Daily Inspiration: Meet Callie Ryan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Callie Ryan.

Hi Callie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi everyone! So appreciative to have the space to share a little bit about my story and my practice.

My name is Callie (she/her/hers) and I am a licensed acupuncturist and board-certified herbalist and received my master’s degree from Emperor’s College in Los Angeles, California (Tongva land). Some of my clinical interests include, but are not limited to, trauma-informed psycho-emotional care, support for those living with chronic illness/autoimmunity, tending to those navigating fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum, as well as providing gentle care for those moving through eating disorder recovery.

As part of my training, I interned at the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center at Providence Hospital where I supported patients both emotionally and physically throughout their cancer treatment. I have also been privileged to work for and learn from Dr. Yvonne Farrell and Trace Albrecht of LA Herbs and Acupuncture — two incredible practitioners who specialize in utilizing the Eight Extraordinary Vessels to address deep rooted holdings in the body – both physical and emotional alike.

I came to acupuncture by way of my creative practice and personal experience navigating life in a sensitive body. From an early age, I was delighted in the subtle magic of the sonic landscapes created by our surrounding ecosystems and the ways in which these sounds influence our internal bodily systems and rhythms. This connection with sound led me to the world of experimental electronic music. Here, amidst a community of incredibly special musicians and artists (see dublab.com), I fell in love with the practice of creating compositions and curations which have helped to provide safe space for folks to acknowledge and process the tender experience of living in a body on this earth. This intention which fuels my creative endeavors is the same one that led me to becoming an acupuncturist and herbalist.

In 2019, I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, an autoimmune condition affecting my spine, sacrum, muscles, digestion, and skin. However, as anyone living with an autoimmune condition knows, words often fall short of capturing what it truly feels like on the inside.

Upon receiving acupuncture treatments from compassionate, trauma-informed, and non-judgmental practitioners, I experienced not only immense physical and emotional relief but also a strong sense of being cared for, believed, and seen. Following this experience, I decided that I wanted to provide this same type of affirming and collaborative care by committing to being a forever student of this ancient medicine.

Over the last many years, as a result of support from both holistic and allopathic medical providers, I have not only found more ease in my body, but I have also learned that finding balance within a body and mind is a non-linear journey that is full of both joy and grief, softness and strength alike. There is no right or wrong way to be in a body. In fact, I believe that we are all in need of different care, nourishment, and stimulus. My goal is to collaborate with my patients to support their already existing bodily and energetic parts and help them to create a vessel of smooth-flowing pathways and pivots.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey to becoming an acupuncturist and herbalist has encompassed so many ebbs and flows of victories and challenges alike. I feel that the road to this point in my career embodies the duality of any period of growth – the duality being that of both struggle and expansive joy. Navigating school and the pacing of starting a business while also moving through life in a sensitive body has offered me a perspective that I value greatly and hold close to my heart as I support my patients on their journeys to finding more ease in their bodies. When working with my chronic illness / autoimmune patients, while our lived bodily experiences may be different, their is a deep shared sense of understanding of the immense strength, resilience, and emotional/physical impact it takes to move through this world which so often is shaped by ableist ideas of wellness and productivity.

The rhythm at which we are so often asked to move at does not align with the idea that every being has their own magical and unique pacing – which, if honored and respected could result in the most amazing gifts of creativity, mutual care, invention, and the potential of a new world where everyone is safe and respected for their individual but interdependent role in dreaming/acting into a new world of shared care, nourishment, and safety.

I firmly believe that the struggles I have experienced along the way in getting to this chapter of my life as a care provider, have shaped the ways in which I view the world and the world in which I want to exist within. These challenges have been a gift in introducing me to the world of disability justice and the deep importance of dismantling systems of harm that create the illusion that anyone is undeserving of care.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My own personal journey greatly informs the work I do at Rosebelly Healing.

I am deeply passionate about providing care for those who live at the intersection of chronic illness/autoimmunity and care work. To be able to collaborate with patients who not only understand both the immense challenge as well as the deep intuition that comes from moving through the world with a sensitive body is such a gift. To feel trusted by my patients in holding safe space to work alongside one another in finding a pathway to feeling more comfort in their bodies and brains is one of the greatest honors that I receive as an acupuncturist. I feel strongly that this type of mutual care carves the way for more clarity on each of our important, connected, and special roles in dismantling systems of harm and oppression in both our micro and macro pockets of community.

I also work closely with patients who are navigating the tender journey of fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum, as well as providing support for those moving through eating disorder recovery.

I have been lucky enough to receive guidance and mentorship from Dr. Yvonne Farrell in the use of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels in my treatment approach with my patients. The Eight Extraordinary Vessels are said to be of the first vessels that form in utero and hold not only our constitution, but also the ability for us to embody the most authentic versions of ourselves as we navigate both the inherent adversity and joy that surfaces throughout our lives. Working carefully and thoughtfully with these vessels and pathways, can help us to address the deep-rooted holding of certain experiences that have occurred in our lives, both ancestral as well as beginning at the time of one’s birth through the present.

I founded Rosebelly Healing in order to create accessible, trauma-informed medical care for as many vulnerable bodies as possible. Rosebelly Healing is rooted in the tenets of disability justice, mutual aid, and concepts of interdependence. I hope to provide care which helps my patients to participate in both the dreaming and acting into a new world which prioritizes care, freedom, safety, nourishment, protection, and meaningful connection for every being, body of water, land, microbe, plot of moss, and mountain on this earth and beyond.

My studies and practice are grounded in the acknowledgment of the responsibility that comes alongside practicing a traditional medicine not of my own lineage. I acknowledge that as a white person I will always be a student and promise to honor the teachers and East Asian ancestry from which this ancient medicine was born. I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to study and practice these traditions — something which would not be possible without my teachers who have shared their wisdom with generosity and trust.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
My mentor, Dr. Yvonne Farrell, has taught me along my learning journey, that as the practitioner, my role is not to “fix” or to “heal”, but rather with each treatment to offer my patients a “morsel of awareness” in which they can take home with them to water and grow in between treatments so that they may find their own path of sustainable ease and healing. My job as a care provider, specifically in the field of East-Asian Medicine, is to embody these special pathways I am working with and make myself as “empty” as possible so that I may be a vessel of care, intuition, and knowledge in order to provide my patients with the tools they need to trust, believe in, and hear their own bodies’ wisdom in finding a path towards inner harmony, comfort, and awareness.

I believe that healing is non-linear and as our bodies will forever shift in this lifetime, so will our inner-balance. Inspired by ideas of interdependence, I feel strongly, that our bodies are deeply intertwined with the hearts and bodies of all other beings and bodies of land/water on this planet and beyond. If we are not actively working to ensure the safety and care of our ecosystems and all who dwell within them, true ease and balance is not possible. I feel it is in the act of mutual care that the most potential of healing is possible. I am forever exploring what this looks like on a day to day basis at Rosebelly Healing and feel strongly that it will continue to unfold each and everyday.

In working with patients with chronic illness/autoimmunity/disability, I feel that it is very important to decentralize the pressure on the individual and re-center care networks. Removing shame, judgment, and perfectionist diet culture/health and wellness ideals and instead acknowledging the realistic resources (both physical and emotional) available and creating individualized treatment plans which help the patient to feel a sense of connection and presence in their surrounding eco-system is at the core of my work at Rosebelly Healing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rosebellyhealing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosebellyhealing/