Kaz Wegmuller was born in Japan to Swiss and Japanese parents. A lifelong martial artist, Kaz was first introduced to the East Asian healing arts through his childhood judo teacher. Then, as a high school student in Southern California, he received his first acupuncture treatment from his Korean martial arts instructor, after sustaining an injury during a demonstration. Kaz studied anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, then went on to receive a teaching credential from San Francisco State University and a Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine degree from Five Branches Institute in 1997. He has been practicing Chinese medicine ever since, while deepening his knowledge and perfecting his skills as a senior student of Japanese acupuncture master Anryu Iwashina.
In addition to being a seasoned practitioner, Kaz is an accomplished writer whose works have been published in national and international journals of Chinese medicine. A popular speaker and lecturer, he enjoys sharing his passion for the healing arts with audiences ranging from children and high school students to medical doctors and nurses.
Among his patients and colleagues, Kaz is known for his warm and friendly demeanor, his excellent bodywork skills, his mastery of a particularly gentle and pain-free style of acupuncture, and his love of the natural world. He is one of the very few acupuncturists left in the world who make their own needles, starting with small chunks of meteorite and a lot of firing and pounding, filing and polishing. Summing up his philosophy of healing, he says, "Needles, moxa, cupping, massage, herbs, movement - these are all just tools. Knowledge and skill are important, but far more important is the impulse that makes you want to use these tools in the first place: compassion, kindheartedness, love. Kindness really is the best medicine!"
When not treating patients or spending time with his family, Kaz can often be found in the forest, by the ocean, in his garden, or in his laboratory, where he makes all his herbal tinctures, salves, and liniments by hand.