Jonathan Hadas Edwards, MS, LAc. 

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Bio

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Jonathan Hadas Edwards, MS, LAc. is an herbalist and NC state-licensed acupuncturist with over a decade's experience in Asian medicine. His Masters of Science comes from National University of Natural Medicine's School of Classical Chinese Medicine, where he studied under Dr Heiner Fruehauf. Versed in Ayurvedic as well as East Asian Medicine, Jonathan has pursued studies in both China and Southasia, including on a Fulbright fellowship to Nepal. 

         Having experienced the power of these traditions firsthand, he is passionate about making their profound benefits available to others. 

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Personal Statement

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Always fascinated by the mysteries of the universe, I was studying physics until life threw me two curveballs. One was that my father, composer George Edwards, began slipping away much too soon due to dementia. Modern medicine had little to offer besides sedatives, sadly. I felt there had to be a better way of approaching healthcare, and through this deeply scarring experience I vowed to find one. 

 

The second curveball was the health struggles I began having not long afterward: digestive troubles that were somehow linked with mood and energy swings that left me confused and frustrated. 

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It was during a semester in India that I was first exposed to ideas from Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine. After undergrad, I enrolled at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico for a year-long study program, not yet suspecting I'd found a career path. When in 2008 I returned to South Asia on a Fulbright fellowship to Nepal, I thought I was going to study food culture and religious ritual. But it wasn't long before I switched my research topic to Ayurveda. 

 

During that year I met an elderly last-of-his-lineage Ayurvedic practitioner, Keshab Laal, who welcomed me into his home and his heart. We spent days together talking about all things herbal. The elderly man quizzed me, told stories and case studies, and showed me his impressive collection of handmade medicines. It was heartbreaking to learn that he had no one to carry on his tradition. I left feeling called to carry the torch as best I was able, if not for Keshab-ji's lineage then for others like it. I resolved to become an herbalist to bring these beautiful, potent healing arts to others.  

 

The path since then has been long and winding: acupuncture school, western herbal studies, internal cultivation through qigong and yijing study; work in several community clinics and now in private practice. 

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See blog and writing/resources page for more musings and leads, respectively. 

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