For simplicity’s sake – another heartfelt plea

Anybody who knows anything about me will know how often I plead for one basic principle of five element acupuncture, which is to keep it simple.  I always hear JR Worsley’s voice in my ear telling us that we really only need 3 minutes with our patients, one to look at them, two to decide on the point(s) to needle and three to say goodbye.  It was said jokingly (or at least I assumed it was), but like everything he said it hides profound wisdom.  The longer I practise, the more I have come to understand this.

As all good five element acupuncturists know, the aim of treatment is to hand control back to the elements within the patient as quickly as possible.  All treatment represents an interference with a patient’s natural energy, a temporary taking-over of control.  We were always told that it is not we who heal our patients, it is nature which does this through the elements which create the world outside and create our bodies and within them our souls.  So if we can find out where a hitch has occurred in the beautiful, health-giving flow of energy round the cycle of the elements, and help reinstate this natural flow, our work is done and we should withdraw from the scene.

From this viewpoint it can then be regarded as a waste of energy to spend so much time mulling over the actions of individual points rather than trying to pinpoint the element under stress and choosing points relating to that element. Sadly, though, I see too many people doing this.  We can call this “not seeing the wood for the trees”.

There is no doubt that it requires much humility to accept that observing the work of the elements in a human being demands skills which we can only acquire over time and involves much hard work.  For example, I like to tell people that it took me many years accurately to recognize the fear at the heart of the Water element, or that flushed red cheeks did not, as I assumed, point to Fire, but either to Wood or Earth out of control.  (In the case of Wood, it is because it is depriving its child Fire of the warmth it needs, and therefore Fire tries to stoke it up artificially, or in the case of Earth, it is because its mother, Fire, is out of control and passes on too much Fire to its child.  Fire never has permanently flushed skin.  Its colour flushes and then fades again quite quickly.  It often has a kind of blotchy red look.)  It took me a long time and much evidence from treating patients to recognize this and to accept that this was so.

But once we realize that what we need to do is study people as closely as possible wherever we encounter them (TV or cafes are good places to observe the significant interactions which point to one element or another), and gradually to build up a personal filing system of indicators for each element, then practice becomes simpler and simpler.  The mantra, as always, is “find the element and the points look after themselves”.  I don’t think it matters at all if I choose one point and another practitioner chooses another, provided both strengthen the patient’s guardian element.

Treatment of a case of severe psoriasis

I am always happy to receive confirmation from my practice that the simplest of treatments is the most effective.  So many acupuncturists complicate their treatments by selecting all kinds of complex combinations of points, when, as I always say, the mantra “the simpler the better” always holds good in five element acupuncture.

So, with my patient’s permission, I am giving below the points I used for the first 7 treatments of a patient who came to me with severe psoriasis all over her body, and who is now, some 3 months later, almost completely symptom-free.  When I first saw her, the whole of her body was covered with large bright-red psoriatic patches of skin.  When I saw her this week, these patches were now normal skin-coloured outlines still faintly visible against the remainder of healthy skin, so that where, before, the eye was shocked by all these violent blood-red patches, now they have faded over the whole body.  Much of the upper body is completely restored to health, another confirmation, if confirmation is needed, that the Law of Cure which we all learned about at college is indeed true.  Impurities do leave the body from the top downwards, her back and upper body being now completely free of any signs of psoriasis, and only faint, normal skin-coloured outlines remaining from the waist down.  Her recovery has also been speeded up by the fact the she has been quite happy to discontinue the application of any cortisone cream which she was using on exposed part of the body before she came to me.

So here is the treatment I gave her.  I diagnosed her element from the start as being Wood, and I am still happy with this diagnosis.  I applied moxa cones to each point, and used tonification needling technique (except of course for AE!).  I have given the number of moxa cones for Bl 38 (43) in the list below, as these vary.  The number of moxa cones for other points are those given in JR Worsley’s well-known point location chart.

Treatment 1:  No AE, GB 40, Liv 3

Treatment 2: (a week later): Bl 38 (43) (7 moxa cones), Liv 4, GB 37
Treatment 3: (a further week later) Bl 38 (43), (11 moxa cones), GB 40, Liv 3
Treatment 4: (3 weeks later: I was away in China so could not see her weekly as I would have liked) Liv-Lu block (Liv 14, Lu 1), Liv 4 (this is an energy transfer from Metal)
Treatment 5: (2 weeks later) : Bl 38 (43), 7 moxas, GB 20 (no moxa because on the hair line), GB 40, Liv 3
Treatment 6: (3 weeks later):  GB 25, Liv 4
Treatment 7: (3 weeks later): GV 24, GB 40, Liv 3.

Because her skin is recovering so well, we have scheduled her next appointment to be in 6 weeks’ time, but I have told her to phone me for an earlier appointment if any red psoriatic patches re-appear.

Thank you, Elly, for letting me write about your treatment!

 

 

How sad that there are now so few pure five element practitioners

What a pity there are so few people now in this country or elsewhere in the world, it seems, who are just practising five element acupuncture as we were all taught it by JR Worsley.  In other words, these are people who base their practice on directing all their efforts at strengthening one element which gives each person their particular direction in life.  So many people now, it appears, mix this approach with all kinds of different add-ons, such as Japanese acupuncture, treatment of syndromes, herbs, Tuina or ear acupuncture.  Each of these can have with their own quite valid approach to balancing a patient’s health, but, when added to treatment on the guardian element, dilutes what we are offering by confusing the elements.  It’s a bit as though we are speaking one language with the elements, and then throw in the odd phrase in another language.

There are not many people now, it appears, who have the courage to attempt to pinpoint a patient’s element and then simply strengthen it by working on points on its officials.  Perhaps it sounds too simple just to concentrate on an element’s command points, with the occasional spirit point added to strengthen it.  And, then again, practitioners are often in too much of a hurry to achieve what is realistically much too quick a result, and reach too soon for other tools, instead of waiting and letting the element chosen do its work slowly and steadily.

The more we practise, the more we will find that we will be quick to recognise the subtle changes which take place when a patient’s element is fed with what it needs through its own points.   It still amazes me how quickly some slight thing about the patient will show an immediate, if sometimes tiny, response to treatment which my senses can perceive in some way – a slight change of colour, a relaxing of tension somewhere in the face, an easier relationship with me.  It is as though a different person gradually emerges as they take the tiny steps which lead from imbalance to balance.

So to any practitioner out there attempting to find their way in the profound world of the elements, I will say again, as I have said many times, learn to have the courage to rely on the patient’s element to restore health, and give yourself enough time to find that element.   Just because JR Worsley, with 50 years of practice, could home in on an element very quickly doesn’t mean that we, who have many less years’ experience, have to do the same.  It always takes time and steady practice finally to be satisfied that we have found that particular patient’s element.  There is never any need for hurry.  Patients are only impatient if they sense our insecurity.

But to end this blog on an optimistic note, how good that there are now hundreds of practitioners in China eager to learn this approach to their practice.  I was heartened to hear that one of our Chinese students, now practising five element acupuncture in a very large practice in Beijing, has so impressed people there with the amazing results she is achieving that they are very keen to find more five element practitioners to teach the other acupuncture practitioners there.  So the East is now recognizing what the West has started to discard.  It is a sad irony, but let us hope the East in its eagerness to attach itself again to its five element roots has again something to teach the West here.

Latest update from the practitioner treating the patient with lung cancer

See my blogs of 27 February and 7 March 2013

I have just received this heartening email from the practitioner:

“Just thought I'd update you briefly - I have continued to visit my patient twice weekly in the Hospice and he is going from strength to strength, despite a major setback a couple of weeks ago. At that time, he had been doing very well indeed - he was no longer reliant upon oxygen, his breathing was normal, he had good pain control and had regained his appetite. In acupuncture terms, H/W had cleared and I was treating him very minimally, purely on command points. However, things went pear-shaped a couple of days later when his bowels appeared to be blocked - he was eating an enormous amount of food (2500 calories per day) but his bowels had stopped working (probably due to the morphine and other drugs) and nothing was getting through. He was once again in tremendous pain, had a stomach drain in situ, was nil by mouth and was scheduled to have ileostomy surgery. H/W had returned with a vengeance, he was in very low spirits and did not feel up to any needling, so I treated the H/W with acupressure instead.

 

A few days later, I received a message that his bowels had started to work again and that he had a reprieve from surgery - and when could I come to give him another treatment!  At my next visit, once again I was amazed at the difference in him - H/W had disappeared again, and the pulses were the most even to date. This time I cleared AE and finished on source points.

 

I am due to see him again today and he is due to go home on Wednesday all being well, though he will be continuing with his chemotherapy as an outpatient. He feels that the work we are doing together is extremely worthwhile and really looks forward to his treatments, as he says he feels very focussed and strong afterwards, and also relaxed and rested, but energised. Above all, he says I'm probably his only visitor who comes without making any demands, physically or emotionally - for which he is immensely grateful.

 

This experience brings home to me how important it is to be aware of our own emotions and to maintain a balance, especially through difficult times, where words can be superfluous - a mere presence is enough.”

 

I cannot praise this practitioner enough for her courage in keeping things simple and refusing to panic.  As I wrote to her in reply to this email:

 

“It is never easy to treat somebody who is so ill. There will always be times when their health deteriorates suddenly, as their body struggles to cope both with the disease and with the side-effects of the drastic treatment they are getting. But you seem really to be helping him.

 

I love what the patient said about you being “probably the only visitor who comes without making any demands, physically or emotionally”. You can’t have a better compliment!”

 

Nor can we have a better illustration of the rare quality we all need to nurture in ourselves as practitioners and as human beings, too, not to make demands, either physical or emotional, upon those around us which they are unable to meet.

 

 

 

 

Update on the patient with lung cancer (see my blog of 27 February)

Here is what the practitioner has just emailed me:

"My patient continues to amaze me!  I saw him again today - day 3 after his second round of chemo - he looks, sounds and feels extremely well and positive, with very few side effects from all the drugs, save some quite extreme mood swings for the first couple of days immediately after the chemo. His lungs have remained free from fluid and his abdominal pain has subsided, so he is now able to sleep almost horizontally instead of in the upright position which he has had to adopt continually for the past 3 months or so.

Pulses showed a significant improvement in the HT/SI position, with a modicum in the BL/KI position. LU/LI was still dominant by far, and I could also detect a very small amount of energy in the other two right-hand positions. The Guardian Element (Wood) is still very much depleted however.

I repeated H/W today and finished on source points of Wood again, and left it at that. He always falls into a very deep sleep during treatment and for a short while afterwards, and wakes feeling very calm and relaxed

And I continue to feel humbled by the effects of such a simple treatment, made so much more powerful by the patient himself in choosing to fight to live.”

Well done, Jo!

 

The simpler the better

It is interesting how often I return to the phrase “the simpler the better” when helping acupuncturists gain confidence in their five element skills.  And I keep on repeating it because, much to my continuing surprise, what I say does not appear to be actually what people want to hear.  It seems as if, instead, they prefer to believe the opposite to be true, that the more complicated things are the better.

One reason may be because people like to take pride in thinking that their discipline is a complex one requiring hard work to practise it.  To encourage its practitioners to greater levels of simplicity may appear to run directly counter to this, as though it strips away some of this pride.  It also takes courage to trust that minimum interference may mean maximum effectiveness, but there is no doubt in my mind that it does.

Nor must we think that it is easy to be simple, for this is far from the case.  Some of the most sublime music ever composed is that of Mozart’s piano concertos, where the pianist may only interject a single note as counterpoint to the orchestra.  And yet if that note were placed a bar earlier or a bar later, or at a slightly higher or lower tone, the whole perfection of the musical structure would be broken. These single notes could appear to be written by a child, and yet they are the product of the highest level of creativity.

I like to feel that we can show some of this creative ability in our own work, if, instead of bombarding the elements with a plethora of points, often picked at random from one of those books on points I dislike so much, we dare to hone our selection down to a few simple points, and end on the single note of a command point.  Treatment, like music, should then be allowed to fall silent, as we give the elements the time to carry on their healing work without further interference from us.