Jan Carstoniu MD FRCPC (Retired)
Head Instructor

Dr. Carstoniu is a founding member of the Toronto Nine Dragon Baguazhang school and has been a student of Jiulong since 1997. His first exposure to Asian martial arts was in 1974 when he began studying Jiu-Jitsu followed by training in Yang style Taijiquan.

Since before the opening of the Toronto school in 2006, Dr. Carstoniu has pursued the rigorous Nine Dragon instructor training program. Under the tutelage of the art’s head instructor, Dr. John P. Painter, he has been certified to teach all 8 Palms of Jiulong Baguazhang as well as weapons and health practices.

Before starting medical studies, Dr. Carstoniu had been a licensed psychologist in the province of Quebec. He became a certified anesthesiologist in 1992, but in 2000 he left the operating room to focus on chronic pain management, an area of medicine in which he had long been interested.

He observed that many Jiulong training principles and methods could be explained and were supported by research into central nervous system processes involved in learning and the development of chronic pain. Until his retirement in 2024, he used Nine Dragon mental and physical training methods to treat his patients.