Growing up in South Jersey (just outside of Philadelphia), I spent many warm summer days with my grandmother. She and my grandfather had travelled from their native Puerto Rico to the “mainland” in search of a more prosperous life for their growing family. As the second granddaughter, I watched my grandmother tend to the home, making all tasks look effortless. She was often in a rhythm… “in the flow”, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, sewing, counseling her children, feeding cats, and talking  to her plants as she watered them with great care. She taught me to be intentional and do things with care. She also taught me how food can be healing and herbs can complement daily wellness.

My grandmother’s guidance inspired me to take my studies seriously and search for my “don” (a gift that we use to help others). I graduated with honors from high school and pursued a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience at Lehigh University with an academic scholarship. I was fascinated by the “mind-body connection” even before the term was coined. This led me to apply to medical school in my home state. 

While I juggled the intense rigors of allopathic medical school and in an interesting twist of fate, I had a “healing crisis” with my physical health. After many courses of antibiotics and feeling very sick and depleted, I became desperate for another path to wellness. I found a practitioner of Eastern medicine in NJ who guided me with acupuncture, Ayurveda and herbal medicine. Thus began my path of healing that has become lifelong. My crisis and transformation led me to embrace a whole new career path, one that focused on healing with herbs, food as medicine, and Eastern therapies.

In 1997, I ventured to the Southwest to pursue my passion to learn naturopathic medicine and acupuncture. Having transformed my health with acupuncture and diet/lifestyle changes, I wanted to learn how to help others do the same. It was an incredible 4 years of intense training, across 2 graduate schools, that shaped so much of how I practice to this day. My Chinese professors taught me so much about acupuncture, prescribing Chinese herbs, manual therapeutics like cupping, gua sha, and massage… and yes, burning moxa carefully.

After practicing in New Mexico as a board certified Doctor of Oriental Medicine, in many clinical settings (private practice, university-affiliated Integrative Medicine clinic, acu-detox and breast cancer grant projects, community acupuncture clinics) and teaching graduate students at the Southwest Acupuncture College (SWAC), the pandemic and “life” brought me and my family to New England for a new chapter.

As I “on-boarded” to a new life in Rhode Island, I had the honor to practice acupuncture for 2 years at Kindred Community Acupuncture (Pawtucket, RI). I met so many incredible patients from all walks of life that benefited from this medicine. It reminded me that Traditional Chinese Medicine has “grit & sustainability” for treating so many conditions and alleviating suffering if we honor its ancient wisdom and practicality. It is truly more than “just acupuncture”.

Redbird Nest Acupuncture is the next chapter, in my 25+ years of clinical practice, with my mission to treat individuals and families with acupuncture & herbal medicine (and so many other therapies) to help spread the healing benefits that help patients transform out of their own “healing crisis”and be in the flow of their own lives, one patient at a time, one treatment at a time.

For those wondering how Redbird Nest got it’s name, besides my specializing in treating pain (thousands of treatments over 25+ years), my two additional specialty areas of practice are Women’s Health and Pediatrics. My postgraduate training in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Gynecology and clinical experience spans treating women across the lifespan for conditions such as regulating the menstrual cycle, PMS, infertility, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause. My training in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Pediatrics entails no-needle techniques for treating the most common childhood ailments ie. common colds, asthma, digestive issues, insomnia, anxiety, and behavioral issues; for children from infants up to age 12.

My vision with these specialty services is to provide women and children care and nurturing with this medicine, like a bird in its nest, providing for its  young…. and red is my favorite color.