This is the practice that I was taught by Chen Naiming, head of the acupuncture department of the Shandong provincial hospital, when I studied acupuncture in China. This will build up your hand strength and sensitivity and pay big dividends in your clinical practice. Here’s the article on how to make the practice pad. The video for making the pad ...

In this video, I detail common steps that will keep your TDP lamp working like new. If you watch the video on the the Ashi Acupuncture You Tube Channel, you’ll be able to use the “time links” in the description to move quickly to the segment you wish to watch.  

A recent video has emerged of a pneumothorax that occurred during a demonstration at a workshop. I wanted to add my thoughts about this unfortunate incidence. Hopefully by analyzing this incident we can take steps to minimize its recurrence. It is also important to be reminded of the potential danger we face every time we needle over the thoracic cavity. ...

Part of being an expert is knowing when you can’t help someone or can’t help them further. Do you try to treat everyone? How many treatments should you do before you refer them to another practitioner or order further diagnostic tests? I spoke with a patient the other day. They had been seeing another acupuncturist weekly for a couple of ...

Be a Great Acupuncture Clinician Luckily nowadays there are many people that are giving great coaching advice on how to have a successful acupuncture practice. They are experts in marketing, goal setting, psychology, “inner game”, and “outer game”. Their advice is truly valuable, but there is a piece that is often overlooked or assumed to be in place already. That is ...

Patient Communication If you are in practice for any length of time, you quickly realize that you are repeating the same messages over and over again. I mean over and over and over again! I call these “dialogues” or “scripts”. Taking some time to analyze and fine tune your dialogues is a very valuable exercise. Try to make them as ...

Photo by Rodrigo Senna https://www.flickr.com/photos/negativz/ My mentor has always been ahead of the curve in so many ways. It was nearly a decade ago that he stressed the importance of avoiding NSAIDS when receiving acupuncture. NSAIDS (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) are a group of drugs that include: Acetylsalicylic acid: aspirin, Bufferin, Excedrin Ibuprofen: Motrin, Advil Naproxen sodium: Aleve, Naprosyn These drugs counter inflammation ...

Qi Bo: “The earth is below man and within the Great Void.” Huang Di: “Is it supported?” Qi Bo: “The Grand Qi holds it.” This passage from Chapter 67 of the Su Wen1 illustrates a big part of what I am trying to convey about the word qi. It is being used to describe a specific force with a specific ...

Making a Practice Pad When I was in acupuncture school (in the late 80’s and early 90’s), little emphasis was placed on developing “hand skill” i.e. improving needling skill. I hope that has changed, but it probably hasn’t. It wasn’t until I met Dr. Naiming Chen, head of the acupuncture department of the Shandong provincial hospital, that I was seriously ...

What the heck is qi? I’d like to throw some thoughts out there about qi. I hope this will start a discussion that could deepen our understanding. 抛砖引玉 Is qi real? It seems as though many practitioners in the west believe that qi is something like the picture above (a human hand with electricity coming out of it): Something akin ...