Our Mission, Vision and Values

We’re on a mission to create a revolution in healthcare by educating, leading and inspiring people towards optimal health and true wellbeing. 

And it starts with you.

Here’s why we do what we do and what it means for you as a patient.

Our Story

On a summer day in August 2015, the seeds for Capital Integrative Health were planted at a small café in Bethesda, MD, when our two co-founders first met:

Liz Baer was an acupuncturist practicing in Takoma Park, MD.

She wished there was a place where her patients could get comprehensive treatment from a variety of healing modalities, all under one collaborative practice.

Dr. Andrew Wong was a practicing primary care doctor who was frustrated with the state of the healthcare system, which made it difficult for patients to get what they needed:

• Time and compassion

• A deeper definition of the root-causes of their illnesses

• Knowledge, tools, and support to improve their health and thrive 

Over lunch, Dr. Wong and Liz discovered they had each been harboring a similar vision for years… a collaborative, holistic, integrative practice that had the potential to restore "care" to the healthcare system.

The turning point in their conversation was when Liz heard Dr. Wong say four words she had never heard a doctor say:

“It’s all about love.”

Integrative health is about seeing the whole person - and honoring all aspects of that person, from the physical to the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of being. The “love” at the center of integrative care care extends beyond individual health to the well-being of our communities and society.

The energetic connection between Liz and Dr. Wong, combined with their shared vision for a more compassionate healthcare practice lit a spark that couldn’t be stopped. Less than a month later, CIH was born. And five months later, they signed a lease for the original office space in Bethesda.

Today, CIH is honored to provide integrative, holistic healthcare to patients in the DC metro area and to be part of the change needed to transform healthcare.

Our Mission

Our mission is to educate, lead, and inspire you towards optimal health and true wellbeing.

We don't just want you to "get well soon" or "feel better", we want you to thrive.

So, when you meet with one of our practitioners, you can be sure they will really listen to you, explore every avenue of healing, and inspire you to be your happiest, healthiest self so that you can live your best life.

Our approach is fundamentally different from the traditional healthcare experience…

The Traditional Way

• Quick appointments to "churn" through patients without taking time to get to know them.

• Masking symptoms instead of identifying root causes.

• Over-reliance on one-size-fits-all prescriptions.

• Frustratingly ineffective approaches to chronic illnesses.

• Dismissing everything outside Western medicine

Our staff and practitioners are drawn together in a united resolve to do things differently…

The C.I.H. Way

• We trust the body's innate potential to heal itself

• We abandon the practice of symptom-obsession solved only by pharmaceuticals

• We have the courage to see each patient as a unique person with individual expressions of both wellness and disharmony

• We recognize the connection between body, mind and spirit and their influence on wellbeing

• We believe that our care extends beyond individual health to the well-being of our communities and society.

Our Vision

We want to revolutionize healthcare.

With our roots in D.C., we continue to pour our hearts into serving our local community. But our big, exciting vision (the one that gets us out of bed in the morning) is leading a systemic shift in the healthcare system for everyone.

A shift that empowers people to take control of their own health.

Too often, we outsource our health to doctors. The patient-doctor relationship can become almost child-parent like: “What did I do wrong? Tell me how to fix it.” Instead, what if we recognized each person’s innate ability to be healthy and promoted lifestyles and habits that allowed them to thrive?

Our vision for the future of healthcare:

• A focus on empowering and educating people to be the “CEO of their own health” from a young age.

• Affordable access to quality integrative care for everyone.

• An open-minded, root-cause based, collaborative approach to healing that draws from a variety of modalities as clinically indicated to create unique, specialized, and thorough treatments for each person

The consequence of educating and empowering people to take charge of their own health is that, like a ripple occurring from a stone dropping into a pond, each person can then teach others in the community, so that the roots of health and wellness spread organically.

This is how systemic change happens: one person, one mindset shift, and one heart at a time.

Let’s start building a happier, healthier world together.

Our Values

👩‍🏫 Commitment to teaching for empowerment - We offer group medical visits, courses, and other learning opportunities to keep our community on the cutting edge of health knowledge. We’re also a teaching clinic, responsible for training the next generation of wellness practitioners who share our values.

🤔 Be curious and investigate root causes - Being curious means being open minded, creative, and willing to listen. Many of our patients come to us after struggling to find answers from other medical providers. We’re constantly learning, reading books, discussing studies, and collaborating to enhance our expertise and find creative solutions to health challenges.

👫 “Ubuntu” We travel farther together - We believe everyone should have access to the type of care we offer, and we believe in each other to produce amazing results for our community and expand access to compassionate integrative healthcare. Love and compassion are the main instruments of healing, and when we move as one toward a common goal, healing happens inevitably.

✅ Commitment to excellence - We are committed to excellence in the healing care and experience of patients, in our community educational offerings, and in advancing the research base in integrative health.

💗 “It’s all about love” - We believe every person deserves compassionate care and the ability to thrive. The root cause of health and healing is love. For the more analytical minds, this just means we tenaciously explore every treatment option for healing, leaving no stone unturned as if you were a loved one (because you are.) When you join our community, you join our family - and we’re here for you.