Dr. Stephen Birch PhD

Began studying acupuncture in 1980 with Tin Yau So and Ted Kaptchuk in Boston. He then worked with Kiiko Matsumoto and co-authored three books with her. In 1986 he began studying in Japan, first with Yoshio Manaka co-authoring his book for him. He then started studying Toyohari – Meridian Therapy in 1988 with Kodo Fukushima, Toshio Yanagishita, Akihiro Takai and many other Meridian Therapy teachers including Denmei Shudo.

Dr Birch has practiced Japanese acupuncture exclusively since 1982. Today he is the most senior Toyohari practitioner outside Japan and has taught in 20 programs in Europe. He also teaches Meridian Therapy, Manaka system, and Shonishin extensively around Europe and occasionally in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South America, and Israel. He started working in research in the late 1980s and completed his Ph.D. in 1997. He is actively involved in research on acupuncture along several scientific fronts and has tracked the scholarly literature on acupuncture for more than 30 years. He has written 8 books, dozens of scientific papers and dozens of clinical-scholarly papers. Although he’s a bit nerdy at times….he’s a pretty nice chap.