Linda Read-Shelby, D.A.C.M., Dlpl. O.M., M.S.O.M., L.Ac., A.C.N, C.F.M.H.C.
Linda is the co-founder of Healing Compass Natural Health Center. Dr. Read-Shelby is a graduate of Samra University in Los Angeles where she earned her Master of Oriental medicine degree. Continuing her dedication to whole body healing she earned a certification in Applied Clinical Nutrition and as a health coach with the Institute for Functional Medicine. After being in private practice for over a decade, she earned her Board Certification Nationally and a Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine degree from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in California where her educational emphasis was in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders and Cognitive Decline including Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Read-Shelby has undergone extensive training in Women’s Health including Menopause and Infertility, Digestive and Brain function, Mood and Cognitive disorders, Functional Lab Test Analysis including Specialized Lab Testing. Optimal aging has been an important area of her focus the past 10 years.
Dr Linda was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. She moved to the United States as a teenager and settled in Los Angeles in her 20’s. After several years pursuing a career in theater she soon realized the “business” side of that pursuit was not for her. She explored other professions and soon began a career in hospitality management where she met her husband and settled into the Hollywood Hills.
Living in the heart of Hollywood is where she discovered Asian philosophy, holistic medicine, and Buddhism. These disciplines anchored her personal growth, self-discovery, and healing. Holistic healing led her to Eastern forms of medicine, specifically Ayurveda and Chinese medicine. Kundalini yoga and Chinese medicine healthcare is what she relied on for chronic digestive, migraine headaches, and fertility health challenges.
While exploring unconventional medicine as a patient, guided by spiritual teachers and ancient medicine she got pregnant with her son and discovered her professional direction.
Everything responsible for our” human existence” is due to an anonymous multitude of others who lived before us, whose achievements have been bestowed upon us a gift.
—H Hass—
Professional Highlights
• Doctorate in Acupuncture & Chinese medicine, with honors, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine
• National Board Certified for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM).
• Masters in Oriental Medicine.
• Functional Clinical Nutritionist.
• Institute of Functional Medicine Health Coach.
• Co-Founder of Healing Compass Natural Health Center.
• Clinician for 18 years.
• Member of CSOMA-California State Oriental Medical Association
• Certificate For Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine from China Beijing International Acupuncture Training Center.
• Participant in Medical Rotation at the General Hospital of Beijing Military Hospital and the China-Japan Friendship Institute of Clinical Medical Science.
• Health and Wellness speaker for Breast Cancer support groups and the Infertility support group-RESOLVE.
• Acupuncture Today Online education “Ask the Doctor”.
• Featured Acupuncture practice in the Daily News-San Fernando Valley.
• Co-written articles on Chinese Medicine and Nutrition for Cancer and Optimal Aging for the publication, The Health Connection.
• Service and medical outreach in Dharamsala India.
• Teaching and medical outreach in Wachet Jivithadana Sanga Hospital near Mandalay Myanmar.
My Treatment Style as a Clinician
The medicine I practice is very personalized. Each person gets the time they need for discussion and physical treatment. We see each other numerous times a year, so we form a close relationship that requires a certain level of vulnerability, mutual respect, truth, and openness. I must provide a safe, comfortable place for healing and change to occur. Natural functional medicine is all about taking a deeper dive into the “why” of ill health. Discovery requires getting personal and discussing in depth about your health, past and present. The holistic approach is not at odds with conventional medicine, which excels at acute, and lifesaving care it is just different. Chronic conditions, discovering root cause and cultivating health takes time and personalized attention which is not built into the insurance model of conventional healthcare. My style is something I created and has worked for my patients for many years while aligning with our intention for the health and wellness center, Vivika and I began years ago.
To discover the “why”, we combine the assessment and listening to your health story with the core beliefs and wisdom of Traditional Chinese medicine brought into the modern age. We utilize currently available functional lab testing with conventional labs to get a deeper level of information about you and your current health. Then I can co-create with you a road map for your journey. Unlike conventional care there is a heavy emphasis on personal responsibility to do the work necessary to make change possible and resolve the reason(s) for seeking care.
I will encourage you to consider making your health and wellbeing a priority. Each day I make that commitment for myself. We all have that responsibility, no one else can do it for us. This can take time to incorporate it into your life, especially if you have always felt well and have never had to think about your health before. Different phases in our life make that even more apparent. Prevention is a corner stone of holistic medicine. One thing we all have is an internal compass which means you are the true expert on you. Maybe you got off track and need a course correction. With a trusted ally experienced enough to keep you headed in the right direction and the right support, you will be able to put the attention necessary to live your best life.
From me you will get that health guidance, personal attention, professional knowledge, health supporting interventions, someone who believes in you, a healing, calm acupuncture treatment and stress reducing bodywork. What you won’t get is health shaming, fat shaming, exercise shaming, judgement of any kind. I am a plus size clinician working within a system where there is weightism in a thin obsessed culture. There is little to no emphasis on a person’s complete health picture beyond their body size. My practice is for anyone. All you need is a readiness to get healthy and a desire to do the work. When we focus on improving health then what you feed yourself, how you control your stress, how you prioritize yourself in your life all comes to the for front to be examined. This experience should not give you stress. It can and should be a time for your own personal reflection, nervous system re-set, time for attention to your health, getting better and staying well. The treatments I use, both the physical ones, the personalized therapeutic food plans, supplements, and herbs all aim to bring the body back to homeostasis so that the body has what it needs to correct itself. If you live in a bigger body or a very thin one and weight is a determining factor preventing health or leading to syndromes that decline health and create illness then as your guide and partner in health, I must address it within your treatment plan. It will be in the context of balancing body chemistry and improving body systems within a complete health profile.
I say this because. I am concerned with a women’s mental health and destruction of their self-esteem and emersion in the obsession with the size of their body. Men are affected as well but it remains a predominantly female issue. What is for certain is that being thin does not equal being healthy and weight is not just about eating less and exercising more.
It can be a winning combination when both of us put in the attention and commitment needed to succeed. Something transformative happens when you're self-empowered, given knowledge, and prescribed resources to use in your day-to-day life outside the treatment room. The desire to be healthy, live without pain, be mentally grounded and happy each day becomes possible.
Volunteer Service Work
I had the professional privilege of volunteering in India and Burma providing medical services. Having an experience like that changes you. It’s both humbling and overwhelming to touch the hands and feel the souls of people in a world so removed from one’s own life. Dharamshala the home of the Tibetan people in exile left an impression on my heart that keeps me longing to return. A few years later I did return, and this time I brought my husband and son so they could experience the beauty and spirit of India and be among the enormous energy of the Himalayan mountains and its people. I am waiting for my next opportunity to be in Nepal and India again or wherever I may be called to serve and and feed my soul.
MEDICAL OUTREACH IN DHARMSALA INDIA:
TIBETAN REFUGEE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday, and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.”
– His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama-
MEDICAL OUTREACH IN MYANMAR:
TEACHING HOSPITAL AND CLINIC
“As fire, though one, takes the shape of every object which it consumes, so the Self, though one, takes the shape of every object in which it dwells.”
Swami Prabbavananda, The Upanishad
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself”-
-RUMI-
I currently reside in Los Angeles with my musician husband George of thirty-three years, two rescue Pitbulls and two cats, Calvin and Hobbes. Our son Jordan is living in the same Hollywood Hills where he was raised and pursuing his own creative endeavors as a writer and comic. I often say that I birthed the wise human I aspired to be back then, but my own pursuit continues.
In positive psychology we learn about character strengths. Becoming aware of our traits gives us a chance to embrace them and work with them. Personally, my number one-character strength is love of learning. It is fueled by a natural curiosity, the incessant need for self-discovery and an unhealthy fear of “not knowing enough”. As a clinician there is always something new to learn, it is exciting and overwhelming but always rewarding. I thrive to create an atmosphere for my patients to learn about themselves, for us to learn together, and for them to flourish with their health and their life’s journey no matter what stage that may be.
Things I Love To Do When Not In the Clinic
Each year I try to improve my gardening skills because I love it. I come from a long line of farmers and gardeners. Hard working people, who worked with their hands, worked the land, and grew things. They raised their families on real food they grew and raised themselves. I love planting because it is outside where it is light. It’s where I prefer to be, in the light. It’s there where I get solitude, my mind and heart quiets. In nature I observe the changing seasons, I see growth and witness death. What I love most is growing food. It is so rewarding, and there is nothing more delicious as newly picked tomato off the vine, or fresh grown lettuce. It’s there with the garden I learn to problem solve, ask questions, and be frustrated one minute and in pure awe the next.
“Adapt the pace of nature- Her secret is patience”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love to cook and try new things. However, I do not enjoy following recipes, so the experience becomes intuitive and creative. It also means I have a lot of flops. I always learn something new, and we get to eat. I love my animal mom role; it grounds me in the present moment because that is what they require. Theyteach me about compassion by showing me how to love unconditionally. I love to be with my friends who are as close as family, we share a life of experiences shared and memories, the good and the bad ones. I love being at the ocean, being private, watching documentaries and movies that tell a story-happy or sad, growing in my spiritual practice and never dying my hair again. I love to visit farmers markets whenever I travel because that is where the people that live there go. I love to be in foreign lands, live in truth, and be a wife and beloved to my partner.
