02/23/2022
Tatsuo Hirano, Doctor of Oriental Medicine (D.O.M.) and Licensed Acupuncturist (CA), has been involved with the healing arts for over forty-five years. He earned his doctorate from SAMRA University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles, after previously receiving other two Acupuncture degrees, one from Quebec Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Montreal, Quebec and the other from BAAANA Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in New York City.
Dr. Hirano did pioneering acupuncture clinical work at Lincoln Hospital, Bronx New York, during the early seventies. Pioneered by Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the Lincoln group developed an auricular acupuncture detoxification program for the treatment of narcotics addiction that primarily targeted Black and Puerto Rican communities, the most affected by the drug plague. The protocol that was developed then is now being used in rehabilitation centers, clinics and hospitals throughout the U.S. and the world.
After this six-year academic and clinical program, he returned to Los Angeles and served as the clinical director, Qi-Gong and Anmo-Tuina professor at SAMRA University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Dr. Hirano is certified by the California Acupuncture Medical Board as a continuing education provider (CEP 331) and by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) (Provider ACHB 077). He has also been involved in integrative medicine seminars with doctors at UCLA School of Medicine as well as projects relating Qi-Gong and new physics research with professors at UCI. As a certified instructor, Dr. Hirano also taught at the Tao Healing Arts Institute in Santa Monica and conducted seminars and lectures on various Oriental Medicine subjects including therapeutics for sports and performing arts injuries.
Prior to his work in Oriental Medicine, Dr. Hirano served as a therapeutic residential program administrator and counselor, certified by the University of Southern California (U.S.C.) School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, Division of Social and Community Psychiatry and Rancho Los Amigos County Hospital. Although Dr. Hirano's martial arts started in 1960 with Judo, it wasn't until 1968 when he was first exposed to Ki/Qi training by his Shorinji-Kempo master, Reverend Yamamori of the Kongo Zen sect at Konko-kyo Buddhist Temple in East Los Angeles. By 1970, his training continued with Grandmaster Kam Yuen and later with Grandmaster So Bin Yuen, both of the Northern Shaolin Kung-fu method. He then continued his studies with grandmaster Soke Takayuki Kubota and earned the title “Kyoshi”, 7th Dan Black Belt of Gosoku-ryu Karate. It was there he learned Soke's method of ki (Qi) development, “Mu ga Mushin no Do”. Dr. Hirano integrated Qi-Kung from martial arts and Chinese traditional medicine however it was by the genius of his sifu, Dr. Kam Yuen that revolutionized his energy work with modern physics. This was a catalyst to further advance and integrate it all to become the Shen-Kung he developed and practices today.
Although medicine and martial arts may seem to be very contradictory activities, Dr. Hirano explains that "the opposing nature of the healing arts and martial arts represents the fundamental 'Yin-Yang' nature of life and becomes a means to develop a holistic understanding of self and the Universe in which we live."
In fact, it was in this context that Dr. Hirano began to comprehend the living dynamics of energy in relation to thoughts, emotions, spirituality and its physical expressions and manifestations to one’s health. As a result, he is able to offer a unique skill in associating medical conditions to his patients' life experiences. His diagnosis of medical conditions reflects the relationship and interplay between the way that patients process their life experiences and the resulting physical manifestations and ailments.
Dr. Hirano also has extensive knowledge and experience in the setting of bones and the re-alignment of the vertebral column. He has developed his own special method of spinal correction, "Hirano Myo-Osteo Technique" (HMOT) ™ and has introduced his unique and effective therapeutics and structural interpretation skills in his professional seminar "Demystifying Pain."
He has also integrated Qi and Shen-Kung therapeutics into many aspects of his clinical work. In his Hirano Shen-Kung seminars, formally Modern Medical Qi-Kung, Dr. Hirano shares his updated understanding of Qi and teaches the basics of his techniques. His intermediate course concentrates on clinical applications, and the advanced course focuses on special chronic and advance degenerative conditions.
