ABOUT BEAUTIFUL AMA

“Oriental Medicine isn’t just about acupuncture and herbs, it’s about helping people become a part of their own healing.”
- Sarah Sawyer, LAc

Beautiful Ama is the private practice of Sarah Sawyer, an acupuncturist and herbalist.  Sarah is licensed in acupuncture by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.  She is a nationally board-certified herbalist, holding a Diplomate in Chinese Herbology and Acupuncture from NCCAOM.  She earned her Masters of Science degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.  Prior to founding Beautiful Ama, Sarah was a biomedical engineer and graduated from the University of Minnesota.

Sarah became interested in herbal medicine after it saved her life while traveling in Nepal.  She was staying with a family there, and the mother of the family used herbal medicine on her and she was amazed by its effects.  Ama is the word for mother in the Nepali language, and so the clinic is named in honor of her beautiful mother in Nepal.  Sarah still keeps in contact with her Nepal family and visits them whenever possible.

Sarah tries to live a healthy, balanced life as much as possible.  Her daily routine includes yoga sun salutations and qigong, detoxing with a neti pot, meditation, and spending plenty of time outside in nature.  Sarah makes sleep a high priority, eats an organic whole foods diet as much as possible, and works out regularly doing kickboxing and yoga.  She also receives regular acupuncture, massage, and chiropractic care.  Sarah loves cooking, canning, and gardening and she grows most of her own vegetables.  Her twin nephews are the loves of her life and she spends lots of time with her family and friends.

      

“By the time I was 25 years old, I had worked for a few medical device companies and always found myself propelled into management positions.  I was burned out and frustrated that I never got to see the impact of my hard work in the lives of the people I was helping.  So I left my job to travel in Nepal and figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.  I had no idea how much it would change everything I’d ever known.

I traveled to a small village in Nepal, where I planned on teaching English as a volunteer.  It was monsoon season, and I contracted a skin infection that is treatable in the U.S., but there were no antibiotics or western medicine in my village.  So my family there used herbal medicine to keep the infection under control.  By the time I returned home a month later, I found out that the herbal medicines had saved my life.  I enrolled in western herbal studies immediately and then acupuncture and Oriental Medicine school a year later.

I found that using acupuncture in addition to herbal medicine is really effective in treating the root of the problem, instead of just the symptoms.  And the greatest part is that I get to teach people how to use food therapy and make small lifestyle changes to really change their lives.  Oriental Medicine isn’t just about acupuncture and herbs, it’s about helping people become a part of their own healing.  As I work with people to become the healthy person they always had within them, I’ve never forgotten how I got here.”