Heather Wisely
Master of Science Traditional Oriental Medicine –
Doctoral Candidate
Diplomate in Acupuncture
Licensed Acupuncturist – Utah DOPL
Chinese Herbalist
Registered Yoga Teacher
Reiki Master Teacher
Certified Massage Therapist
I have been studying the human body, and health for as long as I can remember. Even in elementary school I had a deep desire to heal others. I remember watching Star Wars with other kids, and while my friends wanted to be Luke or Leia, I wanted to be Yoda. I started my professional training in 2000, after graduating high school I enrolled in massage school. In that time I completed over 800 hours of in-depth body work training in over 20 modalities. During my training I was formally introduced to Chinese Medicine and acupressure. From the very first moment, I knew I wanted to understand so much more.
In 2005 I moved to New York where I enrolled at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and started my training in Traditional Chinese Medicine. While I was in school, I was fortunate enough to travel to China, and I was able to study or witness acupuncture in 3 different hospitals and clinics over 3 months. When I graduated, I traveled to India where I studied yoga and completed my 500 hours of Yoga Teacher Training.
Upon completing my initial trainings, I dreamed of a clinic where I could combine all my skills into one place. I move home to Utah where I met my husband, Stephen, and we immediately opened our acupuncture practice, Neighborhood Acupuncture and Healing Arts, and I have been in practice ever since.
My treatments are mainly based both in theory and practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, I also pull knowledge from Western culture including biomedicine, western herbalism, and astrology. I have also studied theory from ayurveda, and use the tools of yoga. As a health care practitioner, I try to see the wisdom from many systems, but acupuncture and Chinese herbs are my preferred tools for treatment.
In my clinical practice I currently mix acupuncture with some body work including cupping, gua sha, hot stone treatment’s, lifestyle consultations, herbal consultations, and I teach 3 yoga classes per week online. Over the last 22 years I have performed over 20,000 client treatments and have taught over 2,000 yoga classes.
Currently I average between 35-40 appointments per week in approximately 30 hours of clinic time. I take between 2-3 clients per hour for acupuncture treatments I see between 6-9 acupuncture treatments per day, 4 days per week. Prior to 2020 I saw between 50-60 clients per week and taught 6-7 yoga classes per week, I also developed a 200 hour yoga teacher training program with Stephen, and started an online yoga program. In the last two years I have dramatically changed my practice and I have reduced my clinic hours to create time and space to complete this doctorate program.
It has been my desire to complete this program for the last 5 years, but prior to 2020 I was “too busy”. In the last 2 years I have had the time to reflect on my goals and values and I have worked to create time and space in my life, practice, and schedule to complete this program. I am particularly excited to get my doctorate through PCHS, for so many reasons. Of course, Pacific College will always be my top choice, as I graduated with my Master’s, and having courses online so I can continue my practice has made it possible for me to purse this dream.
In the future, I hope to create online courses and books to help people heal using tools from acupressure, herbal teas and simple yoga postures. I hope to create an online yoga teacher training program for health care practitioners, where they can learn safe and gentle yoga sequences to help patient who suffer from different health conditions. I know that completing this program will help me on this venture.