Kelly Jennings ND, MSOM
drjennings@urbanwellnesspdx.com
Dr. Kelly Jennings was born in the small university town of Stony Brook, NY, just minutes from the beach and an hour commute to New York City. She went to Amherst College in Massachusetts where she received a B.A. with Honors in Neuroscience. After a brief stint studying neurodevelopment at the University of California in San Francisco (where the labs were too lonely), followed by a longer period working with cancer patients in clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City (where the medicine was too conservative), she finally found her calling in Portland, Oregon, at the National College of Natural Medicine. Over six years of study Dr Jennings earned both a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine.
While there, she mentored under some of the top holistic doctors in the country. She learned the unique system of biotherapeutic drainage under the mentorship of Dr. Dickson Thom and studied with Arnaud Versluys, PhD, one of the top Chinese medical herbalists in the US. She has won several writing awards, published a family cookbook, and is currently hard at work as an editor on several medical journals. Her latest project is a breast cancer manual for practitioners, to be co-written with a local cancer specialist.
Kelly is passionate about holistic medicine, an enthusiasm born of her personal experience with a chronic debilitating virus contracted during a year she spent doing ecological and herbal research in Ecuador. She sought the care of a Chinese doctor upon her return to the States, whose first treatment consisted of changing her diet. With this memory of healing based on nutritional therapy and acupuncture, and her continued exposure to the typical frustrating experience of standard healthcare in the US, she knew she was headed for a different kind of medical training. In an attempt to provide the highest level of care to each individual patient and help guide them on their path to optimal health, she relies on her comprehensive study, knowledge of and clinical experience with chinese medical and naturopathic diagnosis. She listens to your story and you know she cares.
Dr. Jennings provides primary and family medical care. Her specialties include:
- Women's health, pediatrics
- Chronic disease and adjunctive cancer care
- Sports related injuries and acute musculoskeletal treatments
- Weight loss and nutritional counseling
- Digestive disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders
- Optimal wellness programs
Other interests and skills include fluency in Spanish (her mom lives in Chile), co-ed soccer, and running up Mt Tabor before everyone else in Portland wakes up. She is a lazy meditator and a practicing & teaching yogini. She also dances, chants and likes to sing in the shower.