The Wausau practitioners
People who stay curious about the whole picture.
Dr. Sophia Santamaria and Dr. Jennifer Blahnik bring different paths, deep training, and a shared respect for the person behind the symptoms.
The goal is not to hand you a mystery to carry home. It is to help you understand more, ask better questions, and make decisions that fit your life.
Personal + clinical
Dr. Sophia Santamaria, DAOM, L.Ac.
Licensed Acupuncturist and Integrative Medicine Specialist · Wausau office
A life in health care, with room for "what if?"
I began working in health care as a massage therapist in 2008, inspired by my mother's work and by early exposure to chiropractic and rehabilitative care. I was drawn to the way hands-on work could shift both mood and muscle—how sometimes a small change in the body gives someone a little more room to breathe.
My own life taught me that circumstances that feel permanent are not always permanent. So much of what becomes possible starts with believing your life could become something different. That belief has shaped not only my life, but the way I care for people.
I went on to study kinesiology and psychology at Temple University, where my curiosity about the body only grew. I wanted to understand why people could experience very real symptoms even when the usual answers didn't seem to explain them—and what else might be possible when we looked at the person as a whole.
That curiosity eventually led me to Chinese medicine.
I earned my Master of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine from Yo San University in Los Angeles, California, and my Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from Five Branches University in San Jose, California. I am licensed to practice acupuncture in both Wisconsin and California and practice as Dr. Sophia Santamaria, DAOM, L.Ac.
But my philosophy of care is simpler than my credentials:
I don't want patients to need me more. I want them to trust themselves more.
My role is to share what I know, explain what I see, ask better questions, and help people understand their options. Sometimes that means acupuncture or hands-on treatment. Sometimes it means looking more closely at patterns in the body, daily habits, stress, nutrition, environment, or other pieces of the picture. And sometimes it means recognizing that someone else is better equipped to help with a particular problem and pointing you in that direction.
I believe people deserve enough information to participate meaningfully in decisions about their own health. Care should be built around the person sitting in front of me—not around who someone else thinks that person should be.
And while health can be serious, I don't think the experience of caring for yourself always has to feel so serious.
I believe far more is possible than we tend to give ourselves credit for. I'm much more interested in asking "what if?" than beginning with all the reasons something can't happen.
The one thing I can promise is this:
You'll leave knowing more than you did when you came in.
Sometimes I have the answer. Sometimes I know who does. And sometimes I simply help you see the problem completely differently.
Where this approach helps
Care for people who want to participate in their health.
I often work with people who know something doesn't feel right even when they've been told everything looks "normal." People who have tried multiple approaches without getting where they want to be. People who are tired of simply managing the same symptoms—or who want to understand their bodies better before deciding what comes next.
My approach brings together Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, hands-on therapies, and a modern understanding of physiology, lifestyle, environment, and the many factors that influence how a person feels and functions.
Rather than assuming the same approach should work for everyone, we pay attention to patterns, ask questions, and look at the bigger picture.
I commonly work with chronic and persistent pain, musculoskeletal injuries and recovery, digestive concerns, stress-related symptoms, women's health, and more complex situations where several seemingly unrelated symptoms may be part of the same larger picture.
You don't have to choose between conventional medicine and a different way of looking at the body. You can ask questions. You can use more than one tool. You can change course when something isn't working.
And there is always room to ask:
What if there's another way?
Experience and teaching
Dr. Jennifer Blahnik, L.Ac., OMD
Wausau practitioner
Dr. Jennifer Blahnik completed pre-med studies at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point and earned her degree in Acupuncture from the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago. She completed advanced training at the Guangzhou School of Traditional Medicine in China, including an internship at Guangzhou Province Hospital, and earned her OMD doctorate from the Chinese Foundation of Natural Health.
She is a certified clinical thermographer and is certified in hyperbaric oxygen, ozone, laser, homeopathy, and micro-needling facelift. She also completed a two-year advanced herbal training certification from the Institute of Chinese Herbology.
Dr. Blahnik teaches national laser certification courses and authored The Handbook of Laser Therapy. She was the first acupuncturist ever licensed in the state of Wisconsin.
A shared foundation
Training that gives patients a place to begin.
All practitioners are licensed by the State of Wisconsin to practice acupuncture and have passed the National Acupuncture Board Exam. Each has more than eight years of schooling and is trained in Western and Chinese herbs.
The clinic has taught Chinese medicine techniques nationally and co-authored Laser Therapy, A Clinical Manual.
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