Jeffrey Dann

Jeffrey Dann, PhD, LAc is a member of what we might call North American Chinese Medicine generation 1.0 (i.e. he was in that early group of intrepid pioneers that established our profession). After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in medical anthropology (he studied the healing traditions associated with the martial arts in Japan—he achieved fourth dan in kendo himself), he went on to study acupuncture. He was in the first group of Westerners to study in Beijing with Wang Ju-Yi. When Dr. Wang celebrated his 50th anniversary in clinical practice some years ago, Jeffrey was the only Westerner invited to present, outside of Dr. Wang’s core group of students. He was then invited the following year for a 3-day presentation at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, demonstrating his structural approach—called Koshi Balancing—to Channel Theory. In his presentation he reintroduced to the Chinese audience, the classical, non-insertive tool called the teishin (dizhen/tizhen in Chinese) and discussed how it was developed in Japan as a contemporary addition to Chinese practice.

Jeffrey is a former editor of the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine and has published some of his scholarly work there. He has taught internationally, as well as all over the US. He regularly teaches in various DAOM programs. Jeffrey’s novel Koshi Balancing style of treatment is a fusion of Japanese bodywork systems including Sotai with osteopathic manual techniques. It is an approach with a central focus on the Shao Yang as a pivot for a structural appreciation of classical energetics.