DR. KELVIN DEWOLFE

Kelvin deWolfe is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and is the founder of 1st Defense Mind Body Studio, a comprehensive wellness center in Highland Park, California. His life’s aim is to further the acceptance of Asian Medicine by the mainstream American medical community.

Dr. deWolfe’s interest in Chinese Medicine began in his teens–but it wasn’t for entirely altruistic reasons:

“By the time I was 18 I had three black belts and was pretty impressed with myself.   One morning I noticed some older Chinese gentlemen practicing martial arts in the park near my home. I stopped to watch them and it became clear to me: I knew nothing. These were 80 year old men running up trees, doing splits in mid-air. Making the impossible look, well, like a walk in the park. I approached one the men to inquire about their practice. At one point, he took me by the shoulder, put his hand on my upper arm, and sent powerful waves of energy through my body. I had to know how to do this.  He replied that I would have to learn the medicine first.”

Learn the medicine he did, graduating summa cum laude from the prestigious Emperor’s College, where his course of study included classes in both Eastern and Western Medicine.  His doctoral fellowship at Good Samaritan Hospital’s Acute Rehabilitation Department had him working as part of a team of doctors, nurses and physical therapists to offer integrative care to patients who had suffered a stroke or traumatic injury.  There he gained invaluable real-world knowledge of both systems of care–where they were best applied, individually or as a complement to one another.  The experience also led to a profound realization:

“Most of us don’t get sick–we make ourselves sick.  I would meet with patients right after surgery and they would say to me ‘I guess this is my wake up call.’  They knew they had not been making healthy choices, and had literally just escaped with their lives.”

The understanding that we make ourselves sick–and conversely, can make ourselves well– deepened his appreciation for Chinese Medicine, which is built on the foundation that our natural state is wellness, achieved through balance. Chinese Medicine taps into the tremendous healing potential that exists within us.  By treating the whole person–body, mind and spirit– it recognizes the immense power of human beings.   (The kind of power that can be harnessed to send energy through your hands, for instance.)

While modern medicine uses terms like “holistic” and “preventive” as though they were recent inventions,  Chinese Medicine has been the very definition of those words for thousands of years.  Dr. deWolfe is proud to practice medicine that has always fully respected the human body, not as separate parts or diseases, but as an intricate and ingenious system that is constantly evolving and restoring, like nature itself.  While patients who come to him (many times after trying everything Western Medicine has to offer) may marvel at the results, he is quick to correct them: “It’s not amazing, it’s Chinese Medicine.”  Truly, over many millennia, there isn’t much Chinese Medicine hasn’t encountered in terms of illness.  The remedies, the medicine itself, exist to this day because they work.

Dr. deWolfe is a passionate advocate for Chinese Medicine.  In addition to seeing patients on a daily basis, he also teaches classes in martial arts, which are an integral part of the medicine.  His thirty plus years of martial arts experience led him to develop a new form of martial arts, Three Circles, which seeks to find the basis for all martial arts.  He can be found most evenings leading classes for young and old in this revolutionary new style.

Whether he’s talking to a single patient or a room full of people, educating the public about the benefits of Chinese Medicine is always in a day’s work for Dr. deWolfe.  An engaging speaker, his seminars on such topics as Taoism, Qi Gong and clinical pulse diagnosis are well-attended and much-appreciated.

Which leads to only one question:  After all this, can he send waves of energy through his fingers?

“I’m working on it.”