Amorah Kelly inherited an appreciation of music, art and nature from her Irish ancestors. She discovered that she shared uncanny similarities with her great-great-grandmother. Both gave birth to twin sons. They were also “intuitive empaths," an individual who is sensitive to the energy of another person, be it positive or negative.

It was her mother who made the observation when Kelly was a child and began doubling over when she was around someone suffering with physical or emotional pain.

“I had to stay away from places where there was hurt—like hospitals and funerals,” Kelly remembers.

Her mother also told her that her great-great-grandmother was a healer.

After high school, Kelly attended community college and started a small stationery business. She began seeing a chiropractor to treat chronic pain in her right arm which she thought might be related to job stress.

“Through prayer and meditation I discovered my calling and enrolled in the Tao Arts Healing School,” she said. “As soon as I made the decision, my arm got better. That’s how I learned about the body-mind connection.”

Kelly studied shiatsu, also known as Japanese acupressure. When her twin boys were little, she began studying energy work and massage techniques from healers. She returned to college and in 2000 earned her bachelor's and master's degree, graduating with honors, in traditional Chinese medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego.

Afterwards, she hung her shingle at the Crosby Center at 7742 Herschel Ave. in La Jolla, where she remains today.

“It was like in the movie Field of Dreams,” she said. “Build it and they will come.’”

Since then Kelly has built a practice offering acupuncture, energy healing, massage therapy, herbology and diet and lifestyle recommendations at Wonderworks Healing Arts.

“Now I don’t double over,” she said. “I’m in communion. I help people heal themselves.”

Like her great-great-grandmother, Kelly says she serves as a channel, or conduit, that helps move energy through a patient’s body to promote their own healing process.

“Everything is energy, including pain, ” she explained. “Pain is denser. I help to amplify a person’s energy with these healing modalities by increasing the flow of energy that helps heal the body, mind and spirit.”

Susan Levine is a busy sales professional with a large family who has been an acupuncture patient since Kelly opened her practice. Initially she sought treatment for migraine headaches.

“I’ll walk in and Amorah will put her hands on my legs and she’ll already know if I hurt and where the pain is,” she explained. “I was afraid of needles, but I fall into the deepest zone and that zone is where the healing occurs.”

Like Levine, Dan Atkinson is juggling both job and family pressures, caring for his elderly parents.

“My wife came to Amorah first,” he said. “Amorah’s very gifted and I really think it makes a difference to go with some regularity rather than waiting until you have a problem.”

Kelly has incorporated the classical elements—earth, air, wind, fire—into her suite of four rooms which are furnished with special featurers including a solid crystal table, a magnet pad and a bio-mat with crystals.

Yoga teacher Courtney Buffington began treatment when all other methods for relieving pain caused by a concussion failed.

“Acupuncture completely alleviated my headaches,” she explained. “It has given me the deepest rest I’ve had since becoming a mother. To have a healer like Amorah in La Jolla is a complete gift.”

Kelly says it all about using balance and healing to reduce stress, pain and inflammation.

“People need to treat themselves as well as they do their cars,” she said. “They need to come in for maintenance and a tune up so they don’t break down on the freeway of life.”