About me
I'm Holly. I've always been a natural-born lover of medicine, and from a young age, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would do something in the health field, but I wasn't sure just what. Exploring different fields such as psychology, education, and yoga led me to understand the importance of the integration of body, mind, and spirit.
One Christmas, a very special teacher of mine gave me a gift certificate to try out acupuncture. At the time, I was experiencing unexplained headaches lasting for months at a time, and no amount of testing came back with any explanation or a cure. I was desperate to try anything so I booked my appointment. When my headaches started to go away the next day, I was stunned. Thus began my ongoing quest to learn everything possible about Chinese medicine.
I read book after book, and asked questions at every appointment. Four years after that first treatment, and having been treated for everything from menstrual regulation to the common cold, I was convinced that I had found my passion and future career.
I looked into schools and settled on the New England School of Acupuncture in Boston. It had a strong reputation in the eastern medicine community. Having grown up in northern Maine, the move was an intimidating one for me, but I was driven and determined to make the transition. School was challenging, in many different ways; I was forced to look deeper into myself, at what makes me tick, what imbalances I had in my own life and body, and most importantly how to correct the imbalances.
After school, I was fortunate to get two wonderful opportunities for work. In fact, they were both so wonderful, I could not choose. Thus, I'm currently lucky to have patients in both Boston, Massachusetts, and Kennebunk, Maine. While driving back and forth won't be sustainable forever, I feel for now I get the best of both worlds: I have all the coffee shops, restaurants, movie theaters, and stores I could ask for in Boston, and in Maine I can breathe freely and easily, spending time outdoors, on the beach or in the woods. In both locations I have a strong support system of family, friends, and colleagues.
I'm content for now, to say the least. My future plans are to expand my practice in Maine and integrate more into the community through such things as acupuncture events, yoga retreats, wellness workshops, and nutritional and herbal counseling. What can I say? I've always been a dreamer!
Education
I am a licensed acupuncturist in Maine and Massachusetts. I completed my degree at the New England School of Acupuncture at MCPHS University in Newton, MA, where I studied both Japanese and Chinese acupuncture styles. Prior to my acupuncture studies, I obtained two degrees: an undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Maine at Farmington (2003), and a Masters in Education at the University of New England (2007). In addition to these degrees I also have completed certifications in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I am a 200-hour certified Vinyasa Yoga instructor.
