ABOUT US
Care led by people who listen and think deeply
Medicine Tree was created from a simple but powerful belief: People heal better when they feel seen, supported, and guided with intention.
Behind every plan of care is a team of humans — listening carefully, observing patterns over time, adjusting thoughtfully, and walking alongside patients through meaningful change.
Healing is personal. But it is also strategic.
Meet The Medicine Tree’s Team
Dr. Liz Roper LAc DACM
Founder, Doctor of Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine, Functional Medicine PractitionerDr. Roper has always been quietly obsessed with figuring out how things work. With a background in organic chemistry and pre-med studies, she eventually found her way to Chinese medicine, a system that matched the way her brain already worked: looking for patterns, connections, and the reason behind what the body is doing. She trained at the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture, earned her Master's of Science in Acupuncture and certification in Chinese Herbology, and later completed her Doctorate in Chinese Medicine.
Over more than a decade of treating complex patients, that pattern-seeking instinct became something bigger: The Medicine Tree Method™ — Settle, Flow, Build, Thrive — a framework for bringing Chinese medicine, functional medicine, physiology, labs, and modern research together in the right order. She has a particular love for the cases that don't fit neatly into one box, and is rarely satisfied with "everything looks normal" when a patient clearly doesn't feel well.
Originally from outside Pittsburgh, she found her home in Golden in 2014. Outside the clinic, her curiosity usually has her reading something, learning something, or redesigning something — preferably between live concerts, ski days, golf, painting, and time with the people she loves.
Carrie brings one of the most well-traveled toolkits you'll find in acupuncture, and that's true in more ways than one. A graduate of the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture (the same school as Dr. Roper), she went on to become the school's Director of Herbal Studies and, in a full-circle twist, one of Dr. Roper's own herbal medicine teachers. She's a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild, a certified yoga teacher, trained in Ayurveda, currently finishing her studies in hypnotherapy, and the published author of Chinese Herbal Medicine for Beginners — traveling regularly to teach and speak on herbal medicine.
What sets Carrie apart isn't just how much she's studied. It's how she puts it all together: yoga, Ayurveda, Chinese herbs, hypnotherapy, and acupuncture working as one coherent approach, rather than separate specialties bolted together — a belief she shares with Dr. Roper, that lasting healing comes from combining the right pieces in the right order.
She's called places like Korea and Australia home over the years and still travels often. Closer to home, she gardens, studies taekwondo and Qi Gong, and has recently taken up writing short fiction for fun. Between her own travels, her professor husband (Colorado School of Mines), and a son who keeps them both on their toes, dinner at home is never boring.
Associate Acupuncturist & HerbalistCarrie Chauhan, LAc
Lisa spent more than two decades as a master teacher, dedicated to literacy education for at-risk elementary school kids in Ohio, before returning to Colorado after raising her family and launching her own two kids off to college at Mines and CU. That teaching instinct never really left her. It just found a new classroom: helping patients feel less overwhelmed and more understood the moment they walk through the door.
She was drawn to The Medicine Tree by the same growth-mindset and compassion she spent her career trying to instill in others, and she's found exactly that here, learning from Dr. Roper right alongside the patients she helps.
Back home in the mountains after years away, Lisa spends her free time walking Clear Creek Canyon or getting reacquainted with Colorado life alongside her husband, still not quite believing her commute is now measured in trailheads instead of traffic.
Care Concierge
Lisa
Diane's path to The Medicine Tree wound through teaching and, later, running a non-profit focused on body-based trauma-healing, both in Romania and locally. That background shows up in how she works with patients now, bringing a steady, attentive presence to every visit. She's thrilled to be part of this team, excited to keep learning from Dr. Roper and everyone here.
A New Yorker at heart who's called Colorado home for over 30 years, Diane brings decades of hard-won people skills to a job she clearly loves.
She's mom to three adult children and nana to two very fun grandsons, an avid reader who's always up for a book recommendation, and a hiker who's rarely far from her husband and their happily goofy dog. She still misses the ocean and gets there when she can, and remains, against all logic and lots of losing seasons, a devoted New York Giants fan. Sympathy accepted.
Care Concierge
Diane
Michelle
Practice Manager & Integrative Wellness CoordinatorMichelle has been part of The Medicine Tree for several years, and by now, she practically runs the place. Before joining, she ran her own practice, Michelle Beckner Family Wellness — an ex-chemical engineer turned certified nutrition coach whose path into women's health was shaped by her own journey through fertility challenges, hormone imbalances, and mold-related illness. She and Dr. Roper are two peas in a pod, working side by side with patients as something like yin and yang — matched in curiosity, and always digging a little deeper for answers.
At heart, Michelle is happiest barefoot, dancing like no one's watching, cooking up something nourishing in the kitchen, and helping women understand their bodies well enough to know how to care for them. A "Jersey girl" who found her happy place in Colorado, she lives in Conifer with her husband and three kids, splitting her time between mountain views, ski slopes, and summer nights camping as a family.
Tito is Dr. Roper's Golden Retriever, and a bit of a local legend. Equal parts sweetheart and outlaw, he's been known to catch a magpie mid-air and skin a rabbit or two, and he bolts the second a door opens (don't bother throwing him a ball; he won't bring it back). But the moment he's near you, he tucks his head between your knees, ears resting against you, for endless, uninterrupted pets. One animal communicator even called him a true healing dog. His brother Larry the Leonberger works at Roper Roofing and is a bona fide local billboard celebrity, but Tito's happy being the true Golden in Golden.
Professional Snuggler and Healing PupTito
The Medicine Tee Clinic
Calm, grounded, and intentionally designed
Our physical space reflects the way we practice.
Medicine Tree is designed to feel:
Calm and welcoming
Unhurried
Grounded in warmth rather than clinical sterility
Every detail from the pace of appointments to the environment itself supports regulation, comfort, and trust. Healing does not happen only through intervention. It also happens in environments where the body feels safe enough to shift.
Ready to take the next step?
Care begins with a comprehensive consultation.
If you are looking for structured, thoughtful care delivered by a team that listens carefully and thinks deeply:
Our values
Our work is shaped by principles that inform every clinical decision.
These values shape how we practice — and how we show up for those who trust us with their care.
Presence over pace
We slow down enough to truly understand what is happening beneath the surface.
Clarity over overwhelm
Care should feel understandable, not confusing or reactive.
Partnership over hierarchy
Healing works best when patients are informed and involved.
Consistency over intensity
Steady, structured progress creates durable change.