(https://okuhealth.com)
Born and raised in a traditional family in Beijing, Dr. Paau Kettunen has had the fortune to be immersed in a culture of Chinese medicine since childhood. Chinese medicine has been a natural part of her life, and she has studied with several renowned Daoist alchemists, Qi Gong masters, and Chinese medicine practitioners for many years before her study of classical Chinese medicine at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM) in Portland, Oregon.
By gaining knowledge in both biomedicine and holistic medicine over the years, she has become aware that mainstream Western medicine has adopted a deductive view on how to treat diseases. However, this perspective has led its medicine to a pharmaceutical-surgical-based approach of symptom management, which has revealed many shortcomings and disadvantages. Sometimes the side effects of medications burden the body a lot more than the diseases themselves do.
Dr. Paau Kettunen’s belief in the philosophy of holistic medicine deepens as she continues her scholarly research and clinical practice. As she witnesses people’s health improve with the assistance of holistic medicine, she feels confident that the ancient art and science of holistic medicine may provide solutions to many unresolved puzzles in the modern world of healthcare.
She integrates her academic research on cosmology of classical Chinese medicine with her clinical practice, in the hope of decoding the ancient scientific symbolism that correlates the macrocosm of nature with the microcosm of the human body.
As a practitioner, Dr. Paau Kettunen focuses on the complementary treatment of difficult and stubborn diseases, including but not limited to allergies, autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammation, chronic pain, skin disorders, respiratory disorders, digestive disorders, children’s health, and women’s health.
However, her practice is not limited to treating serious disorders. It brings her joy to assist anybody willing to receive the therapeutic benefits from holistic medicine. She is convinced that the body embodies the wisdom of the cosmic consciousness, and that the key to a successful treatment is to be a good body-whisperer, and she has been cultivating my capacity of “listening” – a virtue of a highly skilled practitioner. She believes that modern humans can, and must, support their health in harmony with nature. It is her dream to revive the ancient Daoist life-nurturing traditions.
When outside of work, she enjoys practicing Tai Ji & Qi Gong, mushroom foraging, fishing, and writing articles on Chinese medicine, and translating ancient Chinese medical manuscripts into English so that people in the West can also benefit from the long-forgotten wisdom of the ancient people.