I was born in Hong Kong and my Cantonese name is 曾詠欣 (pronounced zeng wing yūn). As a child, I wanted to become a physician because of my love and connection with my grandmother who took care of me even when life was difficult for her, living with diabetes, misogyny, no formal education, through poverty, multiple wars including the Cultural Revolution in China, and fled to Hong Kong, creating a life and family.
After immigrating to the United States at the age of 6, I grew up in New York City. I was fortunate to have had the opportunities to attend the Bronx High School of Science and then received a partial scholarship to attend Carnegie Mellon University. I was a part of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993, worked at the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force as an Americorp member then hired on as staff, and volunteered with Prevention Point (a needle exchange program). It was mainly through the relationships I developed with colleagues and volunteers that I began to learn to engage in a deeper, more meaningful connection. I am grateful for those compassionate individuals who were open to working through challenges, taught me about social justice that is about dignity, respect and intricately linked to mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health, recognize and respect differences and provided a community of support that has been and continue to be instrumental in my growth and development as an out gender queer individual.
At the time when persons living with HIV/AIDS had very limited options for treatment; many took medications that were toxic to the virus and also to their bodies. It was then when I realized osteopathic medicine would provide a different perspective on health and healing. I attended the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a dual-accredited (DO & MD) Family Medicine residency at Crozer Keystone in Pennsylvania. I have worked in a variety of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Philadelphia, Washington D.C including the D.C. Jail, and served as a medical director in San Francisco. FQHCs are community based health centers in underserved areas, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. While osteopathy was part of my practice, there was a significant emphasis on pharmaceuticals and standardized procedures in Family Medicine. The system of primary care with a focus on productivity and numbers that emphasized seeing more patients in less time created an environment in which I felt I was becoming a pharmaceutical dispensary with a license. I began to lose sight of why I became a physician in the first place.
After a decade of attempting to work within the medical system as a family physician, I decided to focus on Osteopathy with further training through the Osteopathic Cranial Academy and re-connected with the art of medicine and healing that is already within the body. My practice involves a deep respect for the body, and work with individuals living with trauma, utilizing Cranial Osteopathy and energy modalities that arouses the body’s inherent ability to heal.
“Social Justice and Well Being are one and the same” — Dr. Sará King
“What is health but harmony with NATURE.” — John Lewis, author of A.T. Still: From the Dry Bone to the Living Man
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More about osteopathy:
American Academy of Osteopathy
American Osteopathic Association
American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians of California
Osteopathy 