Feel free to contact me to set up a complementary 15 minute consultation
Tara is thrilled to be with Restorative Balance and brings over 20 years of experience in holistic health. She offers a full-service Chinese medicine practice including; acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutritional consults and other modalities. She also offers labor stimulation packages and lactation stimulation packages that can include visits at both Restoring Balance and her Durham clinic, as well as care for pregnancy-related issues like nausea and vomiting, pain and carpal tunnel syndrome, anemia, hemorrhoids and varicosities, high blood pressure, anxiety, and turning breech babies.
Tara is committed to providing exceptional care and support for pregnant women and people so that they may have the safest, healthiest, and most connected birth they can. Having started out as a massage therapist in 1995, Tara also worked in a doula-training and natural pregnancy resource center, were she fell in love with the woman centered birth movement, especially the ideas found in Birthing From Within and the Continuum Concept.
When it was time for her to birth her now 9 year old son, she drew on these ideas and practices for her own wonderful empowered birth. Later, while in acupuncture school Tara developed her interest in Women’s health, interning and studying with traditional Chinese medicine ObGyn specialist Dr. Hua Ling Shu. She finished her studies with advanced internships at SF Homeless Prenatal Project where she treated pregnant moms to be and their families in both English and Spanish and at UCSF Benioff Children’s hospital working with staff, nurses and doctors.
Tara received her BA in Medical Anthropology from UC Berkeley and her Master’s in Oriental Medicine from the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine college in Berkeley. She is an active with the North Carolina professional acupuncturist organization (NCSAAM) and is licensed Acupuncturist in both California and North Carolina. Tara recently relocated to Durham with her partner Kris, son Andre, and their scrappy rescue dog - George Michael. In her free time, she grows herbs, flowers and veggies for her family and practice and enjoys getting to the beach or into the river as much as possible.
Tara believes in making sure all kinds of populations access acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and as such I volunteer monthly at Caare in downtown Durham with folks in recovery and under-served elders. I love working with my LGBTQ community and am respectful of pronouns and all gender expression. If you are black and pregnant, ask me about my black women's safe labor and birth project, I offer free spots in my Durham location on Thursdays and Fridays dedicated to transforming black maternal mortality and preterm labor the better. I can treat in both Portuguese and Spanish.
