Meet Brooke Niss | Acupuncturist, Herbalist, Functional Medicine Practitioner & Business Owner/Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brooke Niss and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brooke, how does your business help the community?
Our mission is to provide individuals and families in our community with affordable, high quality, patient centered care. We integrate acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, & Functional Medicine at our clinic. We are passionate about helping patients to achieve their optimal health through sustainable nutrition goals, stress relief, and becoming empowered in their healthcare.

At Universal Family Wellness Clinic we operate on a sliding scale of $50 to $80 per treatment, we offer a $40 low income rate, and a $90 high income rate.

We ask that patients consider their income and budget to choose the price within our scale that allows them to come as often as needed to get lasting results. During the initial consultation, a UFWC practitioner will advise on how many visits are recommended for your particular condition. We also provide a super-bill that can be easily submitted to your health insurance provider for reimbursement. Our herbs are individually priced based on current market value which allows us to keep prices as affordable as possible. We believe that every person in our community has the right to quality health care at a fair price. We hope to develop and demonstrate a sustainable business model that can provide affordable access to natural medicine.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Universal Family Wellness Clinic was founded in 2010 in Silverlake, LA by myself Brooke Niss and my husband Michael Niss. We met in 2006 in grad school at Bastyr University in Seattle, WA. We both connected with our goal to create a new and different and more equitable model for accessing holistic and integrative healthcare, and community gardens.

Thus was born UFWC, a private practice, sliding pay scale clinic offering the highest quality acupuncture, herbal medicine, functional medicine, nutrition and lifestyle support. We believe all people deserve access to empowered medicine. We believe that empowered medicine requires that we feel we can afford the care we need to feel our best. We support our diverse community to achieve optimal wellness, to understand the root cause of illness and disease and to learn sustainable tools for caring for themselves and their families.

There have been many challenges in business, we started during a recession, we have expanded 3 times, the most recent being the biggest expansion that has been an intense labor of love over the last 3 years during the pandemic. We have learned that a trauma informed care approach to both managing our staff, and approaching clinical practice is essential to the medicine we provide.

We are in the early days of now expanding our supplement and medicinal food business called Applied Botanicals, and are currently in our new state of the art clinic. We are immensely grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and for the amazing people that trust us to be part of their healthcare team.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hiking in Elysian Park, Griffith Park Beach in Santa Monica & Malibu
walking, roller skating boardwalk
Museums at LACMA, MOCA, Getty
Eastside restaurants:
Yamashiro Hollywood

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents John and Leslie Dorman who have always inspired me to look deeper at the needs of the community, no matter how crazy my ideas seemed;) UC Santa Cruz for their Community Studies program, and igniting the fire in my being to make a difference in the world.
WWOOF: For the amazing opportunities in Mexico, Central America where I began to make the connections between source of food and medicine, and what makes “healthy communities”
David Lee: Former CEO of Emperors College for being a mentor and immense supporter for my future.
Robert Newman: Former Clinic Director of Emperors College for being a mentor and inspiration for me.
Global Exchange: For supporting our research trip to Cuba to study integrative of systems of public health and urban agriculture.
Bastyr University: For having such incredible medicine gardens, and programs and for believing in me
Working Class Acupuncture: For providing the incredible inspiration for the sliding pay scale model.
Bill: Our landlord for first 12 years of our business who consistently supported our growth as a small business and made it possible to grow.
All our amazing staff and patients at the clinic over the years!!!

Website: universalfamilyclinic.com

Instagram: @universalfamilywellness

Facebook: Universal Family Wellness Clinic

Yelp: Universal Family Wellness Clinic

Youtube: Universal Family Wellness Clinic

Image Credits
Images by Brian Anton & Jorge Photography