My mission is the same as Professor Hoshino's:
To help people be physically independent and able to do what they love as long as possible. It is because of Hoshino Therapy® that I am able to work as hard as I do and enjoy my favorite activities such as contra dancing, surfing and hiking. In the past, when I danced, I suffered from dizziness, but this is no longer a problem, and I attribute this to what I have learned from Hoshino and the Hoshino Clinic in Miami.
As a Registered Nurse for 23 years, I loved my role as patient advocate and caregiver, and always strived to make my patients’ experiences as positive, comfortable, and safe as possible. I worked in many different specialty areas, including cardiology, orthopedics, labor and delivery, maternity, pediatrics, psychiatry, oncology, and ambulatory surgery. However, I knew from the outset that I was looking for some unique area of healthcare that would have deep personal meaning to me as well as to my clients.
I learned about Hoshino Therapy® in 1977 just as I was beginning my nursing career. As soon as I began working full-time as a staff nurse on a busy hospital ward, I developed serious foot and neck problems. Just before this I had the great fortune to meet a student of Professor Hoshino, Bodhi F. Kocica, who has been director of the Hoshino Therapy Clinic of Miami, Inc. since the early 1980’s. Bodhi helped me to resolve my physical complaints and taught me how to maintain my healthy state to this day. I was fascinated by the power of this manual technique and started spending time at the clinic, helping out part-time while continuing to work in the hospital.
The experience in the late 1970’s of comparing the treatment of acute low back pain in the two very different settings was an exciting eye-opener for me. In one hospital I worked on a unit with many young adults who were admitted with a diagnosis of "acute low back pain," none caused by direct trauma to the low back. All testing and treatments focused on the area of pain or adjacent to the area of pain, and all involved medication. At the Hoshino Therapy® Clinic, I observed similarly acute cases of back pain, but Hoshino and his students focused their attention on evaluating and changing the condition and functioning of the soft tissues and joints of the feet and legs. The results I saw were dramatically different, showing how dysfunction in the support structures could lead to pain in the hips or back. I was thrilled to be able to learn such an effective and safe technique, and in 1982 I decided that I would study Hoshino Therapy®.
Hoshino Therapy® is based on the idea that every part of the body’s musculo-skeletal system has its own unique part to play, not only in terms of movement, but also in the absorption of the vibration, or shock wave, that courses through the body with any action or sustained effort. If any one part does not fully perform its role because of disease, injury, overuse, or genetic predisposition, then other areas are forced to take over, or compensate, leading to pain, numbness and other uncomfortable symptoms and disability. My own physical discomforts, I learned, were the result of genetic predisposition in combination with overuse of some areas of my body and underuse of other areas. With the help of the manual technique and the exercises prescribed for my situation, I was able to resolve my symptoms and keep myself pain-free, injury-free, and able to enjoy my favorite activities and work hard in the stressful hospital environment.
As a nurse, I always loved empowering my patients with information they could use to help themselves.
Education about normal movement as “food for the muscles” is a key component of the Hoshino therapist’s treatment plan. The daily practice of simple, specific conditioning exercises is essential to maintain the healthy, resilient joint function that is fundamental to all of our daily activities. In my case, the Hoshino Therapy® sessions plus the exercises were key in resolving my neck and foot pain, as well as dizziness which at one time inhibited my enjoyment of dancing. These exercises and all of the pointers I learned from the Hoshino Clinic of Miami are geared toward "conditioning" the body, and this is what sets our program of care apart from most other exercise programs.
The “Posturcize™” exercise routine was developed by the Hoshino Clinic in Miami, and includes 4 unique exercises designed by Hoshino himself. Posturcize™ warms "conditioning" the tendons, muscles and ligaments. With regular practice, improves range of motion. See "About Posturcize™"for more info.
Self-help tools available at Hoshino Therapy® of Melbourne include:
~Posturcize™ and “Swimming Dragon Qi Gong” DVDs info
~Top quality custom arch correctors from a small, very experienced, Argentina-based company.
~The Hoshino “Back-to-Life Board”, a self-help tool for keeping the spine supple
As a nurse interested in real results, I love teaching and empowering my clients and students with simple, easy-to-do exercises and home remedies, and I invite anyone to contact me for more information or to sign up for my occasional e-mail notices of Posturcize™ classes and info-sharing, kept as brief as possible! Hoshino Therapy® and all the useful information that comes with it bring great hope to those who suffer from biomechanical problems, and I am very happy to share what I know and what I can do to help.
