Qiological Shoptalk

In the initial descriptions of Chinese medicine set down in the Huangdi Neijing, acupuncture was described as a traditional form of ecological surgery. Its primary aim was to restore the natural watersheds of the body by regulating the flow of the blood circulating through these regions. These writings compare the vascular rivers of the body to rivers in nature, understanding them to be formed by...

Medicine and Bazi belong to the 5 Arts of Chinese metaphysics. All 5 Arts use the basic principles of Taoist philosophy. The Bazi belongs to the Life Arts and is called The Pillars of Destiny. The 4 pillars are, the year, the month, the day and the hour. The upper half of the chart is the 10 Heavenly Stems. The 5 Elements doubled as yin and yang, much like the organ pairs in Medicine but more the...

In this Shoptalk, I will be sharing with you some critical advice regarding safety when needling GB 21 and the upper trapezius region generally. My advice comes from having served as an expert witness on a half-dozen cases in which well-intentioned and experienced acupuncturists, trained according to the current standards of the profession, nevertheless caused pneumothorax injuries–one of them fat...

In this Shop Talk segment we cover important questions to ask you male patient’s when they come to you presenting with such common issues as ED, PE, BPH and Prostatitis! For a more in-depth understanding on common men’s health conditions you can take one of my courses  Information on my upcoming courses will be announced on my blog at: https://whole-healthacupuncture.com/blog . Currently, I h...

In this Shop Talk Chloe discusses key basics of hemp, cannabis and CBD that will help you as a practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine to consider how you can engage using these medicinals in your clinical work. She starts with the historical uses and ends with how this medicinal has been helpful for her in caring for son and lead her to creating Radical Roots. Along the way you’ll find out the di...

In this episode of Shop Talk we’re exploring cultivation as it relates to the business of acupuncture. As practitioners, we often hear about the importance of cultivation as essential for our personal and professional growth. But too often we gloss over the cultivative aspect of running a business. In this short talk we’ll explore the potential of how running a business can make us a more well rou...

I’m Anthony Von der Muhll, and in this Shoptalk, I will be sharing with you one of my most useful go-to techniques for treating chronic musculoskeletal pain and disability: needling into joint and ligamentous tissues.  This is an ancient technique with modern applications that is quite safe, well-tolerated, and works rapidly and effectively for long-lasting improvements in function, not...

In this Shop Talk presentation Jeffrey Dann discusses the importance of palpation as part of the assessment and treatment of patients. He emphasizes the importance of relying on our hands to improve our palpatory skills which in turn help to deepen our understanding of the physical body.  In this presentation he focuses, as an example, on the Yuan Source point Kidney Three, and takes us throu...

In this Shop Talk we hear about a surprisingly effective use of the Tung point San Cha San, which she discovered when she treated herself for a head cold.  San Cha San is easily accessed as it’s located along the Triple Burner channel, and is reached by sliding a needle in between the fourth and fifth metacarpals. So it is a point you can readily add to your treatments Additionally Renee cove...

Today’s Shop Talk is an invitation to acupuncturists to recognize the power and potential of our medicine. And committing ourselves to making a difference in the delivery of healthcare in our country, by choosing the communities we want to make a difference in, and using our imagination and heart to create new models of delivery. Education and the use of the Internet are tools we can make better u...

In this short conversation Toby and Ji Ling Lin discuss some of the basics of Saam acupuncture. How it uses a combination of the yin and yang, the five phases, and the six confirmations. Additionally they touch on the way the system combines yin and yang organs in a novel way, that actually makes a lot of sense when you see the dynamic complementary relationships that are involved.  Qiologica...

In today's Shop Talk segment, Michelle Grasek, acupuncturist and marketing strategist, shares three new perspectives on marketing to help you approach your marketing with enthusiasm and consistency so you can get more visible in your community and help more patients. If you feel resistant to putting yourself or your business out there with marketing or can’t seem to truly be consistent with your m...

In this Shop Talk segment I explain how to balance the pulses using acupuncture. We need to return the pulses back to that healthy baseline so that the person can get on with the business of their life . In this talk I’ll take you through a basic assessment where we compare the relative strength or size of the pulse to determine excess and deficiency and then use acupressure to key points to deter...

In this short conversation we discuss Toby's unique patient centered approach to helping patients and potential patients understand and use East Asian medicine. In his new book he helps the layperson to understand how our medicine can help, without attempting to give them a Chinese Medicine 101 education. He accomplishes this by emphasizing the importance of providing context and using terms that...

Many children present in the clinic with a condition that does not easily fit into our usual classification of the deficient (xu) or excess (shi) child. We see a mixed picture. There are signs and symptoms of deficiency, alongside those of Heat. Yet the Heat signs and symptoms are not reconcilable with either Full or Empty Heat. Where do we start? Should we focus on tonifying or clearing? Once we...

In this Shop Talk segment we discuss the multi-sensory aspects of listening, and begin to explore the vast topic not of the “what we do” in clinic, but instead the “how we are.” Presence and attention, being inquisitive on behalf of our patients and keeping a rein on our ego are all skills that have nothing to do with what points we choose, and everything with how we interact with those points. Mi...

In today’s Shop Talk Damo Mitchell explores the Craft of Acupuncture and our relationship with the primary tool of our trade— the needle. Along with a practical understanding of Butcher Ding and the critical importance of knowing how to slide through the sinew channels with an attentive awareness, so we can target our treatment to the primary channels. You can find out more about Damo's work at&nb...

In today's Shop Talk segment, Michelle Grasek, acupuncturist and marketing strategist, walks you through how target market and copywriting intersect to create great marketing. Target market often gets a bad reputation for being a theoretical exercise without practical application. But in reality, it offers powerful insights that can make your marketing much more compelling. She also addresses freq...

When I was living and studying medicine in Beijing in 2003, Craig Mitchell shared with me a book he found on herbal medicine. Back at that time I was working on my Chinese and it was not very good, but reading interesting books on medicine was a way I encouraged myself to keep at the Chinese.  When I first read Ten Key Formula Families in Chinese Medicine I thought my Chinese was perhaps gett...

In less than 2 days, a single acupuncture treatment heals a wound that 2 months of conventional treatments couldn’t help. This case exemplifies the power of Saam, a Korean tradition of acupuncture. I hope this case will inspire more acupuncturists to study Saam and be of interest for those already practicing Saam. A deep understanding of the qualities of the 12 channels of Saam was necessary to co...

The importance of assessing Rate on Exertion with Shen-Hammer Pulse Diagnosis: Pulse diagnosis can be scary for lots of practitioners; not everyone has been fortunate enough to spend years deep diving into the intricacies and subtleties, and often practitioners don't even spend much time checking pulse at all.  In this ShopTalk episode, I detail one of the most important assessments on the pu...

In today's Shop Talk segment, Michelle Grasek, acupuncturist and marketing strategist, shares actionable tips to help you get better results from your email marketing. She also addresses frequently asked questions that she often gets from marketing students and clients, including, "What if I'm annoying people by sending email?" "What the heck am I supposed to write about?" and "Who has time to wri...

In today’s Shop Talk, Lisa presents basic Biomedical and TCM information about BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia), a condition that every Acupuncturist will most likely see in their clinic at some point in their career unless you don’t treat older gentlemen. She presents common causes, symptoms, biomed treatments, TCM differentials and a few basic points. You can use these points in your clinic to...