79: Kim Cooper on Traditional Chinese Medicine and supporting the immune system

Connecting with Kim:

Connecting with Janelle:

Personal Mythmaking Podcast’s special pandemic series

It’s episode 79 and I’m chatting with Kim Cooper, a practitioner in the fascinating and complex teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the past 21 years.

She had humble beginnings in a small town on Vancouver Island, raised by her father who worked in the logging industry and her mother who stayed at home with her and her sister. 

Early childhood was spent in the forest and on the ocean, camping and fishing with friends; water skiing on Bamfield inlet and working on her father’s Christmas tree farm from age 11. She was always challenged by what life had to offer her. She was raised as an entrepreneur, watching her father work to make ends meet in a place dependent on a struggling industry.

From an early age, Kim was drawn to help the people she felt she could influence, so it seemed natural that she would start her training in Chinese Medicine. 25 years ago, the books were still difficult to understand: translations from China and hard to interpret. 

She is a person of adversity; learning Chinese Medicine was no different. Almost half of the students in her class dropped out within the first year of training and by the last year of training, there were only six determined students left in her graduation year. Many hours were spent in the clinic where Kim was determined to find the truth behind these very complex theories, so different from the ones of her culture. But she did, graduating and setting off to Nan Jing, China to further her studies in Gynecology, Dermatology and Cardiology. China was a fascinating place. Fortunately Kim had spent her early 20’s in Egypt, Guatemala, and all over Europe as an independent young traveller.

Since settling into a full time career in Chinese Medicine, she has become a yoga teacher specializing in Chakra yoga, a Reiki practitioner, a musician, and a mother of two kids, now teenagers. Kim is always learning. Anyone who is a patient of Kim’s always makes the statement, “I love that you are always learning to be a rounded and experienced healer!” She has studied with some of the best teachers and Doctors in the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine and now has expertise in Japanese acupuncture, German Auricular Medicine, motor point therapy and Chinese herbal medicine. 

You’re going to get so much out of this conversation – so enjoy (and make sure to share it widely!)