Welcome to Hackett Holistic Health. My name is Tracy L. Hackett, AP, DAOM, NCCAOM Dipl. OM. Indeed, I am a Florida Department of Health board-certified Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, an Acupuncture Physician, and a nationally certified Diplomate of OM with the NCBAHM.
Philosophy
of East-West Functional Medicine Uniquely @ Hackett Holistic Health
Innovative Integrative Whole-Person Healthcare for Over Twenty Years
Extensive Education and Training
I earned my clinical doctorate in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the California Institute of Integrative Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, California. I wrote my capstone paper “Development of Twenty-five New Extra Acupuncture Points” for that degree. The extra points that I have discovered now number thirty. They have all been utilized in my clinical practice for at least fifteen years. I am publishing a book about them and my acupuncture method based upon utilizing kinetic chains methodology.
I earned my Master of Science degree in TCM from ACTCM/CiiS, SF, CA in 2005. While completing my degree, I also studied Functional Medicine, since I had benefited from it for many years prior. My studies blended because TCM differential diagnosis theory emphasizes a systems-based analysis of body regulation.
Clinical Rounds and Hospital Experience
I observed the complexity of herbal medicine in practice with doctors at TCM hospital settings in Hangzhou, China. My clinical rounds were at the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University Hospital and the Red Cross Hospital in 2005, and returned in 2013. Further observation rounds for my doctorate were at the Pain and Palliative Care Unit at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, California Pacific Medical Center, UCSF Medical Center, Sutter Health, and the Women’s Cancer Resource Center in Oakland. My mentors included: Nancy Rakela, L.Ac. OMD, Berkeley; Isaac Cohen L.Ac. OMD, Berkeley; Beverly Burns at Quan Yin Healing Arts in San Francisco, and Miki Shima L.Ac, OMD in Corte Madera, CA.
International Healing Arts Studies
Beyond traditional clinical settings, my studies and practice have taken me to many countries. During the years of 2006 and 2007, I served as the acupuncturist for a Rinpoche of the Drikung Kagyu lineage and the resident monks and nuns in Kathmandu, Nepal, and at the Lamayuru monastery in Ladakh, India. Working in other cultures has informed my practice immensely. I also studied Thai Massage in Chiang Mai Thailand over a period several years and developed a style of bodywork that incorporates Chinese TuiNa.
My classical yoga practice has sustained me through many years of health ups and downs and injury recovery. I have taught classical hatha yoga since 1997 and have studied and practiced meditation since my early childhood. I incorporate some meditation or intentional breathing instruction into the treatments for all my patients.
Since 2005, my deep integration of systems-based medicine approach has consistently allowed me to successfully treat a wide variety of complex health conditions, including my own. I may have some answers for you, too. Reach out and let’s see what can change for your health.
The back story
Why I do this work.
I developed my unique approach to health care because I had serious health problems in my 20s, in the 1990s. I grew up learning about herbs walking in the forest with her grandmother on the family farm in western New York. That grew into an interest herbal medicine, which I used to keep myself healthy in the wilds of NYC with teas and tinctures and healing foods.
In my early twenties, the sudden onset of a seizure disorder was past the limits of the herbal and nutritional medicine that I had relied upon. Western medicine offered solutions of more and more pharmaceuticals that simply added more complications and “side effects” that greatly diminished my quality of life.
There were a few wake-up call moments in subsequent years that were very difficult health complications which finally pushed me to look for answers elsewhere. A nutritionist I met at yoga class helped me break free of the meds, but the underlying issues were still tangible and barely managed. Yoga and meditation helped, but there was more work to be done.
I was offered a commission to paint a mural of a Hindu deity (the Vishwaroopa) on a temple ceiling in South India (a book is forthcoming). I arrived there in August of 1999 and In between long hot hours of painting, I studied Ayurveda and Siddha medicine and received those wonderful treatments, which helped but didn’t pull out the root of the problem. Fellow travelers from Australia came along and suggested that I try Chinese medicine, touting its marvelous treatment potential. Noted.
Upon my return to the States, I tried acupuncture. The results were compelling enough that I moved to San Francisco and went to the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to study it, not only for my own sake but as an occupation that would help others in a similar predicament. I met Dr. YuanjinTao in the college clinic one evening when I went in experiencing strong prodromal onset symptoms. His 9-needle treatment stopped it. This was a revelatory experience because for years it felt as though I would never be free of this condition. It was like walking around waiting for another full-body shoe to drop constantly. After three years of acupuncture treatments once or twice per week, and many gallons of stinky herbal teas (!), I was indeed free of all symptoms. I continued indulging my wanderlust throughout Asia. When I was symptom free for five years, I went to Bali and got her open water scuba diving certification. I continue to dive around the world and practice East-West Functional Medicine in my Palm Beach Gardens, Florida clinic.
What I offer
The healing modalities I offer
At Hackett Holistic Health, care draws from Chinese, Japanese, and functional-medicine traditions, tailored to the whole person.
Acupuncture
Chinese and Japanese styles
Chinese and Japanese styles
Kinetic Chain Acupuncture
A proprietary sports medicine system of acupuncture
A proprietary sports medicine system of acupuncture
Dry Needling
A specialized type of Chinese needling learned directly in China
A specialized type of Chinese needling learned directly in China
Herbal and Orthomolecular Medicine
Nutritional supplement therapy
Nutritional supplement therapy
Functional Analysis of Lab Work
Systems-based review of your labs
Systems-based review of your labs
Nutrition Counseling
Personalized, whole-person guidance
Personalized, whole-person guidance
Custom Compounded Peptide and Hormone Support
Individualized formulations
Individualized formulations
Trigger Point Injections
Traumeel, Spascupreel, Discus Comp homeopathic, peptides
Traumeel, Spascupreel, Discus Comp homeopathic, peptides
A Philosophy of Healing with a Basis in Holistic Medicine and Lived Experience
By: Tracy L. Hackett, AP DAOM, Dipl. OM
The Healing Response is an innate aspect of the biological imperative to survive, to thrive, and persist through stressors, illnesses, and the insults of injuries. It is at the very core of our survival instinct. Engaging that aspect of ourselves helps to coalesce our energies to overcome illnesses and injury. It is an intentional process of stimulating our innate function of spontaneous remission. Nature finds a way to persist. Life finds a way to adapt and survive.
The organic encumbrances of life lived may create a homeostasis of living in our bodies that is skewed, but there is a way to bring that back to our strongest central pivot or Zhong. Now that “way” may wind itself into a difficult homeostasis pattern; meaning you basically live around something even though your state of health or pain is not ideal. You live, you carry on in spite of encumbrances.
Wouldn’t your life be better, freer if you could eliminate those encumbrances?
The idea of the central pivot of health and being is at the very foundation of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). It is called the Zhong [ 中 ] in the classic TCM literature. There is an aspect of mind, spirit, and the energetic manifestations of the body entwined in the understanding of Zhong 中.
As we age and encounter various health challenges, we often dismiss aches, pains, and other issues, hoping they will resolve independently. However, when these problems worsen or become more distressing, it’s crucial to consider the next steps. Our bodies are adept at adjusting to numerous stressors, to the extent that our inherent central balance, or Zhong, may become misaligned. East-West Functional Medicine aims to restore this natural equilibrium by reducing compensatory behaviors, aiding your systems in removing excesses, and bolstering deficiencies to foster a more robust and integrated well-being.
I’m frequently asked how I got into this kind of medicine. It was a long road of dealing with a life changing illness in my twenties that was a puzzle for allopathic medical doctors. The medications I was taking only made me less able, less well, and eventually in a perilous health situation. Something had to change.
I took a chance on a nutritionist’s advice and started to improve and was able to leave behind the medications within months of a very strict regime. I was well enough to travel to India to paint a mural on a temple ceiling. Whilst there, I learned about Ayurveda and Siddha medicine approaches. I gained more improvement in my health. Upon returning to the US, I encountered acupuncture and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). The improvements in my health were significant enough to warrant moving to San Francisco to get an education in the medicine and seek more treatment. After two years regular treatment under the care of Dr. Yuan Jin Tao and Anita Huang at ACTCM, I fully recovered when only a few years earlier I was given a bleak prognosis.
It was a long path of working through the dimensions and layers of the mind-body-spirit to pivot into full recovery. It was not simple nor easy but I was absolutely determined to live in full health. I achieved that with TCM.
Other injuries and health problems since then have not deterred me from utilizing the very same methods that helped me achieve a seminal shift in my health. TCM, functional medicine, homeopathic injections, compounded remedies, and nutrition have all helped me live a better life than I could have ever expected previously.
Recovery and maintaining health do not follow a straight path; it’s a winding journey. However, if you tackle it with a spirit of discovery and challenge, fully committing your mind to the process, there’s you can likely achieve much improved health as well. I managed to do so with very limited resources amidst extremely stressful life conditions.
We are reminded about the essence of life belonging to the journey that we are on. How we inhabit our bodies, cope with change, and manage our struggles nourish us as much as clean food, water, and air do. There is no cure for death, to date, so why not live to the fullest by giving ourselves the best supports we can?
