Dr. Michelle Haloossim 
DACM MPH LAc

I am the daughter of Iranian immigrants. Our family’s migration to Los Angeles in 1978—amid the upheaval of revolution—left its deepest imprint on my grandfather, Aziz. At 71, he spoke no English. Uprooted and stripped of his role as patriarch, he withdrew into himself. His body weakened, his spirit fractured. Today, we would call it PTSD. But as a child, I only saw a collapse I couldn’t explain.

His unraveling awakened a lifelong inquiry: Was it the trauma of displacement? The loss of identity? Or something buried in his biology?

I pursued answers at Emory University, where I studied Medical Anthropology, and later at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, researching how trauma and epigenetics shape the onset of PTSD. I co-authored papers exploring the space where experience becomes biology. But even in academia, something vital was missing.

I was still seeking healing in myself. After years of managing anxiety and depression with therapy and medication, I received my first Classical Five Element treatment from Dr. Elliot Ivanhoe. It was as if my spirit exhaled. I tapered off my medication safely. I felt whole. And I knew: this was the medicine I was meant to practice.

I earned my Master’s in Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College, followed by a Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Pacific College. My clinical training in Classical Five Element Acupuncture was shaped by Neil Gumenick, Mary McCullough, and Dr. Ivanhoe at the Institute of Classical Five Element Acupuncture.

In addition to my classical training, I have pursued extensive study in somatic trauma integration through the Embody Lab, somatic parts work, and psychedelic somatic integration. I am also immersed in Kabbalistic and Chassidic healing learning from masters such as Rav Doniel Katz, whose teachings have opened pathways into the soul’s architecture. These disciplines don’t sit on the periphery of my practice—they form its core. Chinese medicine and Kabbalah speak a shared language: one of light, order, and sacred re-alignment between the seen and unseen.

These modalities converge in my clinical work—not as tools to fix, but as paths that honor complexity and invite agency. Clients are guided to take ownership of their process, and in that empowered space, the real breakthroughs occur.

Healing becomes less about intervention, and more about remembering what has always been whole.

Classical Five Element Acupuncture does not treat symptoms—it reorients the soul. It restores the inner hierarchy of body, mind, and spirit, allowing consciousness to expand and cellular patterns to shift. In this work, I bring together the empirical precision of my academic background with the timeless, living wisdom of the Chinese and Jewish traditions. The practice is both poetic and clinical. It is a return—again and again—to Source.

Today, I see clients in private practice in Beverly Hills, California. Each treatment is an invocation: a calling back of the self to Source. A restoration of dignity. A remembering.

Education and Training

Medical Anthropology, French, BA, Emory University

Sociomedical Sciences, MPH, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine, MTOM, Emperor's College

Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, DACM, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine 

Classical Five Element Acupuncture Certification, Institute of Classical Five Element Acupuncture

Disaster Relief Acupuncture Certification, Acupuncturists Without Borders

Esoteric Acupuncture Certification, Level 1 & 2, Dr. Mikio Sankey

Somatic Trauma Integration Certification, The Embody Lab