Dawn Motyka, MD

I am a rare MD “super-generalist” with the ability to blend a wide variety of therapeutic modalities to generate a personalized medical plan for the individual, whether for wellness and longevity or for the exceptional improvement of chronic disease. I began podcasting in 2002 and there are over 10 years of weekly podcasts in the achieves at https://askdrdawn.com/
A certified functional Medicine Practitioner, I am also Board certified in Family Medicine and Medical Acupuncture. My podcast blends all of these to maintain and restore optimal health.

Dr. Motyka is one of the first of a small but growing group of physicians who have reframed their standard medical training into a systems-based approach to medicine. She is deeply involved in education of other physicians as faculty with the Institute for Functional Medicine. She is key faculty and designed the curriculum for a new Family Medicine residency that embeds Functional Medicine into its core curriculum. In 2018, she was part of a group that participated with the US Dept. of Defense in an initiative to train US Military physicians in the Functional Medicine approach to pain management. She is currently on hiatus from the faculty at Five Branches College of Chinese Medicine where she has taught Western Medicine to graduate students in Acupuncture. Dr. Motyka is the only acupuncturist with full privileges at Dominican Dignity Santa Cruz Hospital and she is Department Chief of Family Medicine. She received her medical education from the University of California at Davis and completed her family practice residency at San Bernardino County Medical Center. She received her acupuncture training from the prestigious Helms Institute at UCLA and has been actively practicing acupuncture since 1999. In 2013, she was part of the first group of physicians to quality for certification by the most rigorous criteria of the Institute for Functional Medicine.