Introducing Raintree Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine is not your average career choice.

It was definitely not one discussed with the Year 12 Careers advisor. So I often have patients asking me how it came to be for me to practice Chinese Medicine. It goes back quite a long way. I was born in the free-wheeling 70s and grew up in the 80s where kids roamed pretty free. It was way before bike helmets arrived and so - when I was racing my neighbour down a hill coming home from pre-school I came off and suffered a fracture to my skull. How this event can still be etched into my mind is wild. Fast forward through the rest of my life, I became very familiar with the debilitating experience of migraines and headaches. I found I had less migraines when I travelled as a young adult, so this became a big focus. I spent years travelling around Australia, SE Asia, India and Nepal. I found my self living and teaching in Taiwan for a year in the year 2000 and I guess this is where it all happened.

I was born in the free-wheeling 70s and grew up in the 80s where kids roamed pretty free

Living in Taiwan

I was living in a smaller city for Taiwanese standards, teaching English. My colleagues became friends and they kindly took me to their Chinese Medicine Doctors to help me with my migraines. I had acupuncture, cupping, gua sha (my bestie and I freaked out at the marks) saw an 90 year old herbalist and brewed up herbal teas each day at home. I would be roused on for leaving the house with wet hair and was counselled against eating too many cold fruits. These places captured my imagination. Chinese Medicine is on the National Health Insurance in Taiwan and the clincis were super busy. In one clinic there wasn’t enough room to see all the patients on tables, so the doctor would put the acupuncture needles in and the patients would walk back out to the waiting room and catch up on the lastest Taiwanese period drama on TV. It was pretty wild to see 30 patients in a waiting room with a wide array of areas being treated (with needles straight though clothes). In Taiwan, Chinese Medicine was not alternative medicine. It was a medicine that serviced a large portion of the community, and not just the wealthy. Chinese Herbs were subsided, so back at that time, it was the same price to get your weekly, top quality Taiwanese produced Herbs as it was to get a coffee at Starbucks.

So when I came across a martial arts coach teaching Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Massage, I jumped at the opportunity! His name was Mr. Lee and on each Wednesday he held a massage class for a couple of us wai guo ren (foreigners). I had already studied a lot of massage, including Thai Massage, so I loved these classes. At one point, Mr. Lee gave me a bootleg, photocopy of a manual from an American Chinese Medicine school. I found myself completely taken with the material and realised all I wanted to do was read and study this book. It was a turning point. This is what I wanted to do. Much to Mr. Lee’s disbelief, I announced I was returning to Australia to study Chinese Medicine. My travelling days came to a halt.

Melbourne

The move to Melbourne to study Chinese Medicine at University turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. Back in the early 2000’s it was like a big county town. So many young people from around the country living in share houses, playing music, creating community, and for a bunch of us, studying natural medicine in all its different forms. The community took me right in and I felt completely at home. I completed a 5 year Bachelor of Chinese Medicine (Acu+ Herbs) at Victoria University and started practicing with good friends as they created the now renowned Kundalini House - Health Clinic and Yoga studio. (Link to podcast on creating K-House)

I was here for about 7 or 8 years before I had my son. After this time I rented spaces in a few different clinics whilst raising kids and continuing my work doing acupuncture in a Youth Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal unit (that’s another story). We never considered leaving but something of a virus spread and we found ourselves visiting Grandpa on the Sunshine Coast - and 5 years later we are still here.

Care that is considered, where stories are told and heard, where spaces allow for transformation, healing and acceptance***.***

Sunshine Coast

The last 5 years I have been wth the amazing Bloom team in Maroochydore. I have been blessed with so many amazing patients that made me love my job even more. When I go into work I am very aware how lucky I am that I get to do something I truly love each day. Perhaps the year of the Snake has had something to do with it, but towards the end of 2025 it became apparent that I had to back myself and get my long-envisioned clinic off the ground, and so Raintree Chinese Medicine was born.

Offering treatments over 2 locations, the focus at this stage of my career is to continue to provide the kind of care I love. Care that is considered, where stories are told and heard, where spaces allow for transformation, healing and acceptance. The acupuncture is a part of the process, but what unfolds is often more than that.