A Day to Explore the Yin-Yang of the Teishin and Other Tools

with Bob Quinn, DAOM, L.Ac. and colleagues

Saturday, May 25th, 2024 at OCOM
9am to 5pm, Pacific Time

The bird’s flight erases East and West.

The teishin is a curiosity in the world of TCM. It is a classical tool, one of the nine classical needle types mentioned in our foundational texts, but the level of stimulation that is commonly employed with the teishin leaves us grasping for an explanation for how such a minimal impulse can bring meaningful change for a patient—and yet again and again it does indeed deliver the goods, we might say. Properly understood the teishin is a revolutionary, or perhaps better expressed, an evolutionary tool when brought into our practices. Let’s call it (r)evolutionary.

Bob Quinn is the author of the only book we have at present in the English language that deals with the teishin and some of its uses—A User’s Guide to the Teishin and Enshin: A Quiet Revolution in Traditional East Asian Medicine.
In this seminar Bob Quinn will present some gentle techniques he has not taught before, and he will also present the work of Dr. Hiroshi Nagata, a neurosurgeon from Wakayama, Japan. Dr. Nagata’s work, which he calls PNST (Prickling Neuro-Stimulation Technique), might also be called yang teishin work, i.e., the technique is more stimulating than other teishin techniques. In 2019 Dr. Nagata has asked Bob to spread his work in North America. At the end of the seminar, participants will be equipped to work both gently and in a more stimulating manner.


Dr. Nagata designed a teishin-like tool that we call a Neuroban in English (chiku chiku ban ban in Japanese). He chooses to work with the map of the nervous system (for the most part) rather than the channel networks of Chinese Medicine, but his technique can be easily adapted to be used in a Chinese Medicine way. In this seminar we will explore his main techniques and way of working. One advantage of the PNST system is that treatment can be given in a very short time.


In addition, Bob will present a Fascial Listen and Follow technique developed by Jeffrey Dann, Ph.D. in his Koshi-Balancing style. (Jeffrey translates koshi as “greater lumbar-pelvic center”.) This technique is particularly helpful in the shaoyang zone but can be used anywhere on the body.


The enshin will also be addressed in this seminar. In particular Bob will show a tapping technique that he learned from Iwashina Anryu Sensei (aka Dr. Bear). Dr. Bear was still working on refining this technique and never taught it in his seminars, but he shared it with Bob in his last visit to Portland. It is used only in the abdomen and lumbar area. Since 2019 Bob has been using this technique in his practice and finds it a valuable tool to have in his toolkit.


For those who do not own a teishin or enshin or Neuroban, tools will be available for purchase at reduced prices. Bob’s book will also be available. Payment can be made in cash, check, Venmo, or PayPal. All proceeds from tuition go to OCOM as a fundraiser.


About the teacher: Bob Quinn is a former OCOM and NUNM instructor. Bob has pioneered work in Sotai, taking a gentle bodywork style to even gentler realms—he calls his work Yin Sotai. He has also worked with Jeffrey Dann to spread the Koshi-Balancing style of acupuncture in North America and Europe. He and Ryan Milley have operated Portland Traditional Japanese Medicine Seminars since 2007, hosting in that time more than 80 seminars with Japanese and North American masters of acupuncture, moxa, herbal medicine, dreamwork, bodywork, and teishin. This has afforded Bob the opportunity to be mentored by such notable teachers as Dr. Bear (Iwashina Anryu Sensei), Jeffrey Dann, Ph.D., L.Ac., and Junji Mizutani, L.Ac. His main teishin influences include Dr. Bear, Jeffrey Dann, Kuwahara Koei Sensei, Funamizu Takahiro Sensei, and Kobayashi Shoji Sensei. In 2019 he traveled to Japan to study closely with Dr. Nagata Hiroshi, the MD who developed the PNST method. Bob had helped him edit his book in English and became fascinated with Dr. Nagata’s ideas.

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