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MY ApproachMabuhay! I am a hilot binabaylan, acupuncturist, and Chinese medicine practitioner. My practice is informed by my identity as a queer, trans, non binary, Tagalog person living in the U.S. With the combination of my lived experience and training, my goal is to help individuals and communities live their fullest lives by offering a decolonizing approach to medicine rooted in traditional and ancestral practices.
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My story
It has been a journey to be a healing practitioner. In 2009, I had just graduated with my MPA, and landed my dream job as an executive director at a small nonprofit in my community. I was passionate about the organization and its mission, but very soon I was on the road to burn out. I was working full time with half the pay. The organization was on the verge of folding, a fact revealed to me after I accepted the offer. In order to make ends meet I picked up 2 other part time jobs in addition to my full time work. This experience completely broke me - I was traumatized, depleted, and ill. I did not have health insurance at the time so I started seeing a counselor and going to a community acupuncture clinic, both with generous sliding scales. After 9 months or so I was on the way back to wellness. I thought I had been doing work to uplift my community, but my approach was harmful to one of those community members: me. Why did my values and care not extend to my self as someone who also faced multiple intersectional oppressions? That realization changed my orientation to healing and movement work. I had to learn to attend to my own healing in order to have the energy to live my values and do meaningful work. I had to learn that rest and recovery are needed to sustain movements. I left toxic, white, queer, nonprofit culture for a big do-over. It became clear to me that my interests, values, and gifts aligned much more with the healing arts. In 2012, I came back to acupuncture as a student.
Going deeper into the healing arts, I started envisioning what decolonizing medicine would look like. My family is Tagalog and I wanted to understand what was so powerful about our pre-colonial traditions that the Spanish conquistadors and American imperialists tried to wipe them out. What did we do before we were forced into Euro-centric spiritual and medical systems that are often violent towards us? What would my ancestors do now in the face of today's struggles for liberation? Eventually, I came across the Hilot Academy of Binabaylan. With immense support from my community I was able to travel to the Philippines. In a lucky window of time between the eruption of the Taal volcano and the COVID-19 pandemic, I was trained and initiated as a hilot binabaylan. What a time to be part of hilot's revival! I am honored to be part of a tradition that has survived multiple invasions, the Catholic Church, and natural disasters. This medicine prioritizes not just individual healing, but being in right relationship with each other and with our natural environment. For me, offering this medicine is a step towards liberation.
Going deeper into the healing arts, I started envisioning what decolonizing medicine would look like. My family is Tagalog and I wanted to understand what was so powerful about our pre-colonial traditions that the Spanish conquistadors and American imperialists tried to wipe them out. What did we do before we were forced into Euro-centric spiritual and medical systems that are often violent towards us? What would my ancestors do now in the face of today's struggles for liberation? Eventually, I came across the Hilot Academy of Binabaylan. With immense support from my community I was able to travel to the Philippines. In a lucky window of time between the eruption of the Taal volcano and the COVID-19 pandemic, I was trained and initiated as a hilot binabaylan. What a time to be part of hilot's revival! I am honored to be part of a tradition that has survived multiple invasions, the Catholic Church, and natural disasters. This medicine prioritizes not just individual healing, but being in right relationship with each other and with our natural environment. For me, offering this medicine is a step towards liberation.
Experience & Education
- 2004-2005 Coordinator of the Women of Color Coalition at the Evergreen State College
- 2008 received a MPA from the Evergreen State College
- 2008 - 2009 organizer at the first NQAPIA convening
- 2009 - 2014 volunteer at Gender Spectrum Education and Training
- 2015 received a MAcOM from the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine in 2015
- 2015 - 2018 Owner of Unicorn Pins & Potions, an acupuncture and herbal clinic centering the needs of QTBIPOC
- 2016 Co creator of the Well on Beacon
- 2016 - 2020 provided community acupuncture and other wellness services at the following locations:
- West Seattle Community Acupuncture
- Asian Counseling and Referral Service
- Neighborcare Health at Rainier Beach
- Little Bird Community Acupuncture Clinic
- City Acupuncture Circle
- 2020 initiated as a Hilot Binabaylan by Rev. Apu Adman Aghama and Rev. Lakay Alsent Magbaya Aghama through the Hilot Academy of Binabaylan.
- 2020 began private practice Jamee Pineda Healing Arts