Seitai Acupuncture

09/03/2026

Sometimes the hardest part of treatment is knowing when not to do more.

In Japanese acupuncture, I often reassess after a small intervention. If the pulse changes, the tension softens, movement improves, or the body is already responding, I may stop there.

More needles do not automatically mean better treatment.

I’d rather do less, check carefully, and only add what seems necessary.

If you’ve been curious about a gentler, more precise approach to acupuncture, call the office and tell me what’s been going on.

Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
718-265-7711

09/01/2026

Today is the day.

Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever is now available on Amazon.

I’ve spent a long time with this book—reading, checking sources, rewriting, questioning things I thought I understood, and sometimes changing my mind completely.

Tōdō was not an easy physician to write about. He was brilliant, difficult, provocative, and often uncompromising. But that is exactly what made him so interesting. The deeper I went into his medicine, the more the book became about something larger than history: how physicians think, how experience can help us, and how easily it can also mislead us.

I’m very curious to see how practitioners, students, and readers of Japanese medicine respond to him.

For now, I’m just happy that the book is finally out in the world.

Available today on Amazon.

If you read it, I’d genuinely like to hear what you think.

Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Forever

08/31/2026

“Why are you treating my ankle when my shoulder is the problem?”

It’s a fair question.

In Japanese acupuncture, I don’t always begin where it hurts. Sometimes the painful area is already irritated enough. Sometimes another part of the body gives me a clearer place to start.

So I may check the pulse, abdomen, forearm, lower leg, or foot first. Then I treat a small area and check again.

Maybe the shoulder moves a little easier. Maybe the tension has changed. Sometimes I notice it in the pulse before the patient notices anything at all.

That reassessment matters to me. I don’t want to keep adding needles just because I can.

Sometimes the best treatment is surprisingly small.

If you’ve been dealing with pain that keeps coming back, or you’ve tried treating only the painful area without much lasting change, give me a call. Tell me what’s been going on and we can talk about whether this approach makes sense for you.

Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
718-265-7711

You don’t have to know anything about acupuncture before you call. That part is my job.

08/27/2026

A lot of people come to me after weeks—or months—of saying, “It’ll probably go away.”

Sometimes it does. Sometimes the neck keeps tightening, sleep gets worse, or the same problem keeps returning.

When someone comes in, I don’t begin by deciding which acupuncture point matches the symptom. I usually want to know more. I check the pulse, examine the abdomen, look at where the body is holding tension, and then decide what seems necessary.

Japanese acupuncture can be very gentle. Sometimes only a few needles are used, followed by another look at what actually changed.

If something has been bothering you and you keep putting it off, call me and tell me what is going on. You don’t need to know whether acupuncture is right for you before you call. We can figure that out together.

📍 Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
📞 718-265-7711

08/25/2026

One thing I find interesting about Yoshimasu Tōdō is how little patience he had for explanations that did not help at the bedside.

A theory could sound impressive. A classical text could carry enormous authority. But if it did not match what he was seeing in the patient, he was willing to question it.

That is part of what made him so unusual.

He wanted the physician to look carefully, feel carefully, prescribe carefully — and then pay attention to what actually happened.

In that sense, Tōdō feels surprisingly modern.

Not because he rejected tradition, but because he refused to let tradition do the thinking for him.

From Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever
Boris Shapiro, L.Ac., MSTOM

08/24/2026

People sometimes ask me about the things in my office.

The masks. The lanterns. The Japanese artwork. The books, the herbs, the small objects that have slowly found their place over the years.

None of them are there because I wanted the clinic to look “Japanese.”

They are there because Japanese medicine has been part of my life for a long time. I studied it, practiced it, argued with it, changed my mind about parts of it—and kept learning from it.

I like being surrounded by reminders of where the work came from.

But when a patient walks into the room, all of that moves into the background.

Then the important thing is much simpler:

What is happening with this person today?

What has changed?

What is the body telling me that the words may not be telling me yet?

The room has its history.

The treatment belongs to the person in front of me.

If you’ve been curious about Japanese acupuncture, you’re welcome to come see the space—and experience the medicine behind it.

📍 Seitai Acupuncture, Staten Island
📞 718-265-7711
🌐 Acuseitai.com

08/21/2026

Japanese medicine, right here on Staten Island.

You don’t have to travel far to experience a quieter, more individualized approach to care.

At Seitai Acupuncture, treatment may include Japanese acupuncture, Kampo herbal medicine, Shiatsu, and Seitai—used according to the person in front of me, not just the name of the complaint.

Some people come because of pain. Others because of stress, poor sleep, digestive problems, headaches, or simply because they feel that something is “off” and want a more careful look at the whole picture.

My goal is simple: listen closely, examine carefully, and choose only what seems necessary.

If you’ve been thinking about trying Japanese acupuncture, this may be a good time to stop wondering and come see what the experience is actually like.

📍 Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
📞 718-265-7711
🌐 Acuseitai.com

Staten Island is home. Japanese medicine is the method. Personalized care is the point.

08/19/2026

One of the strange things about clinical experience is that success can become a problem.

Something works. Maybe it is a formula, a point combination, a certain abdominal finding. You remember it because the result was good.

Then the next patient comes in, and without noticing it, you begin looking for the same thing again.

I kept thinking about this while writing about Yoshimasu Tōdō.

He was difficult, controversial, and sometimes far more certain than I would ever want to be. But one part of his medicine still feels very alive to me: his insistence that the physician return to what is actually there.

The abdomen. The symptoms. The strength of the patient. The response to treatment.

Not the theory we hoped would fit.

I started this book because I wanted to understand an eighteenth-century Japanese physician better. Somewhere along the way, it became a book about clinical judgment too.

About how experience helps us—and how easily it can trap us.

That was not really what I expected when I began writing it.

Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever will be coming soon.

I’m curious to see what other practitioners make of him.

08/17/2026

Why does the same treatment help one person—and do almost nothing for another?

Because the symptom is only part of the story.

Two people may both complain of headaches, bloating, fatigue, poor sleep, or digestive discomfort. But in Kampo, those symptoms do not automatically lead to the same herbal formula.

We look deeper.

Is the person tense or depleted? Hot or cold? Is appetite strong or weak? Does stress aggravate the problem? Is there abdominal resistance, weakness, fullness, or tenderness? What happens to sleep, energy, digestion, or mood when the main symptom changes?

Those details can completely change the treatment.

This is why Kampo is not “one herb for one symptom.” The goal is to understand the pattern behind the complaint and choose treatment for the individual in front of us.

If you have been dealing with a problem that keeps returning—or treatments seem to help only temporarily—it may be worth looking at the larger picture.

Call our Staten Island office and tell us what has been going on. We’ll help you decide whether Japanese acupuncture, Kampo, or a combination may be appropriate for you.

📍 Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
📞 718-265-7711
🌐 Acuseitai.com

08/14/2026

You don’t have to wait until your body is shouting to pay attention to it.

Maybe the pain keeps coming back. Maybe sleep has become lighter, your neck or back never quite lets go, digestion feels off, or stress seems to live in your body even when the day is over.

This is where I begin—not by chasing one symptom, but by looking at the whole pattern.

At Seitai Acupuncture, I use Japanese acupuncture, Kampo, Shiatsu, and Seitai to create treatment around the person in front of me. The approach is careful, individualized, and often much gentler than people expect.

If you’ve been thinking about acupuncture but keep telling yourself, “I’ll deal with it later,” consider this your reminder.

Call me. Tell me what has been bothering you. We’ll decide together whether this approach makes sense for you.

📍 Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305
📞 718-265-7711
🌐 Acuseitai.com

Appointments available in Staten Island.