Welcome to my heart-centered program for individuals navigating autoimmunity and chronic illness.
A supportive space to feel seen, accepted, and whole as you move through hardship and healing.
“Your journey is not to become like everyone else. No one is like everyone else. Your journey is to live completely exposed to life and still retain the qualities of your personal phenomenon. You aren’t here to satisfy. You are here to add a particular seasoning to our collective stew. You marinated in the moments and marrow of your ancestors. You were ready at your first spark. When doubt and fear rise up in you, see them, greet them, invite them on their way. This is not when you turn and run. This is when you root and romance the soul of your soul…”
— Jaiya John
Private 1:1 Coaching
Session Breakdown
Sessions provide a shame-free space where we honor neurodiversity, celebrate cultural differences, and recognize the broader context of systemic oppression and collective trauma.
At its core, Chinese Medicine philosophy is a systems-based approach—the understanding that all systems coexist and influence one another on multiple levels. It helps us understand the connection between our internal microcosm and the larger macrocosm of our lives and the world around us.
🌿Two 60 min sessions/month with a 2 hr initial session 🌿
🌿 Access to me via email or text throughout the month 🌿
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Who do you have on your team and how can I support you in creating that team. You are not alone, and creating a supportive network of people to rely on is everything—help food prepping, chores, childcare support, health advocate and emotional supportive friend/dear one to accompany you to appointments.
Managing doctor appointments is exhausting. Let me help you figure out what to prioritize. For example, I may prepare you with a game plan and questions to help advocate for your needs with your health team, or we focus on organizing medical data to help ease the overwhelm associated with scheduling appointments, having medical information readily available when you need it, etc.
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How can we realign ourselves to a way of eating that resonates with our individual bodies. You will receive a Korean Sasang Constitutional Reading where we will determine your constitution through your Ba Zi natal chart. From there, we will discuss the foods that are best for you and create a plan in implementing these new nutritional guidelines.
Learn about Sasang Constitutional Medicine Here
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Explore your habits and patterns around stress levels, sleep, movement, elimination, etc. and identify which patterns may need some extra support to help bring you more ease in your day to day living.
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The Ba Zi, a form of Chinese metaphysics, can be used to analyze your birth chart and is one of the great ways to help manage your illness. It may give you insights into why you have certain predispositions to symptoms, and will help guide us towards the best treatments and customize them for you.
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If appropriate, you may be guided through: acupressure, gua sha, ear seeds, self-massage techniques, journaling in-between sessions, art, and more.
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Lab testing and analysis to help pinpoint more accurate and efficient treatment strategies and track progress. Ideally, we test in the beginning and towards the end of the program. (Please note: costs for lab tests are separate, but generally can range from $50-$150 for one round of testing depending on which tests are deemed necessary)
Patient Appreciation
“My brain fog and fatigue are almost entirely gone in the 9 months since I started working with Celine. No health based intervention of any kind has helped me eradicate these struggles before I became Celine's patient. I have increased capacity to take even better care of myself in ways I hadn't been able to in 8 years of disability. I have cultivated so much more self compassion for myself during flare days thanks to Celine's gentle but resolute approach to healing. Celine has also helped me cultivate a level of safety in my body that I haven't felt before, especially with healthcare practitioners. I have a lot of medical trauma that factors into the symptoms I am seeking treatment with Celine to address and she has always approached my most sensitive struggles with grace and tenderness.
— SM
My Approach
My philosophy around healing involves the concept of slow medicine where real lasting change requires patience and small adjustments over a longer period of time rather than a few visits with very little support throughout the process to integrate those changes. When it comes to chronic illness and especially autoimmunity, there are so many ups and downs in the process until you find a rhythm that works for you.
So, I’ve found having a format where we work together over a longer period of time has the best outcomes. I also find having people commit to several months allows for less pressure to “get all of the information they need” in the first 1-2 sessions, allowing a more organic process to occur with deeper, lasting change.
My Values
Patient-centered Care: I value active collaboration and informed decision-making based on your specific health goals. I focus on more than just your diagnosis and symptoms, but to help you re-establish and strengthen your agency in your healing process. I respect your cultural preferences, traditions, socioeconomic conditions, and I treat not only from a clinical perspective, but also from an emotional, mental, spiritual, social, and financial perspective.
Curiosity: It’s not about having all the answers, but rather having curiosity holds space for transformative possibility. We can be curious about our feelings around pain and our struggles rather than denying, judging, or suppressing them.
Playfulness: Creativity and playfulness is an important part of finding balance and sustainability to our health journey—it allows us to explore different ways to help us establish new habits and lifestyle changes.
Inclusivity & Accessibility: Your healing journey should align and support your body, culture, and specific needs.
Coaching From an East Asian Medicine Perspective
East Asian medicine had opened up so many different ways of viewing illness such as how connected every aspect of our existence is…from our emotions, to the people we surround ourselves with, and even the less intangible things such as the spirit. Illness is caused by many factors, such as a disconnection within self, and so we work together on understanding where these factors stems from—such as childhood experiences, genetics, environmental issues, past wounds and trauma, broken societal systems, etc. and how can we set up a plan for you that allows you to navigate illness feeling as supported as possible.
An East Asian Medicine perspective has helped me learn to see the connections with the different systems we inhabit as humans. In the West, there’s a doctor for each specific part of your body—when in reality each part communicates as a whole, so listening to it as a whole is imperative. Also, I take into account the cycles of life and nature such as the seasons, circadian rhythms, relationship to the moon and stars, and how disconnected we are to our own thoughts and actions.
Who are the type of people I work with best?
Have a willingness to explore new ideas and perspectives from a place of vulnerability and honesty
Are ready to take responsibility for your actions and commit to trying to live a different way
Are committed to real change and ready to face the uncomfortable parts of self keeping you back from growing
Are patient with the understanding that personal growth takes time and effort and there is no magic pill to make your illness quickly go away
Value showing up for yourself and respecting both your and my time as sacred
Have a willingness to adapt and adjust strategies based on progress and evolving goals without putting yourself in a rigid box of “right and wrong”
PRICING
Recommended Investment:
Six Months
$600 per month
$3,300 full payment (Save $300)
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$300-600 per month
Solidarity pricing will help provide more affordable rates for people that otherwise couldn’t afford regular care. If you are still having financial difficulty with solidarity pricing, especially for Disabled/LGBTQIA+/ BIPOC communities, please contact me.
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$600-800/month
$3,300-4,500 full payment
Sustainer pricing will help make it more sustainable for me to provide solidarity pricing to those that need it. My hope is to have a pricing structure that can make care available to as many people as possible.
For new patients, to encourage optimal outcomes with chronic illness, I recommend a commitment of six months or longer , but you always have the option of canceling your monthly commitment at any time. After six months, most people tend to continue month-to-month, or go on an as-needed basis. Special cases or sliding scale options may involve customized session frequency and will be discussed during the discovery call. I recommend six months because the nature of working with people with chronic illness tends to take time. I try to set real expectations for deeper levels of change. There is no magic pill or quick fix. If that is your expectation then I am not the practitioner for you.
Full Payments:
You have a one-month grace period for full payments, during which you can receive a refund for the remaining five months if you choose to discontinue care. After the initial month, discontinuation will result in a donation of the remaining amount to my BIPOC/LGBTQIA scholarship fund.
Monthly Payments:
Monthly payments are non-refundable, with no pro-rating or partial month refunds available if you decide to discontinue care.
Patient Appreciation
“I have never felt more seen, heard and understood for all my complexities and contradictions in a medical setting than when working with Celine. Celine has been instrumental in building my confidence to navigate traditional medical systems to get my needs met as a disabled person who has had so many bad experiences in the past. Since she herself has experience navigating healthcare systems as a chronically ill person, her support and advice feels so personal and is so practically accessible to me. Thanks to Celine, I have had so much more confidence in my ability to ask for lab work that I've been previously denied and to seek a second opinion when I don't feel heard the first time around. I also feel so relieved when I hear Celine's holistic perspective on my lab work and feel confident I am getting a nuanced picture of the status of my health that I don't feel I get from traditional medical doctors. I feel confident asking Celine questions about my lab work that I wouldn't necessarily ask other doctors and appreciate the time she takes to answer them.
Our sessions have radically transformed my relationship to my health, my body and especially my relationship to food. Our work together has helped me reconnect with my inner child and expand the foods I feel comfortable eating. Celine has inspired me to make several mindset shifts which have given me the ability to reconnect to parts of myself I previously hadn't been able to. I have so much pressure and weight of managing my chronic illnesses taken off my shoulders now that I am one of Celine's patients. I no longer have to agonize over what health habits, diet choices, and lifestyle decisions to prioritize because I know I can trust in the efficacy Celine's recommendations. Following the protocols we build out together have significantly decreased the amount of stress I experience when managing my illness, as well as my physiological symptoms overall. Celine is even helping me navigate how best to manage my increased physical capacity so I can build sustainable habits and avoid burning out. I have a lot of experience with alternative forms of medicine like functional medicine, acupuncture, etc. but still had some gaps in addressing symptoms I've been struggling with for 8+ years like severe brain fog, fatigue and dizziness. I was exposed to Celine's passion for healing when I met her 10 years ago and was curious if her expertise in Chinese Medicine could help me manage these symptoms. I also appreciated that she has a thorough background in body work, which is a helpful knowledge base for a practitioner to have when working with physically disabled people like me.
It always surprises me when Celine is able to ascertain when my physical symptoms are coming from an emotional root cause instead of a physical one. When this is the case, Celine asks me disarming questions that bring me back into my body with comfort and ease. I walk away with increased understanding of my body's triggers, as well as practical and accessible strategies to support my body through tough emotions. I am forever astonished by Celine's attention to detail when it comes to her approach to healing. She pays attention to things I say that I never thought would be relevant to my healing, and her holistic approach to addressing my health struggles is interconnected in a way I've never experienced before. This focus on both the micro and macro of my complex situation has produced incredible improvements to what felt like a bleak and hopeless situation for so many years.”
-SM
“Our sessions became part of a more considerable understanding and approach to tackling chronic health issues resulting from aggressive chemotherapy treatments. I also suffer from PTSD due to a life-altering accident that occurred to my daughter. Celine has helped release some of the stored trauma that I suffered, and she encouraged (and referred me) to a spiritual counselor to relieve the deep pain I was holding.
Celine's empathy, understanding of chronic pain, and background in acupuncture and non-Western holistic treatments provided relief where none existed before.”
-BB
FAQ
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I am a proud, queer, brown Filipina. I hope to create safe spaces for folks of all backgrounds-gender expansive, marginalized backgrounds, Black, Indigenous, people of color to thrive. I want to honor the systemic injustices that affect health care as a whole. I also want to continue to learn more to better help underserved communities and welcome any and all feedback.
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This really depends on how much effort you want to put in for your own growth and healing. I am simply here to support and guide you, but only you will have the answer to what you need. However, I’d suggest extra time for self reflection and journaling after our sessions (maybe 30 min or so) and then of course however much time you might need to implement the changes we agree on during our sessions which can vary greatly for each person.
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My coaching is focused on autoimmune conditions (especially arthritis and thyroid conditions) although I can work with people of varying chronic illnesses. My free discovery call is a good way to find out if I would be a good fit for your needs or not.
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Unfortunately, I do not currently accept insurance for coaching sessions. I offer superbills (insurance reimbursement) only for my in-person acupuncture/bodywork sessions.
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I believe we all have a very different and individualized relationship to food, so everything we decide on is customized to your specific constitution, health history, and symptoms. Meal plans don’t necessarily include specific recipes or a daily meal plan as I encourage patients to be creative and find what format works for them.
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I have a 24 hour cancellation policy with sessions. Further details within intake forms.
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I utilize Practice Better-a HIPPA protected EHR system for all online sessions. I conduct my online sessions via Zoom calls.
