A Bit About Me

Meet Yusuke!

I am passionate about helping people feel better. I love my job. Cocokara means "from here" or "from now", that a better future can start from this point in time. It is my job to assess how I can help set you on that new path to feeling lighter, brighter, younger and pain or worry free. Obviously, with some chronic conditions I can only assist helping you feel better from week to week or appointment to appointment, other conditions can be completely resolved. 

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For most of my career, I've been fascinated by a simple question:

Why do some people continue to struggle with pain, tension, stress, and recurring injuries, even when they've tried everything?

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I began my journey in sports medicine, earning a degree in Athletic Training (Sports Medicine) from the University of Alabama in 2003. For more than a decade, I worked with athletes in American football, rugby, and other sports, helping them recover from injuries and perform at their best.

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What I noticed was that physical injuries were often only part of the story.

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Many people carried patterns of tension that never truly switched off. Sometimes it showed up as chronic pain. Sometimes it appeared as headaches, poor sleep, anxiety, poor recovery, stiffness, fatigue, or a feeling that their body was always "on alert." Often, they didn't even realise how much tension they were holding because it had become their normal.

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That observation led me back to Japan, where I trained in Oriental Medicine and acupuncture. I wanted to understand the body from a broader perspective—not just muscles and joints, but the nervous system, stress, and the body's natural ability to heal when it feels safe and balanced.

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Over the years, I've continued to study and integrate different approaches, including becoming a Level 5 Master Practitioner of Primal Reflex Release Technique (PRRT). Today, I combine over 20 years of experience in sports medicine, acupuncture, and nervous system-based therapies to help people find lasting change.

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My approach is simple:

I don't just look at where it hurts. I look at why your body may be holding on to tension in the first place.

Many of the people I work with come to me for pain, headaches, sports injuries, stress, or anxiety. What often surprises them is how much better they feel overall once their body begins to let go of patterns it has been carrying for years.

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Because better health isn't always about adding more.

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Sometimes it's about releasing what your body no longer needs to hold.

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Since moving to New Zealand in 2014, I've had the privilege of helping people from all walks of life reconnect with a greater sense of ease, balance, and wellbeing.

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If you've ever felt that your body could feel better than it does now - but you're not sure why it doesn't - I'd love to help you explore what's possible.

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On a more personal front, I love my family, friends and the outdoors, especially the sea. Whenever I have the time my passion is spearfishing. Swimming has been, and continues to be, a constant in my life from when I was very little, competing into my teens, so spearfishing was an natural extension. Somehow this also morphed into a little known sport called Underwater Rugby! There is currently only one team in New Zeland, so occasionally I compete for our country! My dog, Manta has been the best addition to my life, a rescue dog from Kerikeri - I couldn't imagine life without him - let me know if you would like to meet him when you come for treatment! 

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Places very dear to my heart is a city in Japan, Kamaishi. Following the catastrophic tsunami that devastated Japan’s eastern coast, triggering the Fukushima nuclear disaster and wiping out entire coastal communities. Choosing to volunteer in the aftermath, I ended up living in the deeply affected city of Kamaishi, where over a 1000 people died - a community I proudly continue to support today by purchasing local goods online. It was there that I met and worked with my first New Zealander. It was through him and his network, that unexpectedly paved the way for my own move to New Zealand; I wouldn't live anywhere else now.

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