01聴
Listen first
Your first visit is ninety minutes because the history matters more than the needle. We ask about sleep, digestion, work, grief, and the things other appointments skip.
円相 Acupuncture · Herbal medicine · Portland
一 A physician-acupuncturist practice
Medicine that listens before it acts.
Acupuncture, herbal medicine and unhurried integrative consults — practiced by a physician, alongside the care you already receive.
Founded2011 · Southeast Portland
PractitionerKenji Watanabe, MD LAc
First visit90 minutes, never rushed
Room two · morning light
二 Three principles
The way we practice
Enso is the circle drawn in one breath. It is never perfect and never closed. We hold our medicine the same way: attentive, spare, and honest about what it can and cannot do.
02和
Treat alongside, not instead
Dr. Watanabe is a board-certified physician. Herbs are checked against your medications; oncology, rheumatology and pain teams receive a note after every consult.
03簡
Do less, precisely
Fewer needles, well placed. One formula, adjusted slowly. A plan you can hold in your head, with a clear point at which we stop and reassess.
三 Treatments
What we offer
-
01
Acupuncture
Japanese-style, with thin needles and shallow insertion. Used for chronic and post-surgical pain, migraine, insomnia, anxiety, and the nausea and neuropathy that come with treatment.
60 min -
02
Herbal medicine
Classical formulas in granule form, chosen after a full medication review. We source from GMP-certified suppliers and test every lot for heavy metals.
45 min -
03
Pain & stress care
A combined course for people whose pain and sleep and worry have become one knot: acupuncture, gentle manual work, breath practice, and a written plan for the weeks between visits.
6-week course -
04
Integrative consult
A physician visit to think through a diagnosis, a supplement cabinet, or a treatment you are weighing. You leave with a one-page summary that goes to your other doctors, with your permission.
60 min · MD
Hover or focus a treatment to see the room it happens in.
四 Your first visit
Set like a tea ceremony
Ninety minutes, in a set order, so that nothing is hurried and nothing is forgotten. You will know at every point what comes next.
-
0:00Arrive
Tea and quiet
Shoes off at the entry. You will be offered roasted barley tea and ten unscheduled minutes in the courtyard room. Arrive as you are; there is nothing to fill in that you have not already done at home.
-
0:10Conversation
The long history
Dr. Watanabe sits with you for a full half hour. He will read your pulse and look at your tongue, but mostly he will listen. Bring the questions you have not had time to ask elsewhere.
-
0:40Treatment
Needles, warmth, rest
Usually six to twelve needles, kept in for twenty to thirty minutes while you rest under a wool blanket. Moxa or cupping if it suits you. Most people fall asleep.
-
1:15Plan
Plain words, on one page
What we found, what we suggest, how many visits it is likely to take, and the point at which we will stop and reassess. A copy goes to your other clinicians if you wish.
What to bring
- A list of medications and supplements, with doses
- Recent labs or imaging reports, if you have them
- Loose clothing that rolls above the knee and elbow
- A light meal in the two hours before
- Your insurance card, for physician visits
- Nothing else. Phones rest in a wooden box at the door.
五 Practitioner
Kenji Watanabe, MD LAc
Internal medicine · Licensed acupuncturist · Herbalist
Dr. Watanabe trained in internal medicine at OHSU and spent eleven years as a hospitalist before studying acupuncture in Kyoto under the Toyohari tradition, a lineage of practitioners who work almost entirely by touch. He opened Enso in 2011 with the idea that the two kinds of medicine he had learned were not rivals but different instruments.
He still holds a half-day each week at Providence's integrative oncology clinic, and he reads the same journals your other doctors read. Patients describe him as quiet, direct, and unusually willing to say "I don't know."
- MedicineMD, Oregon Health & Science University · Board certified, internal medicine
- AcupunctureMSAOM, Oregon College of Oriental Medicine · Toyohari Association, Kyoto
- AffiliationsProvidence Integrative Oncology · Society for Integrative Oncology
- LanguagesEnglish · Japanese
六 Fees & insurance
Plain numbers
Acupuncture and herbal visits are paid at the time of care. Physician consults are billed to insurance. We would rather tell you the cost now than surprise you later.
HSA / FSA accepted
Superbills provided
Sliding scale, six seats a month
| Visit | Includes | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| First visit90 minutes | Full history, examination, first treatment, written plan | $240 |
| Follow-up acupuncture60 minutes | Review, treatment, adjustments to the plan | $140 |
| Course of sixUse within four months | Six follow-ups, booked at a steady rhythm | $750 |
| Herbal consult45 minutes | Formula review and adjustment; herbs billed at cost plus 20% | $95 |
| Integrative consult60 minutes · physician | Billed to insurance as an internal medicine visit | Copay |
In network (MD visits)
Providence, Regence, PacificSource, Moda, Medicare. Kaiser with a referral.
Acupuncture benefits
Many Oregon plans reimburse acupuncture. We give you a coded superbill after each visit to submit yourself.
Cancellations
Twenty-four hours' notice, please. The first missed visit is forgiven; after that the fee is $60.
七 Questions
Asked often, answered plainly
If yours is not here, call. A person answers between nine and five.
Rarely. Japanese needles are about the width of two human hairs and are inserted shallowly. Most people feel a brief tap, then a dull warmth or nothing at all. If anything is uncomfortable, say so; a needle can always come out.
Acupuncture is well studied for chemotherapy nausea, neuropathy, hot flashes and fatigue, and is offered inside most major cancer centers. Herbs are a different matter: some interact with chemotherapy or affect blood counts. Dr. Watanabe reviews every formula against your regimen and will sometimes recommend none at all. Your oncologist receives a note after each visit.
For a recent injury, often two to four. For something long-standing, we usually suggest a course of six weekly visits and then reassess honestly. If you have not noticed a change by the fourth, we will say so and talk about other options rather than continue.
No. Nothing we do requires you to stop a prescribed medication, and we will never suggest it without speaking to the prescriber. If a medication is worth revisiting, that is a conversation for your integrative consult, with your other doctor in the loop.
We ask that you keep a primary care physician. Dr. Watanabe practices as a consultant, which lets him spend an hour with you rather than fifteen minutes. He is glad to coordinate with your PCP and will help you find one if you are between doctors.
Yes. Street-level entry with no steps, a wide hallway, and one treatment room with a height-adjustable table. There is a bench by the door for shoes, or you may keep them on. Fragrance-free by request; we do not burn incense.
八 Notes from the practice
All notes
Short essays, written slowly
What a needle actually does to a nervous system
Less mysticism, more physiology: what we know, what we suspect, and what we still cannot explain.
Herbs during chemotherapy: a short list of what we avoid
The interactions that matter, the ones that are overstated, and why we sometimes prescribe nothing.
Why the first ten minutes of your visit are unscheduled
On arriving, sitting, and the difference it makes to a pulse.
九 Request a visit
Begin with a conversation
Tell us a little about what brings you in. We reply within one business day, by phone or email as you prefer, and hold first-visit times on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.