A Medicine Not My Own: What AAPI Heritage Month Means to Me
- Dr. Sebastian Bergeron
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
There is a question I return to quite often as a practitioner: what does it mean to offer a medicine that didn't originate with you?
Acupuncture has roots in East Asian medical traditions refined over thousands of years. The theoretical frameworks, the clinical wisdom, the understanding of qi and meridians and the body's relationship to itself — none of this emerged from the culture I was born into. I am Québécois and French, Norwegian in ancestry, raised in North America. Acupuncture is not mine by birthright or by lineage.
And yet I practice it. I practice it because people who were willing to teach me — people from cultures where this medicine has deep roots — trusted me with it.
During AAPI Heritage Month, I want to name that clearly, and with gratitude.
Dr. Angel Hong
My foundational training in acupuncture as a chiropractor came through a certification program, and one of my primary teachers was Dr. Angel Hong — a chiropractic acupuncturist originally from Taiwan. She brought to that classroom not just technical instruction, but a way of understanding the body that was patient, precise, and rooted in East Asian medical tradition.
I remember the quality of her teaching — the attentiveness to detail, the understanding that what we were learning wasn't just technique but a way of listening to the body that takes years to develop. I was, and remain, a student of what she offered. I carry her teaching into every acupuncture session I do. She is mentor who has motivated me to continue pursuing a diplomate in chiropractic acupuncture. She also served as a mentor to another one of my mentors, creating a beautiful healing lineage.
Drs. Thao Tran and Hailey Pham
Some relationships in life become something more than purely professional. Drs. Thao Tran and Hailey Pham are two of my mentors, and they are also, for me, chosen family.
Both are from the south of Vietnam. Both are Doctors of Chinese Medicine and licensed acupuncturists whose clinical depth and personal integrity have shaped me in ways that go well beyond what happens in a treatment room.
Dr. Thao Tran is a chiropractor, licensed acupuncturist, Doctor of Chinese Medicine, and massage therapist. She is also the founder of the Greg and Friends Humanity Foundation — a non-profit dedicated to humanitarian service, education, and cross-cultural collaboration. The Foundation delivers care to underserved populations in Vietnam, including survivors of Agent Orange.
Hailey Pham is a licensed acupuncturist, Doctor of Chinese Medicine, and serves as Chief Financial Officer and Volunteer Coordinator at the Greg and Friends Humanity Foundation.
These two extraordinary women are not just accomplished practitioners. They are practitioners who have taken their medicine back to the communities — and the country — where so much of this knowledge lives. They are doing the kind of work that doesn't generate press releases. The kind that gets done because it needs to be done.
Going to Vietnam
Dr. Thao and Hailey brought our group to Vietnam. It is a trip I think and talk about often when I'm in the treatment room.
I had spoken with patients about acupuncture — what it does, what it treats, how it works. But there is something different about encountering medicine in its own context. In the country where these traditions have been living, adapting, and surviving across generations. Being in Vietnam with Dr. Thao and Hailey was a lesson in humility I could not have received any other way.
I also understood more, on that trip, what the Foundation's work with Agent Orange survivors and underserved people means in practice. The legacy of that chemical warfare is not historical — it is ongoing and multigenerational, shaping the health of communities in Vietnam today. Watching Drs. Thao and Hailey work in that context put into sharp relief what medicine is actually for. Drs. Thao and Haily taught me so much about Yin and Yang, about the Five Elements, about food as medicine. They taught me how to work hard and play hard, all while sharing their beautiful country, culture, and medicine. I cannot thank them enough.
Argyle Street, and Why I'm Here
Nord Ro sits in the crossroads of Andersonville and Uptown, a few blocks from Argyle Street — Chicago's Vietnamese-American corridor. This is not coincidence.
I walk those streets often. I shop at Tai Nam Market. I have coffee at HaiBayô and Fatmilk. I get Pho at 777. I am slowly and imperfectly learning some basic Vietnamese — because I believe that language is one of the small ways you show up honestly in a community, rather than simply passing through it. The Argyle Street neighborhood has shaped this practice even before the clinic opened. I practice acupuncture in a neighborhood where the living culture of the medicine's homeland surrounds me. I take that seriously.
What AAPI Heritage Month Means From Here
I want to resist the impulse, during AAPI Heritage Month, to simply say "we celebrate" and move on. Celebration without accountability isn't enough — not for a practitioner offering a medicine that isn't originally theirs.
What I can offer instead is this: a clear acknowledgment that the knowledge I carry was given to me by specific people — Angel Hong, Dr. Thao Tran, Hailey Pham — who came from specific places, with specific histories. That knowledge is not mine. I am its steward, for now, in this small practice on the north side of Chicago.
I am doing my best to hold it with the care it deserves.
If you have received acupuncture at Nord Ro or are considering it: the medicine you're receiving has a lineage. I didn't invent it. It came to me through teachers who trusted me with something precious. I try not to forget that.
To Dr. Angel, Dr. Thao, and Dr. Hailey: I thank you. Thank you for what you gave me, what you trusted in me, and for what you continue to do in the world. Our world is a better place because you are healers in it. I am forever in your debt.
Dr. Sebastian Bergeron practices chiropractic and acupuncture at Nord Ro Clinic, 5015 N Paulina St, Suite 345, in Andersonville, Chicago. New patients are welcome. Learn more at nordro.clinic.