Episode 70- Dr. Julia Lee-True Medicine

·1 hr 1 min·3 clips

Julia Lee says she dropped from five-foot-eight to 96 pounds during medical school.

Robin Stebbins opens the door for Julia. Julia says she was born and raised in the Bay Area and spent time in academic science research and the pharmaceutical industry before turning toward natural healing, and she frames that shift as shaped by her own healing journey as much as by training. Her clinic is called South Bay Internal Healing, and it is in Santa Clara in the South Bay Area. She says she offers herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, and consultations, and she talks about the work as something grounded in natural healing and lived experience. The body is the starting point. Julia describes Chinese medical diagnosis as a kind of close listening, where the practitioner pays attention to what the patient says, how they sound, how they smell, what the pulse reveals, and what the tongue shows about internal state. She says the practitioner has to keep refining their own clarity too. In her view, the doctor needs to become a better receiver for what the patient is radiating. The body is never out of the room. Julia says the body stays in the present even when the mind wanders or dissociates, and she treats that as one reason body-reading matters so much. She keeps linking the body to nature, and she uses that connection to explain why physical signals feel so central to her way of practicing. From there she moves into the idea that every part of the body can act like a microcosm of the whole. The ear comes up quickly. Julia notes that some practitioners specialize in ear acupuncture, while others focus on the scalp, the abdomen, the hands, or the feet. She also points to foot reflexology and hand reflexology as part of that wider field of possibility. Her point is not that every approach is the same. Her point is that the medicine has room for different strengths, different temperaments, and different ways of seeing. That diversity stays important throughout the conversation. Julia says people within Chinese medicine can gravitate toward the methods and body areas that fit their nature, and she presents that flexibility as a strength rather than a compromise. The interview keeps widening from there, from individual technique to the larger idea that medicine is not just about naming disease but about learning how to receive the body more accurately. Robin keeps the conversation intimate and direct, which lets Julia move from explanation into conviction without losing the human scale of the exchange. Julia also says remote work is possible. She explains that she can meet with people through FaceTime or video and send herbs to them, even though she still treats in-person care as the hard-to-beat option. That detail keeps the episode practical. It is not only a philosophy of healing, but a description of how she actually works with people now. The result is a conversation about medicine, intuition, observation, and trust, all held together by the belief that the body is telling the truth if someone has learned how to listen.

As heard by us

A practitioner-led look at Chinese medicine, shaped by observation, experience, and personal conviction.

This conversation offers a close look at Chinese medicine through Dr. Julia Lee, who describes moving from science and pharmaceutical research into herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, and clinic work in Santa Clara.

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If you want Chinese medicine from a practitioner who moved from science into the clinic, press play.

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