Paula Raymond-Yacoub, 4 August 1958 – 8 February 2025

Paula Raymond-Yacoub APAM was born in Khartoum, Sudan, to English and Egyptian parents. 

She lived in Sudan, Egypt and England before migrating to Australia with her parents and brother Alan.

Paula was trained in physiotherapy in Queensland, graduating in 1979, and undertook her master’s in clinical medicine at the University of Western Sydney (now Western Sydney University) in 1992. 

She started working as a physiotherapist in Gympie and Brisbane, then on Thursday Island. 

She joined the APA in 1986 and became actively involved in the acupuncture and dry needling physiotherapy community.

Paula moved to Sydney, New South Wales, and worked at Fairfield Hospital. There she worked with refugees and victims of torture, many of whom had suffered physical and mental injuries. 

That gave her the motivation to pursue traditional Chinese medicine, as she found she did not have enough skills in her physiotherapy toolbox to work satisfactorily with these patients.

Paula started her acupuncture training with many able teachers, including Helen Badge and Jon Chong, through the APA. 

Later on she trained with Japanese acupuncturists Neil Ringe and Glen Martin in Australia and Sensei Ikeda Masakazu and Sensei Tanioka Masanori in Japan. 

As there were many physiotherapists practising acupuncture in the Northern Rivers region in New South Wales and at Ballina District Hospital, Paula, who always had an adventurous nature, decided to relocate—first to Lismore, then to Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads and finally to Murwillumbah.

Paula Raymond-Yacoub.

It was during the 1990s that Paula started developing the integrative acupuncture (IA) courses that we know today, with
the help of enthusiastic physiotherapists working in the Northern Rivers region. 

Along the way she had visited the Red Cross Hospital in Hangzhou, China, and private clinics in Japan by herself and with other physiotherapists who were training in IA.

Paula started the Acupuncture Study Group and was the founding chair of the Acupuncture and Dry Needling group until it became affiliated with the APA. 

She was also a founding member of the Australian Society of Acupuncture Physiotherapists. 

Paula had written and coordinated the IA courses, Level 1 to 3, since their inception in the 2000s and had run a yearly workshop for acupuncture physiotherapists in Brunswick Heads since the early 2000s. 

She was planning the 2024 workshop when she became terminally ill. She had, however, written up all her teaching in IA since the 1990s in a format accessible for teaching for many years to come, before she became ill.

In 2013, Paula became a member of the Japanese Society of Paediatric Acupuncture (Nihon Shoni Hari Gakkai) and presented
at its annual conference at Morinomiya Medical College, Osaka in 2014. 

Paula was the director of Siddhartha’s Intent Australia, the Australian branch of the international organisation supporting the activities of Buddhist teacher Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, until 2012.

Paula was deeply intelligent and brought her fine mind to everything she did. She had a great capacity for contemplating the lateral and high emotional intelligence.

Rather than coming across as an intellectual, Paula was better known for her sometimes wicked sense of humour and the ability to think outside the box. 

She would say, ‘Have you thought about doing it this way?’ And usually it was a better idea.

Due to her devotion to her teacher and the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, Paula was able to face her death with incredible pragmatism and grace. 

She maintained her clarity, humour and fearlessness to the very end. She was an inspiration in life and in death.

Paula was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in September 2024. 

She passed away peacefully in her home on 8 February 2025. 

She was looked after lovingly by her partner Jane, a group of close friends and the Sangha community. 

Paula was well loved and will be incredibly missed by all of us who have known her.

Her swift departure will be difficult for many. However, we can take comfort in knowing Paula’s tremendous ability and courage to embrace the transition.

>> By Micky Yim, with contributions from Libbie Nelson, Trish Tan and Virginia Ruscoe.