Stefan Hafner is the academic dean of the Sydney branch of the Toyohari medical association. He graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a Bachelor of health sciences in Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2004. He is a registered practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine and a medicinal leech therapist.
Stefan is one of very few practitioners of medicinal leech therapy in Australia. This therapy is widely practiced in his native Germany but relatively unknown here. In Australia it is mainly used within the hospital setting to facilitate wound healing of skin grafts and after replantation procedures following amputations.
In his private practice in Sydney and Woy Woy, Stefan uses leech therapy as an adjunct to acupuncture. The conditions he treats with leeching include varicose veins, tendonitis, arthritis, thrombosis and haematoma.
In his acupuncture work he specialises in the Japanese Toyohari style. This form of acupuncture is based on classical Chinese medicine and was developed by blind acupuncturists in Japan in 1963.