Earth Ancients

John KokkoWhen I moved to the SF Bay area, a friend introduced me to Fu Yu-Tai, a renowned tui-na (traditional Chinese bodywork) practitioner in the Outer Richmond of the city. I became his first student, spending every Saturday from 8 am to 8 pm for a year studying under him and working with his patients. At the same time, I got a job working at Mayway, the largest Chinese herbal company in the country. Mama Lau became famous in Chinatown a couple of decades back, selling every traditional herb under the sun. She even started a restaurant cooking traditional herbal soups and dishes next door to their herb shop. What I learned there by the time they moved to Oakland was invaluable. I stayed there for 7 years, which got me through graduate school.Since acupuncture licensure, I've taught dozens of graduate courses at three acupuncture colleges for a decade and ran a program to help hundreds of graduates pass their state and national licensure board exams.I also sat on the board of the California State Oriental