Stephen Brown LAc

Stephen Brown, L Ac. graduated from Japan Central Acupuncture College in Tokyo in 1983.  He is licensed to practice shiatsu, acupuncture, and moxibustion in Japan. He studied qigong and acupuncture in Beijing, PRC for three months early in 1984. He returned to Japan afterward and continued his studies in Sotai and Zen Shiatsu. In this period Stephen co-authored Chigong for Health with Masaru Takahashi and also translated the texts Sotai: Balance and Health Through Natural Movement, by Hashimoto Keizo MD and Meridian Exercises, by Masunaga Shizuto.

Stephen began his teaching career in 1985 as an instructor for the International Acupuncture Training Program of Kuretake Institute in Tokyo. He moved to the Seattle area in 1986, where he joined the faculty of the Northwest Institute of Oriental Medicine, and has been teaching and practicing shiatsu and acupuncture around Seattle ever since.  Stephen is currently a core faculty member of Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine, where he teaches shiatsu, Sotai, Japanese styles of acupuncture and moxibustion and supervises these clinics.

His first translation of a Japanese acupuncture text was Introduction to Meridian Therapy by Shudo Denmei, which was published in 1990. Shudo Denmei has comes to teach in the US ten times since 1992, and Stephen has served as his interpreter every time. He translated Shudo Denmei’s second book, Finding Effective Acupuncture Points, and it was published in 2003. In addition to assisting his teacher, Shudo Denmei, Stephen has interpreted for many prominent acupuncture teachers visiting from Japan. Stephen is a also the founding member of the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine, a journal devoted to traditional Japanese medicine, and serves its assistant editor.

In addition to his expertise in Japanese acupuncture and moxibusion, Stephen is a practitioner and teacher of traditional exercises for health including yoga, taichi, sotai, and qigong. Stephen encourages all his students and patients to practice some form of qi exercises because he believes methods of qi cultivation are as important as any healing touch, acupuncture, herbs or other medical intervention. Being a native speaker of Japanese Stephen continues to serve as a conduit for information on healing and self-transformation between Japan and the US.