I am often asked to recommend the names of other five element acupuncturists, particularly those who trained with me at SOFEA, or those who have received their training at the Leamington college under JR Worsley. I am always reluctant to do this, unless I personally have experience of the practitioner's recent work, because I have sadly found that even SOFEA students who graduated after three years of totally focused five element training often seem to have been persuaded later to add TCM to their five element practice. I always suggest that those looking for a five element acupuncturist should make their own enquiries, and should rely on word-of-mouth recommendations as to what type of acupuncture the acupuncturist they are thinking of going to is now practising. I know that this is a bit hit and miss, but I think it is better than looking at lists of what are said to be five element acupuncturists, only to find that they combine their treatments with other forms of acupuncture.
We are now, I'm afraid, rather a small group who can call themselves pure five element acupuncturists, rather than the much larger hybrid group which combines it with TCM. In my view, as you all know, this is to the detriment of five element acupuncture. But then I have often been a lone voice crying in the wilderness about this over the years.
A deep knowledge of the elements only truly comes by working with them year upon year in our practice. I have always regarded those practitioners who have the courage to stay with the elements as being on the right path to understanding them as five element acupuncture demands, rather than immediately turning to something taken from TCM when they are uncertain what to do. It is certainly not an easy discipline to learn, but its rewards are life-long.
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