Welcome Danny!
Welcome Danny to the TAC Family!
We are excited to welcome Danny Lopez as our newest acupuncturist in Chapel Hill!
Danny comes to us from a thriving practice in Bend, Oregon. He is skilled in treating pain and sports medicine, as well as general concerns. We are especially happy to have Danny as our first bilingual acupuncturist, and he is excited about treating our Spanish-speaking patients!
He will also be heading up our new Community Clinic, which begins September 15 from 1-4pm!
Read on for a short interview to learn more about Danny:
What are your roots? What brings you to NC? I was born and raised on the West coast in sunny San Diego, CA, but as beautiful of a hometown as SD was, I knew in my later years that I wanted to venture out. After first making my way up north to the majestic and cool mountains of central Oregon, my wife and I ultimately decided to move to warmer climates on the East coast where we could be close to not only some of the loveliest beaches in the country but also to those mountains we love so much.
Why did you you choose to pursue acupuncture? The desire for helping people has always been one that has been innate in me and although my original academic path was not in the direction of Chinese medicine, or anything in the health field at all, I eventually found my love for the traditional medicine once I saw the effects it had on a dear friend who suffered, both physically and emotionally, for years from Bell’s palsy. Where other forms of treatment that she had initially sought out did little to help her with this condition, acupuncture treatment made great strides in improving her palsy by influencing her body’s physiology in such a way that it was able to begin treating itself. It was in realizing these effects, produced by the gentle and holistic nature of this medicine, that acupuncture, and Chinese medicine in its totality, first appealed to me and my desire to impress healing to others. And so, I began my learning to do just that.
Top 5 favorite things?
My creator
My wife and family
Weight lifting
Indoor rock climbing
Food (especially Thai, Mexican, or Greek)
What do you do to stay healthy? Confession time. I didn’t always put as much emphasis on the activities I did or the foods I ate as I do today. Frankly, the bulk of my transition to becoming health-conscious happened while I was in my Chinese medicine master’s program. During that time in the program, in becoming educated on the importance of physical activity and food choices, in combination with the fact that I was sedentary for up to nine hours a day, four days a week in classrooms, I found myself wanting to be active by exercising, or “playing” as I call it. In addition to my increased desire to be active, I also found that I became averted to certain foods that would, noticeably, either sink like a rock in my stomach as I sat in class, muddle my ability to think clearly, or both. It was once I began listening to my body, its needs, its like, its dislikes, that I became a lover of exercise and of eating foods that would nourish me, energize me, and overall make me feel better throughout my days.
What's the one thing you wish each of your patients knew? Just as I had learned, academically and corporeally, of the importance of maintaining a healthy level of physical activity and a well-balanced, nutritious food plan, I desire for all my patients to also understand and learn of the influence that these two manageable components have on their well-being and longevity.
How would you describe your treatment philosophy and style? My philosophy for treatments is heavily root-based. Symptoms are the mere expression of what is really going on internally and that is where the target for my treatments lie. In treating what is going on internally, the root, the expressions, or symptoms, being experienced will naturally subside and eventually disappear altogether. My style of treatment is alternates between orthopedic, looking at the body through a biomechanics lens, and traditional Chinese, using channel and yin yang theory.
Who have been some of your best teachers, in personal and professional life? It is difficult to choose such mentors for both my professional and personal life since I truly believe that everyone that I have met thus far has offered, to some degree, lessons to learn from and apply to either my professional life, personal life, or both. In this regard, I am tremendously grateful to all of family, friends, peers, and professors that have steered me in the right path, whether intentionally or indirectly, providing me with encouragement, drive, knowledge, wisdom, and charisma to apply to my overall way of living.
Danny sees patients in our Chapel Hill location Wednesday through Saturday (Yes, we have Saturday hours again!). Please call us if you'd like to schedule an appointment with Danny. 919-933-4480