We’re looking forward to introducing you to Dr Jillian Imilkowski. Check out our conversation below.
Jillian, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Of the three, integrity is the cornerstone. Intelligence can be trained and energy can be harnessed, but integrity is the compass by which we navigate the world. In the healing space—especially one as personal as acupuncture and Chinese medicine—integrity isn’t optional; it’s foundational. It shapes the way I show up for my patients, how I train my staff, how I price my services, and how I make decisions that affect my clinic and community.
I’ve learned that in moments of uncertainty, it’s not intelligence that helps me sleep at night—it’s knowing I acted with integrity. When you’re in a profession that touches people at vulnerable moments—physically, emotionally, spiritually—you must hold a level of responsibility that goes far beyond your technical skillset. Patients place their trust in me not just to ease pain but to hold space, to listen, and to guide. Without integrity, that trust is broken before the first needle is placed.
In my own journey, from healing after a devastating accident to launching my clinic, I’ve had to make countless decisions without guarantees of success. Integrity gave me the grounding to move forward even when I was unsure, to trust my instincts, and to be honest with myself and those around me. It’s a value I require not only in myself but in my collaborators, colleagues, and clients.
Intelligence and energy help you build something. Integrity ensures it lasts.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Dr. Jillian Imilkowski, DACM, LAc., and am the founder of Urban Sage Acupuncture + Wellness, based in Chula Vista, California. At its core, my clinic is about reconnection: to the body, to purpose, to truth. I’ve built a healing space that combines the timeless wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine with modern technologies like red light therapy, digital meridian imaging, and advanced coaching techniques. I don’t just excel on pain management, there is also a focus on complete systems healing: body, mind, and spirit.
What makes Urban Sage unique isn’t just our modalities, it’s our ethos. I’ve lived many lives: punk rock skateboarder, massage therapist, wine sales rep, women’s cycling founder, global adventurer. Each path sharpened my skills and deepened my understanding of what people need when they’re trying to heal. Every job held before this helped shape the intuitive, compassionate care now given to every patient who walks through our doors.
I was led to this work through personal healing. After a major car accident left me in chronic pain, acupuncture was the only modality that truly restored me. That experience transformed and inspired me to create a space where others could experience that same empowerment.
Right now, I’m working on expanding the practice while maintaining its core values: Quality, Respect and Integrity being the most prominant. I’m also passionate about educating and mentoring others, especially other acupuncturists, on how to build and run ethical, sustainable, and abundant practices. Urban Sage is more than a clinic. It’s a community of healing.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child growing up in the lower-middle class Midwest, I was taught both explicitly and implicitly, that people like us don’t get to do great things. That success and abundance were for someone else. That being “smart” or “kind” wasn’t enough, you had to be loud to be heard, and even then, love and recognition weren’t guaranteed.
That narrative stuck with me for decades. It fed into feelings of inadequacy, imposter syndrome, and scarcity. I didn’t grow up in a household that celebrated achievements or cultivated self-worth. I was taught to survive, not thrive. And for a long time, I believed I didn’t deserve much more than the bare minimum.
That all started to shift after moving to California in my 40s. In graduate school there was a different kind of energy; people celebrated emotional intelligence, embraced wellness and valued peaceful kindness over volume. With the help of mentorship and coaching, I have unlearned the inherited narratives holding me down spiritually and financially. I realized that strength isn’t in being the loudest, most aggressive voice in the room, it’s in standing rooted in who you are, even if your voice shakes.
After years of deep internal work rewriting my story, I now believe that I am more than (K)enough, even if I’m a Barbie. I am worthy of abundance, not as a reward, but as a birthright. Healing isn’t just for other people, it’s for me too. I am proof that it’s possible to grow out of the box you were placed in as a child and build a life far beyond what you were told was possible.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
For most of my life, I believed that being in a committed relationship was the mark of being “whole.” That belief wasn’t just about wanting a partner, it was deeply rooted in the idea that I was not enough on my own. If not chosen, married, or seen through the eyes of someone else, did I even matter?
That belief system failed me hard. A broken engagement in my 30s left me devastated, but it also shook something loose and I asked the harder questions: Why did I believe my worth (the worth of women) was only validated when partnered with someone else? Who told me (women) I couldn’t be powerful on my own?
That period of heartbreak gave me a new lens on the societal scripts that had been absorbed since childhood, particularly around gender roles: The internalized idea that a woman’s value lies in being someone’s partner or mother, not in being her own fully realized person. Letting go of that narrative was painful and difficult, but it was also the catalyst for profound transformation.
After breaking free from childhood narratives that clearly did no serve me, everything changed. I stopped waiting to be “completed” by someone else and started becoming the most complete version of myself. That shift in identity opened the door for new possibilities: Going back to school and earning a doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, and building Urban Sage Acupuncture + Wellness from the ground up. None of that would have happened without the help of coaches and mentors working to redefine what success and fulfillment look like for me.
Changing my mind about my role in relationships gave me the freedom to redefine my role in society. And in doing so, I realized that I’m not here to support someone else’s story. I’m here to write my own and help others learn what their narratives are for their own stories.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
There’s a persistent, toxic myth in the acupuncture world: that you must suffer financially to serve others. That if you make money, you’re greedy. That success is antithetical to integrity. I am here to call BS on all of it.
The mantra we were given in graduate school and in the professional acupuncture world is: “You should take every patient, regardless of fit.” “You shouldn’t charge more than other clinics are charging.” “Acupuncture isn’t real medicine, so don’t expect to make a living from it.” These beliefs keep practitioners in scarcity and burnout. They also do a massive disservice to patients by reinforcing a model that devalues quality care. National estimate is that 50% of acupuncturists are no longer active in their practice 5 years post graduation. This is unacceptable. Until we change the narrative of the industry and how the medicine is being taught, this number will not change.
I have a doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. I have trained relentlessly, invested heavily in education, and worked to build systems that allow me and my clinic to thrive. In China, Korea, and Japan, acupuncture is integrated into hospitals. It’s seen as legitimate, vital, and powerful. There’s no reason we can’t demand the same standard here. A thriving clinic not only means the acupuncturist can live in abundance, but the employees working there are healthy and happy as well as the patients being seen.
At Urban Sage, we run a business rooted in integrity and abundance. We price ethically and fairly. And we train staff to uphold the highest clinical and human standards. Patients get better, practitioners stay healthy, the business and the community thrives. THIS is the model I believe in.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I am absolutely doing what I was born to do, and I had to live many lives to figure that out. I’ve been a punk rock skateboarder, a baker, a bar manager, a wine sales rep, a Pilates instructor, a women’s cycling founder and a massage therapist. I am a Jill of All Trades and every trade I learned was an exploration, moving me towards my endgame.
Through it all, I was searching for something deeper. A way to serve, to heal, to leave the world better than I found it. I’ve never followed a script, it was a whisper inside me that said, “There’s more.”
That whisper eventually led me to acupuncture: To the power of an ancient medicine. I wasn’t told to become an acupuncturist; I was called to it. And once I started walking that path, everything in my life began to align. It’s been a long road, and every step was an important part of shaping who I am now and how I show up for my patients. Because of all my past experiences, I know with complete confidence that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://urbansageacu.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theacuqueen/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/urban-sage-acupuncture
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAcuQueen
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/urban-sage-acupuncture-wellness-chula-vista-3
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@theacuqueen
- Other: Google: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5xSVzsVcHNBMbbBX8
Image Credits
All photos taken by WorkPlay Branding
