Seitai Acupuncture

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Seitai Acupuncture "It's your life, live it in health" We accept:
Aetna
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Cigna
United Health Care

Locations:

Staten Island:
1658 Hylan Blvd
Staten Island, NY 10305
347-861-0909

Brooklyn:
174 Bay 29th st
Brooklyn, NY 11214
718-265-7711


Through successful use of acupuncture, kampo (Japanese herbs), and Seitai massage, the leading health professionals at Seitai Acupuncture are dedicated to helping you achieve your wellness objectives.

Knowing the formulas is one thing. Knowing which one belongs to the patient in front of you is another.The old Japanese ...
10/13/2026

Knowing the formulas is one thing. Knowing which one belongs to the patient in front of you is another.

The old Japanese pharmacy in this image is full of drawers, bottles, containers, and possibilities. I like it because it captures something that is easy to forget when we study Kampo: having many formulas available does not make the clinical decision easier.

Tōdō pushed attention away from simply building a theoretical explanation and then choosing a prescription that seemed to fit. He was much more interested in the relationship between the formula and the actual presentation in front of him—the shō 證.

That does not mean “one symptom = one formula.” Quite the opposite. The same complaint could lead to very different choices depending on the rest of the picture: strength or weakness, tension or softness, appetite, stool, temperature, abdominal findings, and the way the illness was actually showing itself.

I think this is one of the places where Kampo can be misunderstood. A formula is not just something attached to a diagnosis or a symptom name. It has to fit the patient.

The more I worked on Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever, the more I realized that this way of thinking was one of the most important things he left behind.

For practitioners here: what do you think gets lost when shō is reduced to a checklist?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7XW1HRH/

Life can get very loud.Treatment doesn’t have to be.Sometimes slowing things down is where change begins.Seitai Acupunct...
10/12/2026

Life can get very loud.
Treatment doesn’t have to be.

Sometimes slowing things down is where change begins.

Seitai Acupuncture

There is something about making tea slowly that changes the pace of a room.You stop. You pay attention. The water, the c...
10/08/2026

There is something about making tea slowly that changes the pace of a room.

You stop. You pay attention. The water, the cup, the movement of the hands. For a few minutes, nothing needs to be rushed.

I think good treatment can feel a little like that.

Japanese medicine has always taught me to pay attention to small changes. The pulse under the fingers. The tension in the abdomen. The way someone breathes when they finally settle into the table. Acupuncture is not meditation, and tea is not medicine, but they can share the same quality of attention.

A quieter moment can make it easier to notice what is actually happening.

Sometimes people come in carrying more than pain. Poor sleep, stress, tension, worry, a mind that has been running all day. I cannot make life outside the treatment room disappear. But I can create a place where we slow things down, examine carefully, and give the body a chance to respond without adding more noise.

That calm is not the whole treatment.

But sometimes it is where the treatment begins.

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

One of the things that stayed with me while writing about Yoshimasu Tōdō was how important the physician’s hand became.T...
10/06/2026

One of the things that stayed with me while writing about Yoshimasu Tōdō was how important the physician’s hand became.

The abdomen was not just something to ask about. It was something to examine.

You pressed. You compared. You noticed where the body resisted, where it softened, where there was tension, tenderness, pulsation, or a different quality under the hand. Those findings became part of the clinical picture.

I find that interesting because it changes the relationship between theory and the patient. You can have an explanation in your head, but once your hands are on the abdomen, the body may give you a different answer.

That was part of Tōdō’s appeal and also part of what made him controversial. He wanted the physician to pay very close attention to what could actually be found in front of him.

Not just what the books said should be there.

I spent a lot of time with this while writing Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever.

For me, it is one of the most memorable parts of his medicine: the hand was not just touching the patient. It was helping the physician think.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7XW1HRH/

For practitioners here: how much does abdominal diagnosis influence what you decide to do?

Some of the most useful parts of a visit happen before I do anything.A patient is talking, and I’m listening to the word...
10/02/2026

Some of the most useful parts of a visit happen before I do anything.

A patient is talking, and I’m listening to the words, but also to the little things around them. What changed since last time? What didn’t? What are they worried about? What almost gets mentioned and then disappears?

Over the years I’ve learned that it’s easy to get ahead of yourself. You hear something familiar, a pattern comes to mind, and you start thinking you know where the visit is going.

Sometimes I’m right.

Sometimes I’m not.

So I try not to rush that part. I listen a little longer, look a little closer, and ask one more question before deciding what to do.

For me, that is part of the treatment too.

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

The more I researched Yoshimasu Tōdō, the less interested I became in defending him.The photograph here shows a small st...
09/29/2026

The more I researched Yoshimasu Tōdō, the less interested I became in defending him.

The photograph here shows a small stone marker in Kyoto at the site where Tōdō once lived. The inscription identifies it as the residence site of the renowned physician Yoshimasu Tōdō. I like this image because there is nothing heroic about it. No grand portrait. No dramatic monument. Just a stone beside a fence, marking the place where a real physician lived, treated patients, argued with accepted ideas, and developed a reputation that would last long after his death.

And the real Tōdō was much more complicated than the reputation.

He could be brilliant, stubborn, extreme, and sometimes far too uncompromising. There were parts of his thinking that I admired immediately, and others where I found myself disagreeing with him quite strongly.

That actually made him more interesting to write about.

I stopped trying to make him into someone we should simply admire. I became more interested in what he saw clearly, what he challenged successfully, and where his own certainty may have taken him too far.

For me, that is why historical physicians are worth reading. Not because we should copy them, but because they can still make us question the way we practice today.

That is the Tōdō I tried to write about in Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7XW1HRH/

If you’ve studied Tōdō before, I’d be interested to hear where you think he went too far.

The second visit is often more interesting than the first.By then, we know how your body responded. Maybe the pain chang...
09/28/2026

The second visit is often more interesting than the first.

By then, we know how your body responded. Maybe the pain changed. Maybe sleep was better. Maybe something unexpected improved.

That gives us useful information.

I don’t automatically repeat the first treatment. I check again and adjust if needed.

For me, acupuncture is not a fixed routine. It is a process of watching what changes and deciding what comes next.

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

Feel Better NaturallyRelief • Calm • Better Sleep • Less StressSeitai Acupuncture1666 Hylan Blvd718-265-7711
09/24/2026

Feel Better Naturally
Relief • Calm • Better Sleep • Less Stress

Seitai Acupuncture
1666 Hylan Blvd
718-265-7711

What interested me most about Yoshimasu Tōdō was not simply that he was a famous Kampo physician. It was the way he ques...
09/22/2026

What interested me most about Yoshimasu Tōdō was not simply that he was a famous Kampo physician. It was the way he questioned the medicine around him.

He was working in a world where classical explanations carried enormous authority. If an idea had been repeated for generations, that alone could give it weight. Tōdō was willing to challenge that. He kept coming back to a very practical question: does this explanation actually help me understand the patient in front of me?

That question sounds simple, but I don’t think it is. Once we have studied a system for years, it becomes very easy to see the patient through that system. We recognize a familiar pattern, a favorite formula, an explanation that has worked before, and sometimes we stop noticing what does not fit.

While writing the book, I found myself agreeing with Tōdō in some places and arguing with him in others. I don’t think he was right about everything, and that actually made him more interesting to write about. He forces you to think about where theory helps, where it gets in the way, and how much confidence we should place in what we think we already know.

That problem feels very modern to me. The patient is still sitting in front of us, and sometimes the patient does not cooperate with the explanation we had in mind.

That tension is one of the main themes in Yoshimasu Tōdō: The Physician Who Changed Kampo Medicine Forever.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7XW1HRH/

I’m curious how other practitioners think about this. Have you ever had a patient make you completely rethink what you thought was going on?

Sometimes it feels like the body is carrying everything at once.Work. Deadlines. Poor sleep. Too much thinking. Tight sh...
09/20/2026

Sometimes it feels like the body is carrying everything at once.

Work. Deadlines. Poor sleep. Too much thinking. Tight shoulders. A mind that doesn’t really switch off even when the day is over.

You can’t erase real life. But sometimes you can give the body a chance to come down a little.

That’s one of the things I appreciate about acupuncture. The treatment doesn’t have to be dramatic. Sometimes a quiet room, careful assessment, and a few well-chosen points are enough to help someone feel less wound up and more settled.

Not perfect. Not magically fixed.

Just a little less noise.

If stress has been showing up in your body lately, call the office and tell me what’s been going on.

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

Address

1666 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island, NY
10305

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 8pm
Tuesday 11am - 8pm
Wednesday 11am - 8pm
Thursday 11am - 8pm

Telephone

+17182657711

Website

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