Tatsuo Hirano, Doctor of Oriental Medicine (D.O.M.) and Licensed Acupuncturist (CA), has been involved with the healing arts for over thirty years. He earned his doctorate from SAMRA University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles, after previously receiving two Acupuncture degrees, from Quebec Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Montreal, Quebec and BAAANA Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in New York City.

Dr. Hirano did pioneering acupuncture clinical work in New York City at Lincoln Hospital in the seventies with the group that developed the public health acupuncture program for the treatment of narcotics addiction. That acupuncture therapeutic plan is now being employed in clinics and hospitals throughout the U.S. and the world.

After this six-year study and clinical program, he returned to Los Angeles and served as clinical director and Chi-kung and Anmo-Tuina teacher at SAMRA University. As a state certified instructor, Dr. Hirano also taught at the Tao Healing Arts Institute in Santa Monica and conducted seminars and lectures on various Oriental Medicine subjects including therapeutics for sports and performing arts injuries, which are among his practice specialties.

Dr. Hirano is a California Acupuncture Board approved Continuing Education Provider (CEP 331), and his professional education seminars are also approved for Professional Development Activity credit by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) (Provider ACHB 077). He has also been involved in integrative medicine seminars with doctors at UCLA School of Medicine as well as projects relating chi-kung and new physics research with professors at UCI.

Prior to his work in Oriental Medicine, Dr. Hirano served as a therapeutic residential program administrator and counselor, certified by the  University of Southern California (U.S.C.) School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, Division of Social and Community Psychiatry and Rancho Los Amigos County Hospital.

Born in Kumamoto, Japan and raised in Los Angeles, Dr. Hirano is also a martial artist and teacher, who began his training over forty years ago and still continues to train and as well as teach today.  Although he began with Judo at age 7 with Inouye Sensei of Senshin Dojo, it was a few years later when he was first exposed to Chi training through the martial arts by his Shorinji-Kempo (Japanese Shaolin Kung-fu) grandmaster, Reverend Yamamori of the Kongo Zen sect at Konko-kyo Temple in East Los Angeles.

In 1970, his training continued with Grandmaster Kam Yuen and later with Grandmaster So Bin Yuen, both of the Northern Shaolin Kung-fu method. In 1989, he became a student of Soke Takayuki Kubota and earned the title “Shihan”, master of Gosoku-ryu Karate that is recognized in karate schools in over 50 countries.  It was there he learned Soke's method of ki (Chi) development, “Mu ga Mushin no Do”.

Although medicine and martial arts may seem to be very contradictory activities, Dr. Hirano explains that "the opposing nature of the healing arts and martial arts represents the fundamental 'Yin-Yang' nature of life and becomes a means to develop a holistic understanding of self and the Universe in which we live."

In fact, it was in this context that Dr. Hirano began to "comprehend the living dynamics of energy in relation to thoughts, emotions, spirituality and its physical expressions and manifestations." As a result, he is able to offer a unique skill in associating medical conditions to his patients' life experiences. His diagnosis of medical conditions reflects the relationship and interplay between the way that patients process their life experiences and the resulting physical manifestations and ailments.

Dr. Hirano also has extensive knowledge and experience in the setting of bones and the re-alignment of the vertebral column. He has developed his own special method of spinal correction, "Hirano Myo-Osteo Technique" (HMOT) ™ and has introduced his unique and effective therapeutics and structural interpretation skills in his professional seminar "Demystifying Pain."

He has also integrated Chi-kung therapeutics into many aspects of his clinical work. In his Hirano Shen-kung seminars, formally Modern Medical Chi-kung, Dr. Hirano shares his updated understanding of Chi and teaches the basics of his techniques. His intermediate course concentrates on clinical applications, and the advanced course focuses on special conditions.