What's In a Name? 

OSSO

My grandfather, Rudy Pelle, was an Italian immigrant, brought from Sicily to Asheville nearly a century ago. It would be a betrayal to his gigantic spirit to measure it with words here, but I will say this: his entrepreneurial proficiency coupled with a tireless work ethic and infectious humor, allowed him to charitably give back to the community he found himself in, and at the heart of it all, he mended folks together. He made them feel like they belonged.

He rooted down like a Banyan tree – unconventional and everywhere. People wanted to be around him, he just made you feel like somebody, like you could do anything, and you believed him too – because he really did do just that: from buying 100 pounds of ribs for a gathering of 5 people to sponsoring Paul Newman in racing, the proverbial sky was never the limit – indeed, Rudy was the universe itself. 

So as I started to consider opening my own practice, oscillating between the consumption of courage and creation of it, the spirit of my Papa arrived in every corner. His throaty, Italian-American voice, his impossibly ginormous sweatpants, his strength, his elbows, his calloused fingers and furrowed brow if he thought there was a chance you might be hungry – how wild to be Rudy. This affable, Sicilian boy in the heart of the Appalachian mountains, rooting down, trusting his bones. My bones, my Osso. 

Reflecting upon him made me consider what brought me to Chinese Medicine in the first place: I want to help folks belong… in their bodies, in their spirits, in their pain. Harmonizing body and spirit, Yin and Yang, East and West – mending the bones. Mending the village, dissipating dis-ease, balancing the line. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Kidney Channel is responsible for bone health. It is also responsible for Willpower and Courage. So here I am, starting my practice the only way I know how: through the courage of my village, my roots, my Papa, my “Osso,” in italian, bone. 

This isn’t boutique wellness, this is bone-deep medicine. Best served together.

Welcome to my family. I am humbled to be here, branching out from the roots of Rudy, and I’m at your service – little bones and all.