Dr. Katherine Echo Kim, L.Ac. ADS Auricle Integrative Pain & Stress Management | AcuDetox | Acupuncture | Westport, CT

📍Location: Westport, CT USA

Katherine Echo Kim, D.Ac., L.Ac. ADS
D.Ac. -- Doctor of Acupuncture
L.Ac. -- Dually Licensed Acupuncturist (CT, NY)
ADS -- Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist
Nationally Board-Certified Diplomate (NCBAHM)

Dr. Kim has been pioneering hospital-based AcuDetox delivery and integrative stress management since 2002. She began her career as an ADS (AcuDetox Specialist) at St. Vincent’s Hospital’s Integrative Stress Management (ISM) clinic in New York, treating survivors in the wake of 9/11. The ISM was one of the first hospital-based, holistic stress-management programs in the world and has been widely researched and replicated internationally. For the first 5.5 years, she was the only acupuncture-trained ADS provider on-ground in the multidisciplinary team. 

Dr. Kim's Clinical Specialties: non-pharmacological pain management, acute stress disorders, generalized anxiety, depression, panic attacks, PTSD, emotional trauma, grief/bereavement, sleep optimization, particularly during personal life transitions or community crisis. 

She also has two decades of advanced training and practice in: Traditional Chinese Medicine, multiple styles of acupuncture, dry needling, trigger point therapy, neuromuscular acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and manual therapies such as cupping, gua sha, kinesio taping, moxibustion, and  cold/hot contrast therapies. 

She earned her doctorate in Acupuncture from Pacific College of Health & Science and a Master of Science from Tri-State College of Acupuncture. She completed her AcuDetox training at Lincoln Recovery, training directly with NADA founder Dr. Michael O. Smith. She also had the fortune of studying with Dr. Mark Seem, founder of Acupuncture Physical Medicine, and with Kiiko Matsumoto.

Nationally board certified and dually licensed in CT and NY, she has owned and operated private acupuncture practices in Union Square, NYC, and Westport, CT.

During her teens through 30s', she completed Zen monastic training in the U.S. and overseas. Instead of becoming a Zen nun, she became an acupuncturist at the urging of her Zen teachers. She holds several certifications in clinical hypnotherapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction through the Yale Stress Center and Mindful Schools. Her immersive lived experience and contemplative mind-body training give her rare listening depth and perceptive skill in the healing arts.

Dr. Kim created Ancestral Acupuncture, an original clinical framework that integrates acupuncture informed by Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems model and Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations work. 

She recently served on the NCBAHM Artificial Intelligence Taskforce, advising on ethical AI education and adoption and contributing to national policy guidance for the acupuncture and herbal medicine professions across North America.

Drawing on her extensive clinical experience, Dr. Kim trains a new generation of practitioners in AcuDetox, integrative medicine, and clinical stress management delivery.

Affectionately known as
Dr. Kiki Kim