Dr. HANNAH GALE

I was adopted. I have to start there because it's a big part of who I am. My mother was a giantess (my adoptive mother) and a very unusual person. She read Adele Davis and Dr. Benjamin Spock and tried her best to raise me in a holistic manner, which at that time meant copious amounts of Freeda Kosher vitamins. My parents were observant Jews, and that meant that there was plenty of time on the Sabbath to do nothing but read, and that was what we all did. My father on the couch, my mother in bed, and me sitting at the dinning room table. Our house was filled with books of all kinds, many of them from the library, taken out on my father's different library cards. My father loved science and theater. I also loved science and theater. We took turns reciting Shakespeare's monologues and we had a dissected frog in a box. We always went to synagogue and sang songs at the Sabbath table, and it was through this that I felt the presence of God in our home.

Later, I studied Kabbalah with my father and others, and also read Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Taoist writings, and developed a deep love for the new Feminine activists including Starhawk and Vicky Noble. I have been using the Motherpeace tarot deck for 25 years. I also studied and worked in theater, obtaining a BA and an MFA in Directing.

I became very ill at the age of 18 and had my life saved by a surgery. Following that crisis, I developed chronic issues that were very serious and for which there were no answers in regular medicine. I began to see one of the first practicing acupuncturists in the country and began to read about Naturopathic Medicine.

Eventually I became a mother and a Waldorf teacher and read Rudolf Steiner and books about Homeopathy. I also found my biological family and discovered that there were many doctors and nurses in our family tree. The desire to help others with their ailments had always been an important part of me and I had often spent parent-teacher conferences discussing the health of my students. I decided to return to my love of science and took the necessary steps to complete my education and become a licensed Naturopathic Physician and Acupuncturist. Thanks to the gifts of many wonderful teachers, I now have many tools and skills, but it is the experience of God that I first experienced at my parents Sabbath table that ultimately fills me with hope for my patients. My experiences have taught me that there is a reason for everything and that illness is a journey that can be understood as a necessary blessing, both on  personal level and in a larger sense. I hope to be a helpful guide on that journey, to reduce suffering and engender a return to health.