If you’re looking for a Richmond TCM practitioner who speaks your language and is willing to sit with your whole story, this piece is an introduction to Dr. Judy Chu (R.Ac) of Sky TCM Acupuncture & Wellness. She trained at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine and spent twenty years in clinical practice in Taiwan, focused on meridian-based wellness. Today she sees patients in Continental Centre, Richmond, using an approach built on two old ideas — treating the body before disease sets in, and reading each person’s constitution — to help the Chinese community across Greater Vancouver slowly make sense of the discomforts that are hard to name yet always there.
In our first weeks open, more than one person sat down and opened not with where it hurt, but with almost the same sentence: “I’ve been unwell here for years, and I never knew who to tell.”
From Taipei to Richmond — why open a clinic in Greater Vancouver?
Before she left Taipei, Dr. Judy spent one last afternoon in her own clinic — packing the needles into boxes, emptying the herb cabinet, saying goodbye one by one to friends who had walked alongside her for twenty years.
Twenty years is long and short at once. It comes down to a handful of things — reading a pulse, listening to a person talk, knowing exactly how much pressure the hands should give — repeated tens of thousands of times. Only after all that repetition does it become clear: half of Chinese medicine lives in the books, and the other half lives in the hands and in the ears — in whether you’re willing to let a person finish saying what they came to say.
Luggage travels. What doesn’t pack away is twenty years of judgment in the hands. Good thing the craft answers to the person, not the address.
Why does Greater Vancouver’s Chinese community need a mother-tongue TCM practitioner?
In her first months here, Dr. Judy struggled to settle in too: the rain that wouldn’t stop, the sky gone dark by four in the afternoon, a whole person feeling like a spring wound loose. If someone who studied medicine for twenty years feels it, imagine everyone else.
Once she arrived, she noticed something more: Greater Vancouver has so many Chinese-speaking bodies, yet few places where you can talk through what’s happening in your body, slowly, in your mother tongue. Family doctors are hard to book. The tests all come back done, the reports all read — and still that vague sense of wrongness lingers: shallow sleep, no appetite, a neck and shoulders as hard as stone. These “not-quite-ER but there-every-day” discomforts have nowhere to land. You hold back on video calls with family back home, afraid to worry them. You post in the family group chat and get a pile of folk remedies you can’t tell true from false. You open Xiaohongshu and search, and the more you search, the more anxious you become.
The language changed, the weather changed, the food changed — and the body has been quietly readjusting the whole time, only no one has caught its complaints. So in Continental Centre, Richmond, she opened a consulting room where things are allowed to slow down: one wall of Chinese calligraphy, one still pool of water. Come through the door and we don’t rush to talk about illness — first, sit down and tell your body’s story from the beginning, all the way through.
What do “treating disease before it arises” and “reading your constitution” really mean?
Many people find Chinese medicine mysterious. What Dr. Judy actually believes is quite plain, and it fits into two ideas: treat the body before disease arises (治未病), and read the constitution (辨体质).
“Treating disease before it arises,” put simply, is patching the roof before the rainy season. Wait until it’s leaking and the repair costs ten times the effort. The body is the same: the care that truly pays off usually happens before anything major goes wrong. Almost always, the body sends word ahead — sleeping poorly, tiring easily, feeling off the moment the weather turns. This isn’t fussiness. These are signals.
And “reading your constitution”? The same rain falls, and one person shrugs it off while another wakes the next day heavy and foggy. The same iced milk tea, and one person heads out for a run while another’s stomach clocks off first. No one is being delicate — everyone’s body simply ships with a different manual.
Your constitution isn’t a label. It’s the accent your body speaks in.
The reason wellness tips from the internet work sometimes and not others is usually that they’re written for someone else’s manual, applied to your body. A TCM consultation takes the time to work out which manual is yours first, and only then talks about how to support it.
Wellness isn’t about piling on more things to do. It’s about first stopping the one thing your body has been protesting all along.
What is a “slow clinic”? What’s different about a visit to Sky TCM?
At Sky TCM, Dr. Judy has set herself a few rules:
- First visits aren’t rushed. She hears the whole story before deciding whether to use needles, prescribe herbs, or begin with a single bowl of medicinal soup as food therapy.
- Every service is assessed personally. Acupuncture, tuina, structural bodywork, herbal medicine and food therapy, cosmetic and skin care, women’s and children’s care, the energy activation pod — the menu can be broad, but if something isn’t right for you, or isn’t something she can help with, she’ll say so plainly.
- Registration isn’t a title. She is a CTCMA-registered acupuncturist (R.Ac) in British Columbia, which means regulation, a code of conduct, and continuing education — a commitment to being accountable for your safety.
- There’s no assembly line in the room. When was the last time you got to finish describing how your body feels without being interrupted? She hopes that, here, that becomes ordinary again.
Three small things you can do for yourself at home
Beyond the consulting room, “treating disease before it arises” happens mostly in daily life. If you also live with that “not-quite-doctor-worthy but there-every-day” kind of discomfort, you might start with these three small things:
- Keep a simple record of your body’s signals. Jot down your sleep, your energy, and how you react when the weather turns. It’s easier to spot patterns than relying on memory alone, and it helps you talk things through with your practitioner later.
- Don’t chase cold in the coldest weather. Greater Vancouver is damp and cold; many people find that warm, easy-to-digest food, plus soaking the feet in warm water before bed, helps them sleep a little more soundly.
- First, stop the one thing your body keeps protesting. The phone you scroll until two or three in the morning, a week of nonstop iced drinks — cutting these often matters more than adding any supplement.
One reminder: these are only directions for everyday care. If discomfort persists or worsens, please see your family doctor or the emergency room first — TCM fills the everyday, supportive part of your care, not the place of medical treatment.
Frequently asked
Who is Dr. Judy Chu, and what is her background?
Dr. Judy Chu (R.Ac) is a CTCMA-registered acupuncturist in British Columbia. She trained at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine and spent twenty years in clinical practice in Taiwan, focused on meridian-based wellness. She now sees patients at Sky TCM Acupuncture & Wellness in Continental Centre, Richmond. R.Ac means her practice is regulated at the provincial level, with a code of conduct and ongoing continuing-education requirements to uphold.
Where is Sky TCM Acupuncture & Wellness located in Richmond?
The clinic is in Continental Centre in Richmond, at 3779 Sexsmith Rd, Unit 1138, Richmond, BC V6X 3Y6. To book, call 778-681-8886; we’ll confirm your appointment time with you when you call.
What do “treating disease before it arises” and “constitution differentiation” actually mean?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, “treating disease before it arises” (治未病) means starting to care for the body while it is only sending small signals — poor sleep, tiring easily, feeling off whenever the weather turns — rather than waiting for something bigger. It’s like patching the roof before the rainy season. “Constitution differentiation” (辨体质) means first understanding which body type you are, and only then talking about how to support it — instead of copying someone else’s wellness routine wholesale.
How should I prepare for my first TCM visit, and what is the pace like?
Sky TCM is a “slow clinic,” so first visits are unhurried. Dr. Judy will listen to your full story before deciding whether to use needles, herbs, or begin with food therapy. Wear loose, comfortable clothing, eat normally beforehand (don’t come on an empty stomach), and bring any recent lab work or imaging from your family doctor if you have it.
Can TCM replace my family doctor or the emergency room?
No. For anything acute or serious, please see a hospital emergency department or your family doctor first. TCM here fills the everyday, supportive part of your care — helping you look after your body more attentively while you wait and recover. If symptoms persist or worsen, seek a medical diagnosis first.
About Sky TCM Acupuncture & Wellness
From Taipei to Richmond, the city changed but the intention didn’t: to treat each person’s body as a book worth reading slowly.
Sky TCM Acupuncture & Wellness is in Continental Centre, Richmond, at 3779 Sexsmith Rd, Unit 1138, Richmond, BC V6X 3Y6, and you can book by calling 778-681-8886. If you, too, carry that “hard to name yet always there” kind of discomfort and would like to talk it through in person, you’re warmly welcome to call and book — we’ll confirm the time with you when you do.
