Dr. Cissy Majebe Continues a Tradition of Chinese Medicine in WNC
Photo Credit: Stevin Westcott
By Meg Hale Brunton
When Dr. Mary Cissy Majebe founded the Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medicinal Arts (along with Rachel Nowakowski, Junie Norfleet, and Patricia Bernarding), the school had a total of ten students in one classroom. Today, it has grown to include three distinct programs and a student body of around 120. How did Dr. Majebe build such an impressive school and business together? She began by learning a strong work ethic from her mother.
Majebe was one of four children, being raised by a single mother. Her father left her mother with no money, work experience, or marketable skills. Nevertheless, her mother took a course in business education and was able to support her family by becoming a social worker. “I’m very proud of my mother. She is the biggest influence of my life,” Majebe says of her now 94-year-old mother. “That’s the person who basically made me who I am today.”
The first in her family to graduate from college, Majebe earned her degree in Sociology from the University of New Orleans, followed by her Master’s in Exercise Physiology from South Mississippi University, and then attended the University of Virginia where she enrolled in a Sport Psychology PhD program. During her time at school, Majebe worked as a diving coach, and attended a health conference in Washington D.C. where the keynote speaker was renowned author and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. The conference’s focus on spiritual healing, as opposed to physical healing, altered Majebe’s perspective and made her reconsider her aspirations to become an olympic diving coach. Instead, she finished out her contracted year with the school and opted to broaden her horizons by moving to France. While there, Majebe had a Shiatsu massage and began to understand the healing capabilities of massage.
After returning to the U.S. Majebe settled in Santa Fe, planning to attend massage school. After meeting the president of a local acupuncture college, she chose to study Chinese medicine rather than massage. “I signed up for classes, never having had an acupuncture treatment,” laughs Majebe. After graduating in 1985, she moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where she opened the Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology Clinic. The business was small, but offered a wide variety of medicinal and herbal remedies, as well as acupuncture treatments. By 1989, the flourishing business had a client base of 1,700 patients.
In June 1990, something happened to change Majebe’s career forever. Her business was raided by armed officers from the NC state bureau of investigation who confiscated all of her patients’ medical records and shut down her clinic. The medical board had filed a claim that Majebe and her team were practicing medicine without proper licensing. “My lawyers wanted me to say that I wasn’t practicing medicine; but I was. I was practicing Chinese medicine,” Majebe explains. So she sought out new representation, who advised her to go into hiding to keep from being arrested while they put together a lawsuit against the state and the NC medical board.
While traumatic for Majebe, she feels that the raid and subsequent lawsuit put her and about a dozen other NC acupuncturists in a unique position to assist in the creation of legislature and licensing for the acupuncture and Chinese medicinal field. The experience also showed Majebe what her business meant to the community. A group of her supporters started a fundraiser for Majebe’s clinic, raising over $30,000. Local doctors even wrote letters to the board in support of Majebe’s work, and Majebe’s patients went to the DA’s office, demanding the return of their medical records. “The Asheville community was amazing,” she says of her supporters. “Looking back, I was really blessed because of the community support.”
Afterward, Majebe began shaping her business to include Classical Chinese medicine (rather than just traditional), based on the teachings of 88th generation Daoist priest Jeffrey Yuen. Majebe finds that the classical perspective has a stronger focus on the spiritual and emotional component of Chinese medicine, while examining the whole person to determine causes of ailments and treatment. “Everything determines what kind of illnesses we develop,” she says, referring to age, size, gender, lifestyle, climatic conditions, and familial roots as causes of illness. She adds that a major difference between Western and Eastern medicine is that Western medicine treats illnesses, while Eastern medicine treats patients who have an illness.
In September 2003, the Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts opened, offering Masters and Doctoral programs in Chinese medicine as well as a certification in Herbal Medicine. Majebe feels that the school’s curriculum gives their students the most comprehensive view of Chinese medicine possible, so that they can narrow their focus onto what aspect of the field they want to specialize in after graduating. While she acknowledges that people are becoming more comfortable with Chinese medicine, Majebe says that she hates to see people shy away from benign treatments like acupuncture for fear that they will be painful. She finds that (when practiced by licensed acupuncturists) acupuncture is an excellent treatment for depression, anxiety, gastric pain, respiratory condition, and even the effects of Long COVID, without causing serious side effects like Western pharmaceuticals.
Now 71, Majebe is very proud of her accomplishments, but says that no one gets to where she is professionally without lots of help. She says she feels so blessed to work with amazing individuals who have inspired and supported her, throughout her career. “I’m gonna stop soon, so I have enough time to snowboard, scuba dive and bike ride,” Majebe jokes regarding retirement. “I’ve had a phenomenal life. I can’t even begin to imagine that I could have had a better life.”
For more information on the Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts, visit their website: https://daoisttraditions.edu/
