Hannah Fries, L.Ac.
Licensed ACUPUNCTURist & Herbalist + INTEGRATIVE BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY ALLIED PROFESSIONAL // Santa Barbara & Los Angeles
A sweet soul with a healer’s heart and a deep desire to serve the greater good, Hannah rounds out the Elemental Family practice.
She completed her undergraduate education at UCLA, where she delighted in studying Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis in Psychological and Environmental Anthropology. She then received her Master's in Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College in Santa Monica. Her path to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was a winding, illuminating, and unconventional one, fueled by insatiable curiosity, compassion, imagination, hope, and a desire to act as a healing force in the world.
Before landing at Emperor’s, Hannah spent time living and working in Brooklyn, NY, Big Sur, CA and Santa Barbara, CA exploring the worlds of Permaculture, regenerative horticulture, meditation, yoga, psychospiritual inquiry, authentic relating, and more. Her fascination with the inherent healing potential of plants and nature (humans included), paired with a deep desire to have something tangible and transformational to offer others, alongside an unquenchable thirst for multicultural insights and new lenses through which to view the world, led her to pursue a career in Chinese Medicine.
From a young age, Hannah was exposed to and affected by the struggle of illness within her family. As she witnessed her beloved father suffer for years as a patient in the clutch of the dominant medical paradigm, she felt overwhelmed by a voice within that believed in another way. She was distraught by the limits of the medical system around her, sensing that something potent was missing in the typical patient-doctor relationship, and that the very foundation of the establishment was unstable (and the motives of which have become insidiously corrupt). Later, in her own personal journey towards health, when the status quo proved ineffective, Hannah was drawn to many different forms of medicine and healing. In the face of uncertainty, frustration, grief, anxiety, and pain, she found solace, strength, joy, and healing in nature and spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation and breathwork, intentional embodiment practices, authentic connection with loved ones, and “alternative” forms of medicine, such as acupuncture/herbal medicine, intuitive and holistic nutrition, various bodywork modalities, Ayurveda, and Integrative Body Psychotherapy.
Today, she is excited to offer what she has learned (and continues to learn with each new day) to her patients from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and hopes that her own experiences, as well as the wealth of knowledge and wisdom she has obtained through her study and practice of TCM, can help others in their quest for happiness, authenticity, and well-being.
In addition to practicing all things Chinese Medicine, Hannah completed an in-depth 3-year training to become a certified Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP) Allied Professional, and is passionate about integrating the worlds of TCM and IBP in her own practice.