Our Instructors
The teachers who carry the work forwardEach teacher at the Institute brings a distinct lineage, discipline, and depth of experience, united by a shared commitment to healing that meets the whole person.
Guided by Experience, Grounded in Lineage
The founder's vision shapes the school; the faculty give it breadth. Together they offer students a rare depth of training across classical energetic tradition and holistic care.
Dr. David Stokes Hone
DCEM, ND
Dr. David Stokes Hone is a visionary leader in holistic health and the founder of Elements of Life Institute, where he trains the next generation of energetic-medicine practitioners. His work joins ancient tradition with modern approaches to healing, addressing health at its deepest levels: the physical, energetic, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
He began his practice in 2011, specializing in naturopathy and Chinese Energetic Medicine and taking on the most complex and multifaceted cases from the start: life-threatening illness, oncology, neurological and autoimmune conditions, fertility and reproductive health, and multi-system imbalance. Integrating medical qìgōng, breathwork, nutrition, and intuitive assessment, he learned to see how these dimensions move together and to find the root of illness where conventional approaches fall short. That hard-won clarity is what he now teaches.
His training runs deep: a Doctorate in Chinese Energetic Medicine and Buddhist Mysticism from the Temple of Change and Transformation, a Doctorate in Naturopathy from Kingdom College of Natural Health, and studies in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, under teachers including Sifu Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson, Dr. Bernard Shannon, and Lama Lar. Since 2016 he has devoted himself to teaching, mentoring practitioners around the world and equipping them to meet the most difficult health challenges with clarity and confidence. His aim as an educator is to help students reach the deepest layers of this work and step into their full capacity as healers.
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Dr. Brooks Wuerdemann
Instructor & COO · DCEM, L.Ac.
Dr. Brooks Wuerdemann brings a rare breadth to his teaching, drawing holistic health, linguistics, technology, and a lifelong spiritual practice into a single, nuanced way of working. He began his qìgōng studies in 1992 and has spent the decades since learning how deeply transformation supports growth and change across a lifetime. His years as a U.S. Army linguist gave him an ear for language and precision, and his work as a computer systems engineer trained him to see whole systems and how their parts move together, both of which shape how he teaches the body and its energetics. That same ear for language draws him deep into classical Chinese medicine, where the oldest texts speak in image and symbol. Reading the tradition on its own terms, attentive to what its symbols carry, gives his teaching a living depth that students can feel.
He turned to Chinese medicine in earnest in 2008 when he enrolled at Tai Sophia Institute and subsequently earned his Master of Acupuncture in 2012. From there he went on to earn a Medical Qigong Practitioner Certificate with Dr. Lisa VanOstrand (2012), a Master of Oriental Medicine from Maryland University of Integrative Health (2015), Chinese dietary studies with Andrew Sterman (2020–2021), and a Doctor of Chinese Energetic Medicine from the Temple of Change and Transformation (2024). More than fifteen years of study in Chinese herbal medicine runs through all of it. From 2013 to 2017 he served as adjunct faculty at Maryland University of Integrative Health, teaching in the Acupuncture and Nutrition programs.
Ordained in 2021 as a Priest of Christian Mystical Arts through the Temple of Change and Transformation, he teaches from the conviction that a person is a whole, with physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions continually shaping one another. He brings that same wholeness to his students, meeting them where they are and trusting them to take up what he offers and make it their own.
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Dr. Steve Leavitt
Instructor · DCEM-LEHP
Dr. Steve Leavitt is a Doctor of Chinese Energetic Medicine, trained through an intensive four-year program and continuing to deepen his mastery through further study as a Doctor of Medical Qigong. As an Instructor at Elements of Life Institute, he guides students through their own healing and energetic development, drawing on a lifetime spent training and mentoring others.
That calling to teach was forged over twelve years in the U.S. Army, where he served as a combat medic and senior enlisted soldier, worked in an emergency room within an active combat zone, trained and mentored soldiers for medical missions worldwide, and oversaw medical readiness for more than 8,000 troops before his medical retirement. His study of spiritual and energetic mysticism shapes his teaching as deeply as any of it: four years of Daoist mysticism, three of Buddhist mysticism, and a year and a half of Christian mysticism, along with two years of tàijí in Sifu Singh's Life Force Tai Chi program, where he is a Certified Level 1 coach and carries its principles of movement, breath, and energy cultivation into his work.
Joining physical, energetic, and spiritual wisdom, he helps students reconnect with their own natural capacity to heal and regulate themselves, and to carry that grounded steadiness into their lives and their practice.
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Dr. Heather Harmony
Instructor · DCEM-LEHP
Dr. Heather Harmony teaches with a rare pairing of deep expertise and intuitive wisdom, guiding students toward profound healing and self-discovery. A Doctor of Chinese Energetic Medicine, she has trained extensively in medical qìgōng and energy healing, including eighteen months of one-to-one clinical mentorship under Dr. David Hone.
Her seven years of work in astrology and astrocartography, including the Placidus system, is trusted by fellow medical qìgōng doctors and gives her teaching an uncommon depth. As a transformational coach, she brings individuals and families practical tools for emotional clarity, communication, and personal growth.
Heather teaches the Women's Treatment Protocol and Women's Qigong Training, and will soon be ordained as a Christian Mystic Priest, bringing a whole-person approach to mind, body, and spirit that students carry well beyond the classroom.
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