023, she had the privilege of travelling to Poland to work on a project with Acupuncture Without Borders to offer treatments to refugees from Ukraine.
In addition to her professional work, Avery enjoys travelling, gardening, camping, volunteer harm reduction work, and getting into nature with her dog Elton John.
I want to acknowledge that as an acupuncturist, I am practicing a cultural medicine that is not directly of my own ancestry. For this great privilege, I offer my deep respect and gratitude to the practitioners and teachers that I have learned this medicine from to help me become a practitioner
My story
I grew up in the forest on 200 acres of family property. The forest was a sanctuary, a teacher and a place of deep connection for myself and my family. My roots there have always run deep and my childhood holds so many memories of exploration.
In my teenage years, something changed. My admiration for life changed into a lack of self-confidence and self-awareness, which eventually developed into debilitating depression and dangerous unhealthy habits.
I felt I was too fragile to cope and just wanted to disappear. My body had let me down time and time again, and I was held captive in a mind that no longer felt spirited.
Eventually, I found reverence in plants and nature, and this began to shift my perception of self and its entirety. The desire to feel better, both emotionally and physically, came after finding something that I felt passionate about. I began to trust myself again.
When my mind became more gentle, I felt great relief, but my physical body hadn’t yet started to integrate into my healing. I felt frustrated that it wasn’t catching up to the health standard I needed it to be, and my mind-body felt somehow disconnected.
My digestive system had been wounded from years of misuse, I was struggling to have the energy to approach daily activities. I found myself frustrated at the lack of answers from conventional medicine and eventually had to look at approaching my health in other ways.
I found herbal medicine to be the shift that my body was craving. Learning the plants that gave me relief became my ultimate passion. Through dedication to a new lifestyle, and the desire to know myself, I experienced a transformation that allowed me to heal.
I am extremely passionate about internal health and the human experience, and love to help individuals learn from what their bodies may be telling them. The mental and physical are profoundly connected, and healing one, always includes healing the other.
