Toyohari is a very gentle yet powerful style of acupuncture derived from classical Chinese acupuncture methods. Its gentle approach, which particularly emphasises touch, has been developed in Japan where acupuncture has been uniquely influenced by a more than three-hundred year old tradition of blind acupuncturists.
After taking your medical history, the decisions of what to treat are arrived at through light palpation of the body, including palpating the meridians on the limbs, regions of the abdomen and feeling the pulse at the wrists. The information gathered from these methods allows judgement of what meridians need to be treated and with which techniques.
Treatment is applied in two parts. In the first, Toyohari is applied to treat you, to improve your ability to self heal. Here the focus in diagnosis is to assess the overall condition and to determine what are the optimal meridians, points and techniques to help balance the body by ‘regulating the qi’. This is accomplished by identifying which meridians are weak and strengthening them and which are disturbed and applying from among a range of techniques to correct them. The goal is to correct disharmonies among the meridians so that they are more balanced (the qi is thus regulated). For this, the most important part of Toyohari treatment, the needles are usually not inserted, as sophisticated, subtle and yet difficult techniques are applied. This makes the treatment methods for you as a patient, easy to deal with, even by those of you who are uncomfortable with being ‘needled’. It is also very suitable for children (see link below).
Once the first part of the treatment is completed, the second part is applied. Here the symptoms are targeted by choosing from a variety of techniques depending on the nature and location of the symptoms. Some of these methods are unique to Toyohari and some are in routine use in the practice of acupuncture in Japan. Here needles are often, but not necessarily inserted. The traditional method of moxibustion may be applied.
These two treatment aspects are used together on most patients, as they say in Japan, like two wheels on an axle, it allows the cart to move easily. But there are special cases where only the first treatment approach may be used, when for example helping prepare for surgery or for example helping get stronger before starting cancer treatment at the hospital.
Toyohari can be used to help treat all sorts of health conditions. It can be especially beneficial through its focus on regulating the body and by the way it enhances the body‘s vitality and balances the meridians, which in turn is said to help regulate the functional systems in the body, like the lugs, stomach, musculoskeletal system etc.
Toyohari can also be helpful when treating children.
Toyohari Techniques
Applying Contact needle technique
Practitioner performing abdominal palpation diagnosis
Chinetskyu technique balancing the Qi