Entry-exit blocks, and when to do them

I have written before of the lure of the entry-exit block.  I think this is because we all hope that we can achieve the often rapid easing of a painful condition that the clearing of such a block can do.  But in fact we must not let our enthusiasm for this essential area of five element practice lead us to overdiagnose blocks.

In early treatment, as with the patient in my previous blog today, A good day at the clinic, I felt there was a block between SI and Bl immediately after the AE drain, but, as you can see, I did not clear it then, but needled the source points first.  It was only after I felt the block was still there, that I cleared it.  As you can also see, I finished the treatment by returning to the source points, as we always should, but this time just doing a simple needling without doing moxa.  You don’t want to overdo things, particularly not at the first treatment.

The reason for waiting to gauge the effects of the source points is that we should try to address the element we are treating as soon as we can after the AE drain, and give it time to respond to this first treatment.  Often the balance it tries to bring to the whole cycle of the elements reduces the pressure we can feel on the pulses which makes us think there is a block there.  Even if we feel there is a Husband-Wife block after the AE drain, the same procedure holds true.  We should needle the source points first, and then decide whether the pulse picture still indicates a H/W.  Often the left-right discrepancy on the pulses disappears as the guardian element starts to take control.

So be careful not to put too much faith in your fingers’ ability to diagnose blocks, and let the elements do as much work by themselves as they can.  That does not, of course, mean that you should overlook blocks, simply wait a little to make sure that they are really there.