Can you tell us a little bit more about your family?

I have one sister. My mom works at an agricultural goods factory, where they ship and process Korean grains and barley and bring them to supermarkets. My dad is an acupuncturist and an herbalist. My older sister is a little less than two years older than me, and she currently lives at home. My extended family [lives] throughout Southern California, as well as on the East Coast and Korea.

Did you speak Korean in the house growing up?

When I was little, we would speak Korean with our parents, but once we started going to school, my parents stopped asking us to speak Korean with them. I would say that my Korean level is that I understand and I'm able to speak it conversationally, but nothing more advanced than that… I don't really speak that much.

What was your childhood like? What were your dreams and aspirations?

I was actually asking my mom about this. I was like, “What was I like as a child?” I think very much that the childlike wonder and curiosity still carries and drives me forward today. I was a very happy, curious, ready-to-do-anything type of child. Always ready to have fun. Always ready to be the person that would take something on.

My mom told me about this one story where I was in first grade and she came to pick me up. She was like, “Your teacher said that you read the backside of a milk carton. The question was, ‘Where are kangaroos from?’ You knew that kangaroos were from Australia, and I was so proud of you.” I was like, “That's a crazy story.” It made me feel like, oh, I was that child that asked a lot of questions. I was always looking for those answers.

Would you say those qualities that you had as a child carried on throughout your life?

I think that search for wonder, and digging deeper into why things are the way they are, is what drives my fascination. I studied environmental studies and urban studies. There's always a layer of wanting to go deeper and this question that there has to be more [out there]. Part of this grew from the environment where I grew up. It was a very traditional suburb, almost like a placeless place. You go to Irvine and all of the houses look the same. There are these strip malls that are built on top of landscapes that you don't know the history of. You can’t tell what the culture is that came before. I think because my mom was helping drive Korean foods across grocery stores in California and my dad was this herbalist, it felt like, there has to be more to being Korean than an H-mart. There has to be more to these plants around me than the manicured landscapes that I grew up next to. I think that I’m following this thread of — there has to be something more than this material, everyday reality that’s just my lifetime. It's this belief that I'm connected to something bigger, something grander, and something that outlasts my own lifetime.

Tell us about your career path after college.

Currently, I work as an urban planner. I focus mainly on what I describe as cultural and community assets. My transformation to my current career was that I focused on environmental justice and equity and what it means to be a person of color in the environmental field. Being in a space that was predominantly white, in college and in my chosen career path, made me think about my role in this field. I need to represent diverse communities that have not been historically included in these decision-making processes. What I realized after doing really intense organizing, justice-focused, equity work was that I was getting burnt out. I was confused too, because I felt like this is not the field or the work, at least the urban planning company that I was working for, that I think drives [the] type of change [I want to see]. What I realized, too, was the need to reframe my work and how I think about organizing in terms of joy. Not necessarily just justice-first, but joy and beauty. That's why I started working on parks and cultural centers. Right now I'm working on a project that's an arboretum in San Antonio. Reframing how I think about a place doesn't mean not thinking about inclusive, equitable communities, but that all communities deserve beautiful places. All communities deserve places to feel joy. I think that connects with that curiosity and wonder [I had growing up]. I find those places in nature, community centers, and food and restaurants. My connection to food systems is also a really foundational part of why I do what I do today.

Can you expand on your work in environmental justice?

My first intro into environmentalism was when I went to join my mom at work one day. There's a farm next to the factory where she was processing goods. I was like, this is so fun. I love seeing how things grow and how they come to our table. Especially because they were plants and herbs that were not typically found in the U.S. [There were] different types of Korean roots and herbs. After that [experience], I started working on some farms. I got hands-on, on-the-ground experience. I did this program called WOOF-ing (World Opportunities on Organic Farms) where you basically volunteer on an organic farm. I did a couple of weeks on a farm on Jeju Island when I graduated high school. My parents thought I was crazy. They were like, “Why are you going to a farm by yourself? Why would you go into food systems work?” Farming is traditionally what your parents did, so it’s like, why would you [choose to] do that? There's this rural-urban divide [culturally]. It's [WOOF-ing has] slowly expanded to environmental conservation and getting involved in what it means to manage lands and waters. I was able to do a program with the University of Washington where I got to go camping for the first time. I went backpacking. It was this cohort program where it was 20 students of color and diverse students from around the country. We got to learn about traditional ways of stewarding lands and waters. That reshaped and fundamentally changed my life because it made me realize that whatever work I do, I want to do it with friends and people that I like. For a long time, my foray into environmental work was, I am the only person of color in this room, but I love what I do. I'm going to keep doing this. The program helped me realize I want to do this in the community. I want to do this in a way that's culturally sensitive - that thinks about our histories, our past, and our future in a holistic way.

How would you define your father’s work?

My dad currently runs an acupuncture clinic in MacArthur Park. His clinic is called Hajo Holistic, and I would describe it as an acupuncture and apothecary. When my dad was starting, I pushed him to consider making this a non-profit. The foundation of community-based clinics is that you offer low-cost, affordable care at high quantities that reduces the price and serves as many people as they can get in. We ended up deciding that right now, with the space we have, we're not able to serve large amounts of patients at a time. What we want to achieve down the line is getting a larger space to be able to do that type of work. Hajo Holistic is a clinic, but it’s also a public education space. We’re thinking a lot about what it means to transfer and share knowledge with both patients and our general community, incorporating that community-based model into our current practice.

When did you begin learning about this practice?

I grew up with my dad as my de facto doctor. I got a physical for the first time when I went to college because they required you to get a physical. I didn't know what Tylenol or Advil did for you. Whenever I got sick growing up, my dad would just give me some granules or some herbal packets. It was something that was ingrained in me growing up, but I never asked why. It was like, this is the truth.  My dad takes care of me and my family by providing us with these herbal medicines. There was no divide between Western medicine and traditional medicine. This is how you take care of your body. I didn't see it as distinct.

Later in my life, I realized I grew up in a house with these herbal cabinets with maybe 200 little drawers, and they're labeled with the herbs that are in them. We ended up having to give them away because we didn't have space. In college, I did a printmaking project on those herbal cabinets. I remember looking at each of the cabinet drawers and pulling them out and thinking, oh my God, what is that? I would do that endlessly. My printmaking professor asked me, “Do you know the history of why these cabinets existed or how this cabinet got to your family's house from Korea?” I realized that I almost took traditional healing and herbalism for granted in the sense that I didn't even know the history of how that cabinet got to my house. I didn't know the history of what herbs my dad was prescribing me. My professor's question really reminded me that I have a responsibility to educate myself, especially if this is something that I believe in. It's my responsibility to understand for myself as well as for my own accountability. I cannot share these cultural symbols or traditions without educating myself on what they mean, where they came from, and how they actually work.

Does your family practice any other forms of traditional healing other than acupuncture?

My mom is a master fermenter. She spent some time in Korea after my sister and I went to college and learned all about fermented foods. For her, food has always been that healing factor. My mom makes this delicious rice yogurt that she thinks will heal depression and my dad is a healer. I have physically felt the impact of their work in my life, as well as just being interested in this really interesting, impactful, cultural and generational thread of knowledge. I have these two people in my life who are so dear to me that I can ask stupid questions and learn from them. I think [I’m interested] because they never asked me [to be], right? They never asked me, “Lauren, be interested in food systems, be interested in community care.” I feel grateful to them in a way where I’m like, “Oh, you never asked me to become these things, but thank you for showing me these alternative paths.”

I don't think I'm going to be an acupuncturist. I don't think I'm going to work in food explicitly. With the childhood and education and perspective that I have now, I feel that I can use this lens of healing, of food, of how you think about the world and community, and put my own spin to it. How does this impact the work that I do as an urban planner, a creative person, and as a second-generation Korean-American? How do those things interact? I feel really excited about it, like, wow, these are the coolest parts about being Korean to me. 

What makes traditional Korean medicine unique from other modalities like traditional Chinese medicine?

I've asked my dad this quite a bit. He described traditional Korean medicine as distinct [because it is] a little more holistic. Traditional Chinese medicine is, of course, the origins of where traditional Korean medicine evolved, but it [Korean medicine] is more about preventative care and the steps before a disease or a symptom erupts. You're able to treat that in advance. There's certain herbs, too. I went to the herbal shop with my dad. The shopkeeper was Chinese. It was so funny because when my dad asked about these herbs, she [the shopkeeper] was like, “Oh, my God, all my Korean customers want this herb.” I asked my dad, “Why is that?” And the shopkeeper replied, “It's an early onset herb. That's what he's looking for.” That is something that I have more questions and want to do more research about. Even in acupuncture colleges, it's always about traditional Chinese medicine. They're very integrated. My dad also considers himself an Oriental medicine practitioner. Of course, the word “Oriental” has its own histories and meanings. I think what that means is that there's a deep Eastern tradition of healing that extends beyond country or cultural barriers and borders. There's a lot of mutual learning that can happen between countries and between cultures, as well as with Western modes of healing.

Has your family been involved in traditional healing for a long time?

Not explicitly as healers, but my family, especially my dad's side, come from a long line of Korean Christians. On my dad's side, we're like eighth generation Christians, which is so many generations. When I think about pastoral care and spiritual care as a form of healing, even if not in the Western Christian context, Oriental medicine and traditional healing is a spiritual, esoteric aspect of what it means to take care of yourself. It is not just your body. It's not just your mental health. There's an element of spirit that comes with that. There's something that feeds you and drives your life that is more than just your flesh and blood. Sometimes that comes out in being a pastor. Sometimes that comes out in being a healer. Being a teacher. Those are all modes of healing.

Have you ever entertained being an acupuncturist?

I have. Sometimes I think about it because my dad was a teacher for a really long time. He has this huge collection of books. When we were thinking about how we can make Hajo Holistic a place where someone can come and learn about themselves, but also learn about acupuncture or traditional healing, I was like, “Appa, bring all of your books to the clinic. Let's bring every single book you have so when someone walks into the space, they feel like, ‘Oh, I am not just being met by this single practitioner, I'm being met by the single practitioner, and all of these books that people have written for thousands of years.’”

I've been slowly combing through each of the books to see what I can learn. Honestly, looking for Instagram content. The thing about being an acupuncturist that makes me think this is something that I can try out later in life is that it's so much schooling. You have to learn so much. Seeing my dad run his acupuncture clinic, I realized you not only have to learn herbalism, oriental medicine, oriental theory and oriental history - you also have to be a social media person, an accountant. You have to work with insurance companies. Deal with the crazy commercial rent market that is Los Angeles. There are so many elements of running an acupuncture clinic. I was like, what are the skillsets that I bring? What is the perspective that I bring at this moment?

What I can do is translate this information that feels obscure and inaccessible to younger audiences like me. I can make it entertaining. I can think about ways to make herbal medicine that doesn't really taste that good taste a little better, or put it into a better form. I was thinking about herbal Jell-O or herbal gummies and thinking about ways that make this more palatable for younger generations. [Being an acupuncturist] isn’t a door that I've completely closed off. I have really deep academic and personal interests in learning about acupuncture. I love my career as an urban planner and I think this was a really great way to think about the things that I do at work on a city scale or neighborhood scale at the scale of my family. We do huge business planning for how a city would tackle a neighborhood. How do I apply that same thinking for how my dad will run this clinic? There's a lot of overlap. I will definitely entertain that in the future. As of now, I am the social media manager extraordinaire.

Is there a form of traditional healing arts that you prefer personally, and why?

I have really enjoyed getting moxibustion, which is a form of traditional healing that puts, usually mugwort, on traditional acupuncture points. It uses heat, instead of a needle, to stimulate that point. I really enjoyed that because I have really cold hands and feet. My dad has said that it's because I have terrible circulation. The idea of using heat as a stimulator for those acupuncture points is something that I wasn't exposed to growing up. A lot of people are scared of needles. I think that is a big barrier for people. With moxibustion, you don't even have to [use needles]. Even acupressure is just touch. My dad says when you touch your body, that is acupuncture in some ways. You're able to stimulate and give love to parts of your body that normally you don't even think about. Learning about moxibustion has been really enlightening. Here's another way to make acupuncture and traditional healing more accessible to folks.

What part of traditional healing do you think is special or most special?

I have been bringing all of my friends to my dad's clinic. That is a way of bringing new customers in. All of my friends are working professionals or stressed-out students. Everyone has neck and shoulder pain. Everyone is tired. People are anxious and depressed. Hearing about my friend's experiences has really affirmed in me my belief in traditional healing. In a way, it feels like my dad knows my friends better than I do. There's something very holistic about a traditional healing intake appointment. At your first appointment when you go to a doctor, they ask you your health history [and] if anything is in pain. My dad views a person holistically, [for example, using] traditional Chinese face reading. You can see and learn a lot about someone's character by different features on their face. When you read someone's pulse, you're able to tell their energy. My dad describes it as the word “constitution.” For one of my friends, he said, “Oh, your constitution is like a deep ocean.” I was like, that explains a lot to me about this person that I know. It is such a beautiful way to get to know someone. That holistic view of someone is something that we don't really get to feel in our [daily] lives. To hear my friend’s experience going into an appointment and receiving treatment, even for myself, that is helping me become more like a deep ocean. I just felt like that is really beautiful and special.

What are the challenges of traditional healing arts? Do people have misconceptions about it?

In terms of my own experience with healthcare, I only went to the doctor at extreme points, [like if] I [had] to go to urgent care or the ER. Otherwise, this is just a chronic pain or a concern that I have to deal with for the rest of my life because healthcare is expensive and inaccessible. Especially, being conditioned as a woman, I feel like pain is normalized in life. The pain that I'm expected to live with is just a given. We [women] have really high tolerances for pain, too, [so] you have to go out of your way to say, “Hey, I want to see a traditional healer.” Usually what ends up happening is after going through Western medicine, and feeling like your problem hasn't been resolved, you've paid so much money and you still are dealing with this recurring issue, that you find traditional healing. It's usually a last resort. “I've tried everything else, let me try this out.”

By that stage, people really want fast results. People are not willing to think about what it takes to address generational or maybe decades-long issues. One misconception of traditional medicine is the timing. Especially when you think about preventative care, and what it means to treat a symptom holistically. Being able to get better and be well means more than coming to an acupuncture clinic once. That’s why when we think about community care, and what is effective, [we have to think about what it] means to have acupuncture at a price point where you can get treatment at the frequency that you need in order to get better. That is definitely a big challenge. If you're treating a chronic issue, you're supposed to go twice a week. I'm thinking a lot with my dad, "Who has time out of their busy life to go to an appointment twice a week? Who can afford that? And how can we meet them before it's [traditional healing is] a last resort?”

As the main manager of your company's social platform, what have you learned about informing and connecting to the younger generation through advertising?

As the social media manager for Hajo Holistic, I have learned a lot about what it means to advertise a service. It's hard because in a lot of ways, what Hajo Holistic is trying to do is hard to capture in an Instagram graphic. What I'm trying to do to make it accessible to a wider audience is to imagine someone who knows very little about traditional healing. That would probably be me in my very early stages of helping start the Hajo Holistic page. If I was approaching acupuncture for the first time, what fundamental questions would I have? I tried to put myself in those shoes because, before working seriously with my dad, there were a lot of things about traditional healing that I didn't know either. When I think about content, I want to make sure that it's visually interesting, that it's fun, and that it also teaches someone something.

How have you seen traditional healing art and modern medical technology intersect and overlap throughout your upbringing?  

There are certain moments in my life where I've seen traditional healing and modern medicine technology intersect in a way that has swayed me one direction or the other. When talking about the balance that we want to find in our lives, I think about, for example, how my parents' generation thinks about mental health. Western medicine, whether that's taking antidepressants or different forms of medication, is not necessarily the first answer for my parents in treating or processing mental health issues. Especially for me and my sister, when we think about that tension, we [realize] as adults, we have the agency to make health decisions for ourselves. When I think about my own balance, what I want for myself is to communicate with my parents. Whether the issues are mental or physical health, I want to be like, “Hey, this is what works for me.” Instead of being told, “This is a choice that I have made for you.” I would really, really encourage people, especially when they have immigrant parents that might not understand mental health issues, to find a form of care that works for oneself. I think that kids and younger generations should have more agency over how they make those decisions.

How do you imagine traditional healing in the future? How do you see it evolving?

I hope that traditional healing becomes widespread and accepted among the public. I hope in the future, it becomes as integrated as going to see a doctor for our annual physical or even going to get your hair done. People should think, ‘Oh, it's time for my monthly acupuncture checkup. Oh, I ran out of my herbal medicine, time to get a new prescription.’ What I hope for in the future is that a lot of this knowledge of traditional healing becomes more accessible. Whether that's through old Korean and Chinese books, YouTube, or other forms of more accessible content, I hope that people find traditional healing interesting. That they integrate it into their everyday lives and that it evolves to meet the needs of the new generation of both patients and practitioners in the field.

What are the most important lessons you've learned in life?

The most important lessons that I've learned in life is that everything is connected. I have compartmentalized a lot of things in my life to reach certain expectations. Go to college, get a job, go to work, keep the job, figure out what's next. Because of the stress and pressure I've put on myself, I have ignored my body in a lot of ways. Because of the care that my parents have given me, my body is dependable. I've been able to withhold and take on all that pressure without slowing down. 

The advice that I feel is really resonating with me now is [from] my dad, who always texts me and my sister. He just says, “Be healthy, dream big,” and then uses some random emoji. He texts us that religiously. I always remembered the “dream big” part, and then I took the “be healthy” part for granted. When I think about having to put in as much work for the “be healthy” part as the “dream big” part, the thing I'm realizing, three and a half years into the workforce, is that I am so exhausted all the time. In order to keep on going, I really need to invest more in taking care of myself.

How has your life been different than what you imagined?

I don't think I imagined myself coming back to California after going to college. I went to college on the East Coast, and I only applied to one job in Los Angeles when I graduated. Now I can't imagine myself not living in Los Angeles and being close to my family. I don’t have a vision for how my life at this moment would have been different, but I feel very young and very adult at the same time. I feel like I am still a child because I work with my dad, but at the same time, I feel like I’m an adult because I am a partner with my dad. There aren’t things that I would change about where I am right now, but I realize the reckonings that I'm having with my family, at least in terms of generational knowledge that my parents have — maybe one day, when I have kids, they [my parents] will share that [knowledge] with them. I'm in my mid-20s and this is when I am doing that learning. I feel glad that there's many years for me to learn about all of the stuff in their brains, all of the stories they have to share. It happened faster than I thought it would, but I'm reassured that hopefully I can do this with my parents for many more years into the future.

What is something you would like to share with your parents?

In terms of what I would like to share with my parents, it would be a “thank you,” of course. In a lot of ways, they have cultivated me into a really independent thinker and person, and because of that, I have been able to come back to my relationship with them in a way that feels reciprocal. I want to affirm to them that I'm doing this [working with my dad] because I am interested in and I want to do this job, not because “your dad needs help.” This is an opportunity for me to grow and learn that is invaluable, and I can't find elsewhere.