Mai Cao, R.TCMP, R.Ac

Founder of Living Well Traditional Chinese Medicine

 Mai is a lifelong student of Eastern philosophy, medicine, and martial arts. She is a licensed acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, registered with the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario. She holds a diploma from the Ontario College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is a Kokoro Dojo's Zen Shiatsu Program graduate. She is also the first female to be promoted to the rank of Sifu through Golden Harmony Kung Fu and the Tai Shan Praying Mantis Association.

Mai developed a curiosity for Chinese Medicine over decades of teaching and practice in Kung Fu and Qigong. Experiencing the profound and transformative effect the training has on people's lives, she retraced their roots, which led her to Shiatsu and then Chinese Medicine, which shares the same foundation.

 Her passion for Kung Fu and Qigong as healing arts, coupled with her background as a street outreach and harm reduction worker, brought an invitation to teach at the Butterfly Peace Garden in war-torn Sri Lanka in 2004. Since then, she has returned twice to expand on those teachings. She has worked with children, youth and adults affected by war, the tsunami, displacement and homelessness, ex-child-soldiers, youth detainees, families of the disappeared, people suffering from addiction and mental health issues and survivors of violence in Toronto and throughout Sri Lanka.

Over the years, her studies have pivoted toward holistic Medicine. Mai takes a heart-centred approach to her practice, bringing compassion and intuitive touch to her treatments. She treats various conditions, including muscular-skeletal pain, digestive issues, menstrual disorders, fatigue, and ailments that are difficult to pin down to a specific cause. She is particularly interested in mental and emotional well-being, addressing acute and chronic stress, trauma-related conditions, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression. 

A lover of nature, adventure, animals, good food and drink, Mai's "happy place" is sitting by a fire out in the woods, sharing a laugh with friends and family.