David Cohen began practicing acupuncture in the mid–1980s, just as the AIDS epidemic was hitting Los Angeles with full force, and he became deeply involved in treating a disease for which the only medicines available at the time were extremely toxic. He learned a lot about the treatment of complex viruses with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, but most importantly, he learned how critical the human spirit is in dealing with chronic illness. Cohen became the lead acupuncturist at the Moonview Sanctuary in Santa Monica, which specialized in addiction and recovery, and this deepened his conviction about the role our emotions play in our physical well-being. Graduated from California Acupuncture College in 1985, he has lectured both locally and internationally. He taught at Samra University in the Rampart district of L.A., where he also served as director of a Chinese medicine clinic that actively served that largely Hispanic community, and where he ran his first HIV study, in conjunction with the Institute for Traditional Medicine in Portland. He was one of the original faculty at Yo San University, where he taught for over thirty years, serving as clinic director and chairman of Chinese medicine faculty.
