dr. kacy l. borba spann
ABOUT ME
dr. kacy l. borba spann (she/they) of Quercus Natural Health, is a Naturopathic Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist practicing adjunctive healthcare in Portland, Oregon at Pohala Clinic in the Brentwood-Darlington Neighborhood and Opening to Life in the Hawthorne neighborhood. Adjunctive care means that dr. kacy does not practice primary care.
dr. kacy hails from a big family in a small “cow-town” on the central coast of California where her Salinan ancestors have lived for over 6,000 years and live oaks abound. She studied Community Healthcare at UC Santa Cruz — a major she designed — focusing on social inequities in healthcare and biomedical sciences. A few years later dr. kacy journeyed to Portland, OR for graduate school at the National College of Natural Medicine. There she spent time growing, changing, learning, healing and connecting with Naturopathic and Chinese medicine.
She thinks that being bipedal is the coolest and likes to be in motion, whether walking, skateboarding, dancing, or hula hooping. dr. kacy loves to be in nature with her bare feet on the earth near bodies of moving water. When she is with the ocean tides on a full moon she feels most connected to our creator. She believes there’s no better dessert than a chocolate chip cookie and that we all deserve to treat ourselves. She strives to find what is to love in each soul she meets, and she looks forward to meeting you!
A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON HOW I CAME TO MEDICINE
I am a heart-led creature and began my journey towards medicine at the age of ten. Back then my best friend, Pooh Bear, and I (piglet) wanted to be pediatricians together. I had an awesome pediatrician as a child and a deep awe and love for Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. My ten year old self wanted to be her, so capable and caring, brave and open hearted. As a junior in high school I was nominated to attend a week-long Future Doctors of America cohort and got to meet Patch Adams. Years later he came to my medical school for a lecture, so he’s been a pretty special influence as well. I was all set to start pre-med track in undergrad because I was gonna get into the healthcare field and change it for the better. I could see it was broken, even as a child. I quickly realized that the pre-med track was going to drain my soul and I would have no power to make any real changes in the behemoth that is our medical industry in the U.S. So I followed my heart and started studying what genuinely called to me, which led me to a major of my own design — heavily focused on healthcare disparities and determinants of health as well as biomedical sciences with some creative writing, environmental sciences and anthropology thrown in to boot. As I was finishing up my thesis: Midwifery and the Western Medical Establishment, I had a calling to be a midwife so I started following that calling by training to be a doula. After attending my first birth, I realized that I was stellar at the work but way too selfish to be on-call, not the job for me, I always kinda figured it would be something I could pursue in my Chrone years if I am called to do so. So I started working at a botanical medicine shop which is where I learned about Naturopathic and Chinese medicine. Finally, something that my ten, eighteen and present day self could get behind. I then spent over six years learning both Eastern and Western medicine with a praxis of care that matched my own evolving ideals of what health, healthcare and well-being should and could be. All of this corresponding impeccably with my love of quantum physics and the universe began to make deep, resonant sense.
I am a true wounded healer.
I have experienced numerous extraordinary events in relationship to pain and trauma. After a not so great experience with allopathic care I started down the path of alternative and natural medicine, which has forced me to turn the onus on myself and truly dig in and learn how to tend to and nurture this body, soul and mind. My self-discovery and healing continues to catalyze my journey as a healer.
I cultivate deep listening and am genuinely curious about who people are, how they move through the world, and what their truths may be. I have found the millions of miles I walk in my patients’ shoes provides a deep well of information and intuition from which I am able to draw upon in my own care and my work with my patients.
WHY THE LOWERCASE NAME
I write my name in all lowercase as a fight against the dogma of doctoring and medicine in general; it helps humble me in the eyes of others and within myself to stay grounded in patient-led, patient-centered care that honors their intelligence, intuition and choice.