Liza Van Dine opened a wellness center in MH, pursuing doctorate
Published in the March 30 – April 12, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Lauren Newcomb
Photo courtesy Anna Liza Van Dine
Rod Van Dine and Anna Liza exchange vows in 2007 in Cebu, Philippines.
Anna Liza Van Dine’s story as an immigrant in the United States does not end here. Rather, it is just the beginning. Seeing America as a land of opportunity for people from all over the world, she is building an acupuncture business in Morgan Hill and working on her doctorate to further her careers.
Born in the Philippines in Pasig, a city with a population of more than 660,000, Liza soon moved with her family to the city of Bakol. After five years, they moved to Cebu in the central Philippines.
“It’s another island,” she said of her home town. “There are 7,107 islands. During high tide, I mean. During low tide, there are more.”
The main difference Liza highlighted between growing up in the Philippines versus growing up in the United States was that it is a Catholic country, and as such the values were markedly different.
“I grew up with really strict grandparents and parents, so there was not much for me when I was in the Philippines besides school and home,” she recalled.
“The Philippines is a Catholic country, so it’s school, then church on the weekends, then more school. Growing up was really focused on school and home life.”
She continued describing the differences between her homeland and America. “It’s a more conservative country than the U.S. Here, there is much more freedom. You can be honest and frank about your feelings instead of just saying ‘yes’ to your parents.”
Liza learned how to speak English at a young age in school in the Philippines. “All the instruction was in English,” she said with a laugh. “Just with a different accent.”
Anna Liza Van Dine in her Morgan Hill Private Wellness Center.
Photo by Lauren Newcomb
Knowing and understanding English so well helped make her transition to the United States much easier, especially considering the long and arduous immigration process.
Before moving to the United States, Liza lived in China when the company she worked for relocated there. Liza’s husband, Rod Van Dine, described her time in China as a challenge. “She lived in a dorm at the factory in China where she worked six days a week, often seven, making only $500 a month and sending 90 percent of the money back to her mama in Cebu.”
Liza’s description of her time working in China was somewhat different. “The labor costs in China were cheaper. I was working in the office doing a lot of stuff,” she said. “It was a multi-tasking job.”
While she was in China she met Rod online. “I met him on New Year’s Day in 2007. From then we talked, we chatted, we emailed each other every day until the day we got married six months later.”
For the wedding, Liza returned to her hometown of Cebu. After the wedding, it was two years before her visa went through and she was able to join her husband in Santa Cruz.
“We didn’t get a lawyer to help with the process,” she said. “It was a long process because if you make a mistake, you have to wait 60 days to continue. Then you make another mistake, something as simple as a spelling error, and you have to wait another 60 days. So for us it took almost two years.”
Liza finally joined Rod in California and decided to continue her schooling. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, she attended Five Branches University in Santa Cruz, where she entered a master’s program to learn massage therapy, acupuncture and body works.
Liza became interested in acupuncture when she learned of its application as a treatment for hypertension and high blood pressure.
“My dad died from a stroke at the age of 52,” she said. “He had long-term hypertension. Everyone in his family had it too …. When I heard that acupuncture could help with hypertension without having to rely on Western medications, I thought I had to do something.”
People with hypertension often have to take medications for the rest of their lives.
Last year, the Van Dines brought Liza’s mother to California to live with them. She too had hypertension and was taking many medications to treat the condition. These medications caused insomnia as a side effect.
“When she arrived, I started doing acupuncture on her,” Liza said. “After two months we started weaning down the medications and she’s been off them for months now.”
Liza’s husband Rod commented on her affinity for these alternative medicines, saying, “I have never seen someone so worthy of the term ‘Natural Born Healer.’ People just gravitate to her for the very same reason I was driven to travel halfway around the world to scoop her up only six months after meeting her.”
Liza is currently pursuing her doctorate in San Francisco. “For my capstone project I wanted to focus more on hypertension and how Chinese medicine can help with that without having to rely on lifetime medication,” she said. She hopes to be able to conduct clinical trials later this year and become published in the future.
For the past few years, Liza has run a Private Wellness Center in Santa Cruz specializing in massage and acupuncture.
In December, she opened a second center in Morgan Hill after moving nearby. As of now, she splits her time between her Santa Cruz and Morgan Hill locations, but she hopes to become full-time in Morgan Hill once she has built up a clientele.
“We moved two years ago. When we first got here in town, I liked the ambiance, and the people, and the hills, and even the commute back home,” she said. “I just knew that I liked this town, and that I would like to work here.”
To promote awareness of acupuncture and alternative medicines, Liza hopes to hold a “Community Acupuncture Day” where she would devote a half day to performing acupuncture for people with Medicare, or other such people, because Medicare does not cover acupuncture.
During the event, people could try acupuncture to see if it works for them, as a sort of trial period. It would also help establish Liza’s Private Wellness Center in the Morgan Hill community, as well as promote awareness of acupuncture and massage.
Liza’s altruistic gesture comes as no surprise to Rod. “It takes leaving this country and visiting another one like the Philippines to realize that we live in a bubble here in America,” he said. “These people fundamentally live in impossible conditions, yet every breath they take is one of gratitude and selflessness.”
The cultural difference is stark, and it affected him deeply. “My life, world view, and personal ability to handle stress has been radically altered,” he said. “Things that used to be so important and required ‘satisfaction’ in my upbringing, now they simply roll off my back like water off a duck’s back due to my exposure to her upbringing and the conditions outside of our bubble.”
With two different cultures at home, the couple is forced to communicate more clearly and to really listen to one another to be certain each understands what the other one is saying, he said. “We take the time to make sure we are reacting to the truth and not what we think we heard,” he said. “One vital benefit to this is that we connect more than the average couple does.”
Among her favorite things about living in the United States, Liza said she enjoys hiking with friends and taking nature walks in the nearby forests and hills.
“We don’t do that in the Philippines. It’s a tropical country, it’s hot, so we don’t just go for a hike or a walk like we do here,” she said. “I didn’t think about experiencing and appreciating nature there.”
Truly understanding cultural differences and the immigrant experience in the United States is not as easy as reading an article or speaking with an immigrant, Rod said.
“I don’t think that people can get a richer understanding of cultural diversity on the whole until they actually immerse themselves in that culture,” he said. “In the absence of such an opportunity, I think the challenge is to really listen and to respect what little we can be subjected to regarding other cultures. But that scenario, in my mind, is left wanting.”
