Paola Campanelli

Paola is a Chinese herbal medicine practitioner (LCTA 2005) and Shiatsu practitioner (SEED, 1999) and teacher, who worked at The Avicenna Centre for Chinese Medicine between 2003 and 2007.

In 2006 an inspiring three-month internship at the TCM university hospital of Chengdu (Sichuan, China) gave her the motivation and the courage to put her practice on hold and leave the UK to further her Chinese medicine studies in China. She chose Taiwan for the first leg of her project — language acquisition - because it is the only place where traditional characters are still currently used and because its language schools have the longest history of teaching Mandarin to foreigners. After nearly three years of dedicated language studies, she is ready to make a transition into the world of Chinese medicine, right where its roots are.

While she is in Taiwan and China, she is "our woman in China" and occasionally writes a piece to update us on her adventures - we thought you might like to read those updates, too!