About Us

An Applied Systems Approach to Healing

The Better Place is a practice grounded in Traditional East Asian Medicine, advanced manual therapy, and lymphatic science.
We work with the body as a living system of communication and flow – one that constantly reorganizes itself in response to stress, injury, and change.

Our goal is not only to relieve pain or restore motion, but to help you understand how your body functions as a network. Education and collaboration are central to every session.
You are the expert on your own experience; our role is to interpret what your body is saying and to translate that information into effective, lasting treatment.

When you learn how to read your own signals, you gain the ability to respond early, recover faster, and maintain health with greater confidence.

Sarah’s Journey

Sarah’s work is rooted in equal parts science, observation, and curiosity. Her path began in 2010 at the National Holistic Institute in Emeryville, where she first studied massage therapy. During that time, she cared for her grandfather through hospice and witnessed the profound intelligence of touch, and how it communicates care, regulation, and relief. That experience became the foundation of her approach to medicine.

In 2013, Sarah completed training in Vodder Manual Lymphatic Drainage and began volunteering at the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, offering care to low-income women with cancer. There, she learned how to navigate complex conditions with sensitivity and precision, deepening her understanding of the body’s layered systems.

She later expanded her skill set through studies in esthetics and skincare at the Cinta Aveda Institute in San Francisco, exploring how visible changes in the skin often mirror deeper internal dynamics.

Her formal training in Traditional East Asian Medicine began in 2016 at the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley and the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences in Oakland. She became a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) in 2020, and has continued her education through advanced programs in Cosmetic Acupuncture with Michelle Gellis and Orthopedic Acupuncture with Jaime Chavez.

Today

Sarah’s clinical work integrates Traditional East Asian Medicine, lymphatic and fascial therapy, scar remodeling, and systems-based manual intervention. She approaches each body as a complex architecture of flow and adaptability, identifying how structure and communication interact to create pain, stiffness, or recovery.

Her patients know her for her investigative eye, precision touch, and ability to connect seemingly unrelated symptoms into a coherent picture of healing.

Exploring how tissue learns, repairs, and reorganizes is both her profession and her passion. Every session reflects that curiosity: deliberate, individualized, and anchored in respect for the body’s own intelligence.

Outside the clinic, Sarah shares her life with Yoshi, a quiet and soulful middle-aged poodle mix adopted from the Humane Society of the North Bay in 2021. He accompanies her at the office, greeting patients with cautious optimism and a well practiced side-eye.