Lives and practices in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and is an Associate Professor with the Kristiania University College acupuncture school in Norway. He began studying acupuncture in 1980, first learning two Chinese styles of acupuncture (including TCM) and then began working with Kiiko Matsumoto, co-authoring three books with her (including Extraordinary Vessels and Hara Diagnosis). In 1986 he began studying in Japan, first with Yoshio Manaka co-authoring his book Chasing the Dragon’s Tail. He then started studying Toyohari – Meridian Therapy in 1988 with Kodo Fukushima, Toshio Yanagishita, Akihiro Takai and many other Toyohari teachers. He has practiced Japanese acupuncture exclusively since 1982. Today he is the most senior Toyohari practitioner outside Japan and has taught in 23 programs in Europe and the ongoing/postponed program in Israel. He also teaches Meridian Therapy, Manaka system and Shonishin extensively around Europe and occasionally in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South America and Israel. He has been involved in scientific research on acupuncture for around 30 years with a PhD focussing on trial methodologies. He is active along several scientific fronts and has tracked the scholarly literatures on acupuncture for more than 30 years. He has written 8 books (including Understanding Acupuncture, Japanese Acupuncture, Shonishin, Restoring Order in Health and Chinese Medicine), dozens of scientific papers and dozens of clinical-scholarly papers. While Stephen Birch mostly teaches hands-on practical workshops, this lecture-only based teaching will draw from his scientific, academic and clinical studies. It should be informative providing insight into chronic pain patient treatment and management with acupuncture and insight into how Toyohari is used for this.