My Story

Here is a bit more about me, and how I became a Turkish woman practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture on Vancouver Island!

I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey in a family that believes love and food to be the best medicines. My great grandmother was a folk healer, who marched the woods to collect herbs and used Turkish tea cups to suction out cold and flus off our backs.

I have always been fascinated by the human experience, and sought stories to help me make sense of intertwinedness of it all. After migrating to Victoria, I studied Sociology and Women’s Studies at the University of Victoria, in a quest to make sense of my own story.

Traditional Chinese Medicine came to me during a difficult time. I was very slowly recovering from a physical injury and going down a spiral of anxiety and depression. I felt broken. I had lost faith in my body’s ability to heal. I felt stuck. But between the gentle pokes of pins and the warmth of the cups on my back, I felt a veil lifted from my spirits. Finally, I could sleep, I could laugh, I could walk, I could breathe and I could be!

Acupuncture had such a profound impact on my well being that I had to know more, so I started my training at Pacific Rim College in 2014. The three years I spent studying acupuncture not only gave me the knowledge I needed to start my career path, but also a community of incredible humans, who became my peers and dearest friends. In those three years, I have become a wife, a practitioner, and a mother; in that order. I was pregnant during my last year, and our son was born a month before I graduated. Becoming a mother and an acupuncturist happened with such synchronicity for me, that I felt a calling to know more about birth work and the ways I can empower other life givers using oriental medicine and acupuncture. In 2018, I completed my birth doula training with the Nesting Doula Collective.

My acupuncture practice found a home at Cascadia Massage and Health Centre, the loveliest little clinic, where I get to grow, learn, and help heal alongside some amazing practitioners. In addition to my private practice, I offer acupuncture within an emotional rehabilitation program at the Salvation Army. I have a deep passion for transparency and empowerment around mental health, and am humbled to be offering Acupuncture for my community to help through transitions and struggles of life, whether it is depression, anxiety, grieving a loved one, insomnia, or becoming a new parent.

When I’m not practicing acupuncture, I can be found in my kitchen cooking enough food for the whole neighbourhood, or in the garden digging dirt to grow more calendula; I might be at an early gym class trying to lift heavy things while my son is still asleep, trying to finish three books at once, or simply being myself with my family.

There are endless ways of living this life; endless stories of finding balance, contentment, and healing; endless journeys. I hope to be a part of yours, as a facilitator and as a witness.

With love and ease,

~ Özge