Ars Medica — Chinese Herbal Medicine Online
聽 The Listening Clinic
Chinese Herbal Medicine — Online, EU-based clients
Many people arrive here experiencing a cycle of symptoms that stubbornly won't resolve — unexplained digestive difficulties, hormonal disruption, fatigue, sleep disturbance, recurring infections, or a combination of symptoms that shift and resurface over many years. Conventional medicine often addresses these in isolation, or sometimes not at all, leaving you with the disheartening message that everything is normal when your experience tells you otherwise.
Others come from a place of curiosity, seeking to understand their own constitution more deeply and to maintain their vitality through cultivating the kind of attentive relationship with their own body that Chinese medicine calls yangsheng (养生): the art of nourishing life.
Whether you are looking for help with something persistent and unresolved or simply want to understand yourself better and support your own wellbeing, the approach is the same: careful, individualised, and responsive to where you actually are.
Chinese medicine approaches these questions differently. Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, it looks for the patterns that connect them and the conditions from which they arise. Herbal prescriptions are never generic — each formula is composed specifically for you, adjusted over time as your condition changes and new patterns emerge.
Listening to the body
An initial consultation runs between 75–90 minutes. We begin with a full case history — not only your current concerns, but your medical history, digestion, sleep, cycles where relevant, emotional wellbeing, and the patterns that connect these aspects over time.
Before we meet — and before each subsequent session — I will ask you to photograph your tongue. In Chinese medicine the tongue is a direct window into the body's internal environment: its colour, coating, shape, and moisture tell a story about you that no blood test captures.
I also teach each client how to locate, perceive, and understand their own pulse. This is central to how I work online. In Chinese medicine, the pulse is far more than a measure of heart rate. It is a subtle language through which the body's broader patterns can be perceived, offering insight into the state of the whole person rather than isolated symptoms.
In our first session I will guide you through finding the three positions at each wrist and learning to notice their qualities. In subsequent appointments you will share your pulse observations with me before and during consultations — building, over time, a record of how your body's patterns shift in response to treatment. Many clients find this becomes one of the most valuable aspects of the process: developing their own genuine practice of listening to themselves, rather than relying entirely on external expertise.
Following the consultation, I formulate a bespoke herbal prescription using high-quality powdered granules from a regulated and trusted specialist supplier. These are prepared for each prescription and sent directly to you within the EU. Depending on your presentation I may also recommend specific dietary adjustments, moxibustion (a warming practice you can learn to apply at home), acupressure protocols, and gentle exercises tailored to your constitution.
At each follow-up we assess what has shifted, what hasn't, and what the prescription needs to do next. This is where Chinese herbal medicine distinguishes itself from supplements: the formula evolves with you, visit by visit.
I hold a BSc (Hons) in Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture with further postgraduate studies in Chinese Herbal Medicine from the University of Westminster, where I trained under the clinical direction of Cinzia Scorzon and Professor Volker Scheid, one of the world's leading scholars of classical Chinese medicine.
My understanding of medicine has also been shaped outside the clinic. Between 2009 and 2011, I worked directly with medicinal plants at the Asian Garden of the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley — the first in the US to host Chinese medicinal plants as a gift from China — under horticulturist Elaine Sedlack, and at the Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm run by Peg Schafer in Petaluma, California.
These experiences transformed how I understood herbal medicine: plants ceased to be ingredients listed in books and became living organisms with distinct behaviours, ecologies, histories, and medicinal qualities. My doctoral research and published work explore the relationships between Chinese medicine practice, embodied knowledge, and the creative arts — returning always to the question of how medicine functions not only as a science but as a cultivated art of perception.
If you are unsure whether Chinese herbal medicine is right for your situation, I offer a free 20-minute introductory call — an opportunity to ask questions, describe what you are dealing with, and for us both to assess whether working together makes sense. There is no obligation to proceed.
Book an introductory callFees
Consultations are available to clients based in the EU. Current rates reflect introductory pricing while the practice establishes in Portugal — they will be reviewed in early 2027. A small number of reduced-fee appointments are available for those experiencing financial hardship.