my story
Whilst contemplating how to frame this part of the Blueprint, I initially thought to give facts and figures out the people I’ve worked with, the thousands of hours I’ve trained for, my achievements, and so forth. However the Blueprint work is about building a relationship between mentor and mentee, the Sovereign (you) and the Imperial mentor (me). So for this purpose I chose to outline the formative points in my life to invite transparency and to enable us to build trust through the mentoring process.
I was born in Vietnam just after the war. In my first year of life I contracted polio. After being in the care of a close friend of the family, a master of Chinese medicine, for nearly a year, the ravages of the virus was stopped, and I survived. The only visible remnant of this are wasted muscles on my right arm.
My parents fled with my brother and I from Vietnam in the late 1970’s, as refugee boat people. We eventually arrived to the UK in the late 1970's. My father suffered from lifelong violent bursts of rage and was physically abusive. My parents separated a few times. I am the first born of 5 brothers. My father died in the early part of this century. In time, and with inner work, I came to acknowledge that this experience reveals the pain, trauma, and suffering that each person carries with them.
At the time I believed that my way out of these circumstances was through excelling in education. Fortunately I was granted a government assisted place to a prestigious school in London. The prestige was secondary as this was a place that enabled me to have some agency over my destiny. I ended up obtaining a Bachelor’s in Medicine & Surgery (MBBS) at St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, London. I served in the National Health Service in hospital and general practice for 6 years after qualifying before switching entirely to the medicine that I now practice. During this time I was able to witness first hand the range of humanity and various ways human bodies are afflicted by disease.
Initiation into the world of Chinese medicine occurred when I met my first mentor, Master Tinh Thong Nguyen, just before the new millennium, and under whom I apprenticed for ten years. During this time I received personal tuition and guidance in the ancient Oriental healing arts of Qigong, Tai Chi Chuan, Herbal medicine, and Acupuncture. I developed a very special affinity with acupuncture. In the mid-2000's, a fortunate encounter with Doaist priest, Master Jeffrey Yuen, and a little later with, his senior student, Ann Cecil-Sterman, enabled me to dive deeply into an unbroken tradition of this wondrous, rich, and profound medicine.
My life has been guided by meditation in the Buddhist tradition since the age of 12 when I met my first teacher. Over the years I have engaged in many meditation retreats ranging from between 1 day to 3 months, in order to allow deep personal work. The discipline and insights have been, and continue to be, most valuable for my evolution.
This is all to say how I got here, yet I can also say that these days I seldom identify with these stories. They are now regarded as invitations and opportunities to awaken. These experiences are also valuable material to draw from in order to empathise with the struggles, hopes and joys of other beings. This background enables me to relate to and to be present with the folks whom I am invited to serve. I continue to seek and receive mentoring to facilitate my own personal evolution and for deepening the capacity to serve others in the most powerful and fearless way possible.
I was born in Vietnam just after the war. In my first year of life I contracted polio. After being in the care of a close friend of the family, a master of Chinese medicine, for nearly a year, the ravages of the virus was stopped, and I survived. The only visible remnant of this are wasted muscles on my right arm.
My parents fled with my brother and I from Vietnam in the late 1970’s, as refugee boat people. We eventually arrived to the UK in the late 1970's. My father suffered from lifelong violent bursts of rage and was physically abusive. My parents separated a few times. I am the first born of 5 brothers. My father died in the early part of this century. In time, and with inner work, I came to acknowledge that this experience reveals the pain, trauma, and suffering that each person carries with them.
At the time I believed that my way out of these circumstances was through excelling in education. Fortunately I was granted a government assisted place to a prestigious school in London. The prestige was secondary as this was a place that enabled me to have some agency over my destiny. I ended up obtaining a Bachelor’s in Medicine & Surgery (MBBS) at St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, London. I served in the National Health Service in hospital and general practice for 6 years after qualifying before switching entirely to the medicine that I now practice. During this time I was able to witness first hand the range of humanity and various ways human bodies are afflicted by disease.
Initiation into the world of Chinese medicine occurred when I met my first mentor, Master Tinh Thong Nguyen, just before the new millennium, and under whom I apprenticed for ten years. During this time I received personal tuition and guidance in the ancient Oriental healing arts of Qigong, Tai Chi Chuan, Herbal medicine, and Acupuncture. I developed a very special affinity with acupuncture. In the mid-2000's, a fortunate encounter with Doaist priest, Master Jeffrey Yuen, and a little later with, his senior student, Ann Cecil-Sterman, enabled me to dive deeply into an unbroken tradition of this wondrous, rich, and profound medicine.
My life has been guided by meditation in the Buddhist tradition since the age of 12 when I met my first teacher. Over the years I have engaged in many meditation retreats ranging from between 1 day to 3 months, in order to allow deep personal work. The discipline and insights have been, and continue to be, most valuable for my evolution.
This is all to say how I got here, yet I can also say that these days I seldom identify with these stories. They are now regarded as invitations and opportunities to awaken. These experiences are also valuable material to draw from in order to empathise with the struggles, hopes and joys of other beings. This background enables me to relate to and to be present with the folks whom I am invited to serve. I continue to seek and receive mentoring to facilitate my own personal evolution and for deepening the capacity to serve others in the most powerful and fearless way possible.