Information about home therapy and special offers in our acupuncture clinic
12/02/2024
Open this Wednesday
At Cozy Acupuncture, we understand that finding the right time for your health and beauty needs can be challenging. That's why we're excited to let you know that we'll be open this Wednesday, in addition to our usual Friday, Sunday, and Monday schedule.
If it’s more convenient for you to visit us on Wednesday, we encourage you to book your appointment online or reach out directly. I'm here to help you experience the calming and rejuvenating benefits of acupuncture for your well-being. Don’t miss this opportunity to prioritize your health and enhance your beauty in a serene environment.
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I'm Ichiro Shoji, a licensed Acupuncturist in MA. I graduated from the New England School of Acupuncture in Watertown (now in Newton), MA.
In most acupuncture schools, only Chinese Acupuncture is usually taught, which forms the image of acupuncture that a lot of needles are sticking out from the body, but in the acupuncture school I went to, Japanese Acupuncture was also taught. When I was 1st year student, one Japanese acupuncturist visited our school and showed a demonstration of his treatment. A student who had shoulder pain became a model patient of his treatment. I was shocked by watching the Japanese acupuncturist's treatment, because it was totally different from what I had learned at the school. He didn't insert any needles into the model patient's skin and treated him like playing a piano on his body, but after the treatment, the student's shoulder pain was gone.
Since I saw the demonstration, I was so interested in this style of acupuncture that I ordered some books about this style of acupuncture from Japan and then I found out that there was an acupuncturist who was practicing the same style of acupuncture and was also teaching at the school. I started visiting his clinic and observing his treatments as an assistant once a week, and then when I was 2nd year student, I decided to start studying Traditional Japanese Acupuncture as an apprentice of the teacher, Koei Kuwahara who was an apprentice of the founder of Toyo Hari in Japan, Kodo Fukushima.
I started living in my teacher's house to learn what to do, what to eat to be an acupuncturist. So I could learn about macrobiotics a lot. The life as an apprentice started at 6 am in the morning so I had to get up at 5 to 5:30 am and went to the clinic before 6 am. Our morning started with chanting and Aikido or Qi-gong exercise. On weekdays, I worked at the clinic and on weekends, I attended my teacher's acupuncture courses as an assistant teacher. Once a week we had a half day practice at the clinic. We practiced what we had learned on another apprentice or an acupuncturist attending the practice. We treated each other with my teacher checking the movement of the pulse of the model patient. The apprenticeship lasted 5 years.
I learned a kind of Japanese acupuncture called Meridian Therapy during my apprenticeship. The characteristic of Meridian Therapy is that Pulse diagnosis plays a very important role to decide how and what to treat. So I saw a lot of patients' pulses and learned about the pulse during the apprenticeship. In Meridian Therapy, the needle techniques are gentle and most needles are just touching the skin, yet effective on a deep level. When I was an apprentice, I was using a needle made of silver, which was a regular sharp needle. Now I use mainly round-tip needles which are gentler.
In my practice, in addition to the pulse diagnosis, I also focus on the abdominal diagnosis because various signs such as pain, tightness or uncomfortable feeling appear when it is pressed, which are related to the patient's condition, and I try to make these signs disappear by the treatment since it leads to the improvement of the patient's condition.
This treatment approach is applicable for a wide range of patients, from young children to the elderly because the treatment is PAINLESS.
