Alternative Wellness: Put your health in the hands of a Hoshino therapist

Editor’s Note: The Vail Daily’s Tricia Swenson searched the valley for alterative wellness modalities that are lesser-known and have proven benefits. Follow along each Sunday in January and discovery other ways to work wellness into your life in 2023.

“Nothing surpasses the hands” is the motto at Hoshino therapy. This rare therapy is led locally by Mauricio Cadavid and gives those with ailments acute or chronic an opportunity to experience a hands-on massage approach with a time-honored technique with proven results.

“Hoshino therapy is full hand/tendon acupressure, organized by Professor Tomezo Hoshino almost a century ago. The points are throughout the body, ranging from 250-290 acupoints on tendons, not meridians,” said Cadavid. “The approach is using the whole hand and not just the thumb.”

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If you haven’t heard of Hoshino therapy, you’re not alone. The practice is rare, and few people make it through the extensive and years-long training. To understand how it helps people today, you must go back to its roots. Tomezo Hoshino was born in Atsugui, Japan in 1910 to a long line of acupuncture therapists. At the age of 16, he had a near-fatal head-on collision while riding his motorcycle to work. The accident caused him to lose his vision for two years and he had a severe concussion. He enrolled in the Hama Massage School for the Blind and learned how to read braille. His sight eventually returned but relying on his other senses like touch and developing an acute sense of touch in his hands later became the foundation for the Hoshino technique.

Although he regained his sight, he still had terrible migraine headaches. After going from various doctors and trying different drugs and therapies, he finally met an acupuncturist in Japan who taught him how to massage different acupuncture points in his head and neck. The acupuncturist also noticed how gifted Hoshino was with his hands and encouraged him to study acupuncture medicine.

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Hoshino continued his schooling and worked on himself to eliminate Bursitis in his shoulder and tendinitis in his forearm. He discovered that the secret to the healing power of acupressure was the precise stimulation of certain pressure points at the appropriate dosage, depth and duration and called it “digital precision.” His motto became, “nothing surpasses the hands,” and he believed that there was no better tool than a sensitive, well-trained and clinically experienced hand to evaluate and pinpoint the location of soft tissue, joint, nerve inflammation and dysfunction.

So how does Mauricio Cadavid fit into this practice developed by a man in the 1940s?

“A longtime friend invited me to join his parent’s apprenticeship when I was 23 years old and lived in Miami, Florida. The program consisted of a five-year basic-level training. Being Japanese, Hoshino created a high standard to live up to, and formalized a long process to achieve this standard,” Cadavid said.

During the first two years, Cadavid and his friend learned maintenance routines like Yoga, Qi Gong, Kung Fu stances and Hoshino’s coordination drills every day, plus anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and basic Chinese medicine.

“After learning the full technique, we were required to finish a treatment in 45 minutes, blindfolded!” exclaimed Cadavid. He spent three more years working on the clinic’s clientele and his teachers to just get the basics.

“Hoshino believed it took 20 years to be a fully trained Hoshino Therapist. I started in 1998 and completed 20 years in 2008,” Cadavid said. He came to the Vail Valley in 2011 to open a practice here.

“I was told to move to the Vail Valley because people get hurt here all the time,” Cadavid said. “I’ve been able to help countless people with pain and have created maintenance routines that kept that pain away. I’ve also helped people with active lifestyles perform better on the mountain, the golf course, hiking and biking with maintenance programs.”

I got to try a Hoshino therapy session with Cadavid and it’s different than a massage. Hoshino combines the natural warmth radiating from the therapist’s hand with the pressure of acupuncture that targets pressure points. It seems simple, but the process of going through the points throughout the body, ranging from 250-290 acupoints on tendons, can make a difference, especially if you do this over time. Afterward I felt lighter and energized and could see how this could help repair a longstanding injury or something that has just happened.

Hoshino has been known for helping those with body issues such as sciatica, joint pain, stiffness, carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder issues, tendonitis, ankle and foot pain, back and neck pain and various sports injuries when treatments are done over a period of time. Just like you can’t lose weight by going to the gym once, Hoshino therapy’s benefits may take time, but sometimes results can be seen in one visit, it just depends on what’s going on in your body.

“I’ve been working on a doctor for the last eight years who is also a triathlete and she feels that the Hoshino technique enables her to perform better during her triathlons. Another client I see weekly has said that the therapy helped her expedite her double knee surgery recovery and continues to foster an overall feeling of general wellbeing,” Cadavid said.

“What I love about Hoshino it is very effective and became my life’s work. I am only one of less than ten therapists who do Hoshino therapy in the world, so it’s also a legacy that I’m blessed to be a part of,” Cadavid said.