Why she keeps speaking Korean medicine outside the clinic

We met Dr. Serin Lee at Duna Korean Medicine Clinic in Seongsu. After graduating from Dongguk University College of Korean Medicine and working with international patients and clinical education at Tongin Clinic, she now moves between the treatment room and the page. We asked, slowly, why she continues to speak about Korean medicine outside the clinic as well.

The conversation took place in a short pause after clinic hours. On her desk sat both explanatory drawings used with patients and notes from ongoing writing. It was easy to see that the hand placing a needle and the hand choosing a sentence belonged to the same practice.

Q. What story do you hear most often in clinic these days?

Serin “I’m not sure when it started.” People come for neck or shoulder pain, then mention poor sleep, digestion, or focus. I often read those not as separate events, but as a rhythm of life that has been off for a long time.

Serin In a neighborhood like Seongsu, where work and life blur, bodily signals often arrive late and all at once. What looks like a sudden pain may be months or years of fatigue and tension finally taking a name. So in a first visit I try not only to collect a list of symptoms, but to ask how a day actually moves.

Q. When you listen to a patient, what do you watch most closely?

Serin “What hurts” matters, but “when it eases and when it worsens” matters even more. Morning or evening, after long sitting, around sleep or cycles—those patterns make the treatment direction clearer. I think one strength of Korean medicine is reading those connections.

Q. Why keep writing and drawing while practicing as a physician?

Serin An explanation given in the room can fade once someone steps outside. Books and drawings help that explanation last. When we made books on long-needle and thread-embedding technique, I cared more about clear placement than polished prose. In health books for young readers, I wanted fewer hard words and more ways to read the body’s signals.

Serin Drawing works the same way. One anatomical overlay or stretch frame can be clearer than a long verbal explanation. I don’t see writing and illustration as promotional extras. They are extensions of care—tools that help people understand their bodies at home.

Q. What did your years at Tongin Clinic leave with you?

Serin Working with international patients taught me that good treatment can cross language, but good explanation still needs language. Even with the same acupuncture care, people feel safer when they understand why a point is chosen, what sensation may remain, and what to watch in daily life.

Serin That is why I remain interested in translating Korean medicine into clearer words. Research papers and contest films were also, for me, questions of communication. Now that question continues in the notes and interviews on this page.

Q. What kind of clinic do you hope to build?

Serin Less spectacle, more staying power—a place that stays beside someone and helps tune rhythm over time. Not a space that ends after one dramatic change, but one that accompanies the return of a body’s own pace.

Serin For now I refine that sense at Duna Clinic, and build the ground for a future practice through writing and personal work. The moment a patient’s face eases is still why I do this. I want to carry that moment to more people, in language precise enough to trust.