David is the founder of the Earth Medicine Institute and practitioner and teacher of all five branches of traditional Chinese medicine:
Acupuncture
Herbal medicine
Massage
Food medicine
Martial arts
David has studied traditional medicines with healers in Asia, North and South America, and Hawai’i. With a Master’s Degree in traditional Chinese medicine, he has a working knowledge of more than 400 traditional Hawaiian, Chinese, and Western plants. A deep ecologist and Hawaiian plant specialist, he has been a student of Hawaiian medicine under Kahu Kawika Ka’alakea, Kaipo Kaneakua and Na Kupuna ‘O Hawai’i since 1992.
Author of “Medicine at Your Feet: Healing Plants of the Hawaiian Kingdom” & “Wild Wisdom: Listening to Heart of Nature”, David is an expert on the medicinal plants of the tropics. He studies, lectures and teaches on cross-cultural uses of plant medicines, environmental concerns, traditional plant gathering practices, and pragmatic approaches to health care. He is a certified Wilderness First Responder and travels the world making plant medicine videos. In recent years has focused his attention on Traditional and Western austere medicine skills and wild edibles. He is known for his off-beat sense of humor. He is often seen in Hawaiian rain forests wearing his favorite trash bag as a raincoat.
