Melanie's philosophy is that good health comes from a healthy mind, body and spirit, but sometimes needs encouragement and fine tuning to keep running well. Chronic illness is the result of many factors over time, and her goal is to use Chinese medicine as the foundation to help people feel healthy and vibrant, and to help them learn to stop defining themselves by their illness.

While she is a general practitioner, the specific focus of her practice is helping people who suffer with auto-immune issues. This includes Multiple Sclerosis, Raynaud's syndrome, SLE (Lupus), rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease & ulcerative colitis, and allergies of all sorts, from seasonal to skin conditions.
She also specializes in pediatric treatments, as this has many modalities other than needling.

Currently, she is a clinical supervisor and on the faculty of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, where she teaches the integrative pediatrics class.

She has advanced certification in Multiple Sclerosis care (MSCS) from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.

In her past life, Melanie was a professionally trained dancer and fitness trainer. She was introduced to acupuncture in 1991 after a sudden bout of laryngitis. She recalls marveling at the efficacy and speed of recovery after one treatment! Since then, she has been an avid fan of Chinese medicine, and takes her own advice to heart.

Melanie received a Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine (MSTOM) from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine/New York in 2004. This 4-year program included Chinese and Japanese styles of acupuncture, Chinese herbology, oriental medicine theory, anatomy & physiology and pathology, and nutrition. She is nationally certified in oriental medicine and Chinese herbology by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), and licensed by the state of New York.