[Armin]

Hi Elizabeth,

I definitely get those stubborn release points too.You just keep pulling and it keeps tenting up. As you figured it out on your own, it does simply mean that the area has a lot of wind that needs to be released. I have seen Ann pulling on them very patiently until it releases itself eventually.

Great that you are doing it though without any training. That’s fantastic!!!

Enjoy the class.

[Armin]

Thanks for that Lois. I think I know what you are referring to. I have experienced that too, about the area surrounding a tight spot.
I only had to attend the sinew class with Ann twice before I thought I was confident enough to start applying it in the clinic. Couple of more times and I am sure more details will emerge

Armin.

[Armin]

Hi Antoine,

Ya interesting case. The yin Wei would have been my choice too, for sure, to boost mediumship after all the stress and cancer treatment. I have had the experience when using the 8EV’s and people crashing a bit after, but it’s not really that they crash but more that the body is trying to, in a way, “force” them to slow down and take time off. This person’s reaction was a bit extreme but then again her condition is extreme, so really hard to say what happened.

The way I assess a treatment result is by seeing if the person feels overall more positive and calm while not 100%. In this case, while her sleep miraculously improved, the rest of the package sounds a bit questionable, so I would say perhaps not the result we wanted.

It’s also possible that there was a lurking pathogen her body was fighting off or even a deeper sinew pulse that you might have missed when taking the pulses, which then potentially went deeper with the yuan level treatment that you gave her. This has happened to me in the past. You think a person is weak and deficient in mediumship and you go to boost the system with a yin Wei or red mai and then it back fires even though their pulses didn’t show any tight superficial quality.

I remember Ann talking about this in one her chats that sometimes for a very deficient person, the superficial level will be deeper than 1-3 beans because all the pulses are deeper. At least, this is what I remember her saying. I maybe wrong 🙂

Given that I’m still not that good with pulses, nowadays when I use 8ev’s, I ask a lot of questions about the recent history to make sure there is not potential exterior pathogen lurking in the Wei level, like are they more tired than usual or more aversion to cold or any upper back neck tension!

Also, you mentioned your “intention was to help her get over” her daughters traumatic experience. I would say we should keep our intention simple; maybe just boosting mediumship for now and once she is strong enough, she herself will work things out on the emotional level and if not, then you can address later with a luo treatment or something.

Thanks for sharing.

[Armin]

Hi Lois,

I am not sure if I understand your question correctly. The SDS or DSD technique is only used when you are doing divergent treatments. Dai Mai, being one of the 8EV’s, is not used in this manner. To consolidate, I recall Ann saying in one of the chats to basically tread from GB 26 towards the navel. So, one 2 cun needle from Gb 26 to Liv 13, then one from Liv 13 to Sp 15, on and on to Kd 16. You only need to do this on one side.

Given that we are working with an 8EV, then we would do the vibration technique to tap into the Yuan level.

Is this what you were looking for, or did I completely misunderstand your question?

[Armin]

Not sure how last post came out so fancy with italics and all!! It’s not a quote; just me thinking out loud.

[Armin]

I would probably see it as a Jue Yin situation. I mean numbness in the limbs are Jue Yin for sure, same as pain all the time. In this case, bowels are controlled by wei qi, I think same with bladder. So working up the foot jue yin especially, and with moxa on the soft/cold areas, should get some sensation going.

[Armin]

After that last session and over the following 2-3 days, she has continued to improve. Now there is only 5% left and I haven’t seen her, just through an email. So thank you for that Yang Ming tip!

It reminds me of a case I had last year. One of my clients had put her neck out, like morning stiffness, torticollis type of thing. She had difficulty holding up her head in order to sit behind the desk and do her work as well as bending forward (neck flexion). Back then, I still had not gotten into the sinew treatments out of fear of hurting people. I gave three sessions of doing my own stuff which generally would help but in this case, it was not shifting. She ended up going to a massage therapist who had studied the Anatomy Trains of Mayers, who works with the fascia (basically the sinews and I have a feeling he got it from our system!!! 😉 ). When she came back to me, she said the therapist had done some work on the front of her neck and torso pointing more or less to the yang ming zone and after that she got better.

I had already taken a course with Ann on sinews so went back to those notes and realized that yes, she had difficulty holding the weight of her head as well as forward flexion, both yang ming, which was missing from my treatment of only Tai Yang/shao yang. And that was when I decided to toughen up and get over my anxiety of potentially hurting people.

After my second course on sinews with Ann, I saved a patient from a $12k back surgery in two sessions. That was my first sinew treatment case as well 🙂

Lots more to learn!

[Armin]

Hi Antoine,

Thanks for sharing this case and your openness about the details of your first encounter with this client. I have been in that position many times and it can certainly be frustrating because we know we can help only if they let us and get passed that initial anxiety of trusting someone with their most intimate existential challenges.

I know from personal experience that every time a client could not trust me or didn’t come back, it was really down to my own anxiety at the time of our meeting. They always sense if we feel confident about working with them or not. Over the years, I have found that especially with the anxious type clients, the simpler my approach in the first session or two, the more success I would have in seeing them again. So, something as simple as the four gates with ear Shen Men as an example, without analyzing their pathology too much in my head. Something just to relax them a bit and get them out of the fight/flight mode. Then when I see them again, which means trust has been built, I get a bit more adventurous and go a bit more in depth to address what’s going on. Later on, it could be something as simple as Pc6 and Kd 9 of yin Wei mai if that fits.

Also, I have also found that anxious people are not the best to try new things that I am learning at the time unless I can be confident about it and feel it in myself first. For instance, if I have a first time client now, I probably would not try sinew channels (it can hurt) or divergents (I don’t know enough about it). I would stick to what I would feel confident with while I practice the advanced acupuncture with my more long term clients.

Generally, I also don’t work on family, friends, neighbours that I know well, acquaintances, or friends of parents that are close. I have found that there is a bit of an awkwardness and boundary issues that it’s hard to get over, perhaps on my part or both parties. Of course, there is always exceptions and each practitioner would have to see what they are comfortable with.

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Armin]

Thanks Antoine for your perspective. My understanding of pulling leg towards the chest is that it would be Tai yin. Shao yin is more bending the limbs and taking them passed the midline.

The patient did come back after two chiropractic sessions. The Chiro did not think anything was out of place that needed popping back in. He did a lot of manual stuff. After first session, there was a lot of aggravation, less so after second session. The patient thinks there was some 15% improvement, but thinks acupuncture was helping more all around. This made me feel better about my fourth session with her when there was an aggravation, but also the first 3 sessions when there had been steady improvement.

This last session I incorporated the Yang Ming (St) and Jue yin. Again, overall improvement and for the first time, she was able to sleep on the side of the pain. I think the Yang Ming makes perfect sense given that it covers the front of the ribcage.

On the right track here:)

[Armin]

Thanks for the clarification on this Erica.

[Armin]

Hi Guy!

Hope you are well.

Ann did answer the question on the last live chat. It is okay to use the sinew channels during pregnancy and needle Jing well points, in this case Bl 67 as long as your intention is focused on sinew channels and we are not thinking primary point functions.

[Armin]

Hi Erica,

Thanks so much for your input. I, too, have had the experience of dislocated ribs and cervical or lumbar joints going back into place after treatments but this one proved a bit challenging.

Your comment on Yang Ming involvement makes perfect sense. I am still learning how to interpret these movements. Also, the way you described Tai yang is pretty bang on; I do recall Ann describing that way too.

The patient did go to Chiro after the fourth session, but he did not do a traditional Chiro adjustment for her and instead did more the gentle soft tissue work. Things got a lot worse after for 48 hrs but slowing settling down. She is going for one more Chiro today.

If I see her again, I will give Yang Ming a go and will give an update here.

Cheers

[Armin]

Hi again,

Obviously hard to know what’s happening here, if it’s a new pathology or an older one, but I do recall Ann saying that if it’s divergent treatment healing crisis to not treat with a primary channel approach. In fact, if I recall correctly, to not really treat it at all so that it can express itself and come out. Then once the healing crisis is over, you then move to the next confluence in the order.

I am not really sure how to tell the difference but I suppose as with all other situations the pulses would have a way of showing. Also, the symptoms of the healing crisis would probably resemble symptoms of an old illness that the person would have experienced long ago which is coming up and out. some of those symptoms would show up that would be unique to the old illness, as opposed to say what his kids are currently dealing with.

I have never had to deal with this type of situation yet, but I suppose it’ll be very difficult to ask someone to not do anything for the acute symptoms and just rest at home and let it pass.

[Armin]

Hi Johannah,

Great question! I don’t see too many pregnant women so it never crossed my mind about doing sinew channel treatments on them.

I guess the uterus is one of the tissues that is affected by Wei Qi and sinew channel treatments along with the heart, and the gut, but I think the liver and spleen sinew channels would be more involved with the uterus. If we are working with the bladder sinew channel on the low back, for example, I think as long as the pregnancy is a healthy and secure, it should be okay. It’s kind of like the whole Sp6 debate or Li4 for that matter. I was in a seminar with Debra Betts once and she said it’s perfectly safe to use these points if one feels the pregnancy is healthy and ideally no previous history of miscarriages. I have used Sp6 in the past, not heavy handed stimulation, just gentle needling and no issues.

Anyway, I am really just thinking out loud here and will wait for a confirmation from others 🙂

[Armin]

Hi Lydie,

Thanks for sharing this case. I can’t really add anything more than what Johannah has already mentioned, but I have a feeling that I will repeat somethings here.

This person is in her mid 60’s so it’s a lifetime of seeing things a certain way or not seeing things for what they are. Long time to be stuck and would take a lot of courage, support and reassurance to shift. We all have our ways that we are stuck; it is not easy to change. To that end, I would simply suggest that rather than being result oriented in this case (how long the sight/vision improvement lasts) or focused on the macular degeneration as a disease, simply be there to support the individual in front of you. By aiming to simply balancing and supporting her, in due time things may or may not shift, depending on if she is ready for it or not, but in the process you have been a pillar of support for her.

In the mean time, you just carry on supporting her while explaining to her that this might be a long term approach and that she, too, should not be too focused on instant and lasting result as far as the eyes go. More likely than not you are already helping her condition from degenerating even further, so that’s definitely positive.

One other I would add is about “treating” dampness and phlegm. My understanding is that we don’t really want to treat dampness head on. It’s there as a protective measure; a form of yin that the body produces to cushion things for the person and provide some weight, stability, grounding and protection. So, it’s there for a reason and we should not address it as a primary focus, and let the body deal with while we focus on the big picture.

Having said that, Dai Mai definitely is a good choice here, but I would use with a consolidating approach as opposed to a draining one, to add a bit more support and will probably help with her low back issues as well.

I can so relate to your situation. I have to deal with it on a daily basis myself and have to keep reminding myself about everything that Johannah already brought up.

Best,

[Author]

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