Jeffrey Dann PhD, LAc
Jeffrey has been an educator and community health practitioner for over 40 years.
Graduating Dartmouth College in 1964 majoring in anthropology and pre-med, he went on to do medical anthropology work at the University of Washington in Seattle. His master’s thesis was on Native American culture of urban drinking and off reservation inter-ethnic relations (1967). He then switched focus to body-mind wellness in the Japanese martial arts and spent 3 years doing fieldwork in Japan. During this time he achieved the ranks of yondan (4thdegree(black belt in kendo, nidan (2nd degree) in iaido, and shodan (1st degree) in naginata. He also studied Seitai ho shiatsu with Miyata Tomei, 7th degree kendo black belt in Mito, Ibaraki prefecture, and eclectic shiatsu with KamijoHideyaki of the Kyoto Tenrikyo Church. He completed his doctorate in 1978 and returned to his home in Hawaii where he was an adjunct faculty professor in Anthropology at the University of Hawaii Hilo Campus (UHHC) until 1985.
In the early 1980’s Jeffrey, made a midlife career change and went to formally study acupuncture. He studied with RhadaThamburajah in Colombo Sri Lanka, Gary Butt in Hong Kong, and Wang Ju-Yi in Beijing China. He also travelled through Japan as a ronin acupuncture – body worker explorer, studying from whoever he could gain access to their clinics. He graduated from the AmerAsian School of Oriental Medicine in Honolulu in 1984. Since 1997 he has been a certified shiatsu instructor for the American Oriental Body Worker Therapy Association (AOBTA).
Based on his schooling in Hawaii, he found the level of licensed acupuncturists in Hawaii to be disappointing.Despite the lack of mandated continuing education credits, he joined forces with Dr. Chieko Maekawa and for 15 years was the president of the Traditional Japanese Acupuncture Foundation (Hawaii). Under this banner, Jeffrey helped bring the leading Japanese acupuncturists to the United States, including Shudo Denmei, Masakatsu Ikeda, Mizutani Junji, Matsumoto Kiiko, and Sorimachi Dai-itchi. During these years in Hawaii he was a co-owner of the Hilo School of Massage, chief instructor in the Pahoa Kendo Kai, and originator of Hilo Natural Foods, and medical director of the East-West Clinic in Keaau Hawaii.
During the last 15 years Jeffrey has been living and practicing in Boulder Colorado, where he is director of the Aloha Wellness Associates clinic. For 5 seasons he has been group facilitator with Stephen Brown to bring international acupuncturists to Japan for advanced training in Japanese styles of Acupuncture and moxibustion.
Jeffrey has maintained an active teaching schedule. For the past 10 years he has taught courses on Japanese acupuncture to the Istanbul Turkish Medical Acupuncture Association. He has taught his unique style of structural acupuncture based on his years of studying a variety of Japanese manual medicine and acupuncture styles. This has been deepened by his continued study of Osteopathic manual medicine, particularly John Pierre Barrall’s Visceral Manipulation. Jeffrey’s courses have been in demand and he has done 60-hour programs for the Santa Fe High Desert Hari Society and the Portland TJM seminars. Jeffrey has been the editor and frequent author of the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine.
On a personal level, Jeffrey has been interested in movement therapy and somatic psychology and has been an active participant in contact Improv, Authentic Movement, as well as Gabriel Roth’s 5 Rhythm work.