Needle technique is more than knowing how to insert a needle and count the turns in a particular direction. It requires more than the memorization of some protocols, or the rote following of a recipe of steps.
In this conversation we explore needle technique as a part of understanding how to feel into the tissues of the body. We discuss the creation of a treatment that relies not on someone else’s outline, but from your own understanding of first principles.
Listen in for a discussion of using ourselves as much as using the pins when doing acupuncture.
Don’t think of the needle only as a tool of treatment, otherwise you leave half of what it can do on the table. The needle is a probe, a diagnostic tool, and if you pay attention it can tell you a lot about the state of the patient’s points, channels, and overall health.
Justin Phillips
I started studying meditation when I was five, martial arts when I was six, and Chinese qigong when I was ten. It was pretty much all downhill from there. After I finished my undergrad in English I didn’t really have a clear sense of what to do with the rest of my life, so when a friend said he wanted to go to an open house at a school of Chinese Medicine I figured I had nothing to lose. The rest is, as they say, history.
Early in my studies I had the privilege to study with Dr. Robert Johns and his emphasis on needle technique as central to the practice of acupuncture meshed with my own background of physical practices in dealing with energy. In my practice of martial arts I had studied both Eastern and Western fencing and the needle was just another sword in my hand, to be wielded with skill. This remained a central focus of my practice, and I moved farther into the physical and energetic aspects of the medicine, studying Applied Channel Theory, and deepening my training in Medical Qigong. I eventually taught Medical Qigong for the Healing Tao Institute of Austin and then needle technique at the AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine.
Visit Justin’s website at www.stonegatewellness.com
Read his book The Living Needle: Modern Acupuncture Technique
Read Jason’s article on needle technique in the Journal of Chinese Medicine
