Wheels Darling, LAc, MSOM,

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I provide personalized acupuncture, herbs, bodywork, nutrition, and practical lifestyle strategies to help my patients transform pain into wisdom, liberation, power, relief, and ease.

I have extensive experience treating pain (chronic and acute), neurological conditions (including migraines), allergies, emotional health, hormonal challenges (sleep issues, hot flashes, menstrual pain), and digestive concerns.

I love to offer supportive care to all bodies and especially queer, trans, non-binary genders, and bodies of all sizes. I am passionate about offering hope, care, and validation to each individual.

With over two decades of personal experience and professional training, I have a large toolset of sacred, intuitive, and scientific evidence-based techniques to call upon. I came to the field of holistic medicine in my early 20s when I began my own journey with an autoimmune condition. When traditional medical methods failed, I found my way to an herbalist and later an acupuncturist who validated my experiences, showed real care, and offered tangible solutions to help me manage my condition and live a vibrant life. These providers inspired me to pursue a life-time commitment to the field of holistic medicine.

At 27 years old, during my Saturn Return, I changed my name from Helen Kay to Wheels Darling. I chose Wheels to facilitate movement, motion, and transformation. I chose Darling to connect to the sacredness and the magic that runs throughout my life. The meaning of my name, in essence, means sacred road opening. My name represents the way I keenly find new or less worn pathways, paths born outside the binary, paths that move beyond either/or thinking - onto pathways with expansiveness, where new or only imagined things become possible. 

When I work with patients, I am consistently working with these qualities: dynamic transformation, sacred openings, nervous system repatterning, cognitive reframing, and the magic of dreaming and thinking bigger. I’ve found this way of thinking to be particularly potent when working with patients with long-standing health conditions.

Wheels' Education

Master of Science from Southwest Acupuncture College (SWAC), Santa Fe, NM

This was a four-year graduate school program where I received a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine. They equip their students with a strong foundation in Traditional and Classical Chinese Medicine. I also received specialty training in Japanese Meridian Therapy and Five Element treatment strategies. SWAC's Chinese herbal medicine training is rock-solid.

Bachelor of Arts from Evergreen State College (TESC), Olympia, WA    

I received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a strong multidisciplinary take on undergraduate education. I focused my studies on Native American and Indigenous Humanities. This education has underscored the significance of relationality and responsibility; it has imbued me with the knowledge of ways to be in a good relationship with my Indigenous relatives; it has called upon me to strive toward becoming a good ancestor by following a path of lived reciprocity and respect. And it has solidified my committed to using my voice to disrupt settler-colonial practices to stand alongside my Native relatives and grow a world that is good for all beings.

Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine (HUCM), Harbin, China

I studied and trained in an integrated Chinese Medicine hospital focusing on Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Neurology. 

Columbines School of Botanical Studies (CSBS), Eugene, OR

CSBS endowed me with field-botany skills that became permanently seared into my mind, strong knowledge of Material/Medica, deeply discerning wild-harvesting ethics, and much more.

Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (SWSBM), Bisbee, AZ       

I was privileged to study advanced Western botanical medicine from the late and brilliant Michael Moore. Michael taught a therapeutic system of herbalism that integrated medical pathophysiology into its foundation while preserving the historical and cultural value of folk medicine traditions. His wife and colleague, Donna Chesner, still runs a truly invaluable correspondence course.

Berkeley Herbal Center (BHC), Berkeley, CA     

I committed to a three-year apprenticeship program in Clinical Herbalism. Pamela Fischer is the first herbalist-mentor I met along my path. I have boundless gratitude for all Pam has shared with me.

New College of California, San Francisco, CA    

This is where I did my foundational undergraduate work in Writing and Consciousness. It was a multidisciplinary program focused on writing while evaluating systems in political economy, people's movements of struggle, literature, feminist theory, and people's history. If I were to get to rename this major, I would call it Liberation Studies and other Important Entanglements.

Degrees, Titles, Affiliations, Awards

  • Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.), Oregon Medical Board. (H Wheels Darling, L.Ac.)

  • Master of Science (in East Asian Medicine), a four-year master’s degree program, SWAC.

  • Bachelor of Arts (in Community Stduies and Native American & Indigenous Humanities), TESC.

  • Diplomate of Oriental Medicine, National Certification Commission of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM).

  • Board Certified Herbalist, NCCAOM.

  • Award, Golden Flower Scholarship for Excellence in Herbal Medicine, SWAC.

  • Certificate in Advanced Studies in Chinese Medicine, HUCM.

  • Certificate in Advanced Herbalism, SWSBM.

  • Certificate of Clinical Herbalism, BHC.