Helpful hints for the novice five element acupuncturist: 3 Keep it simple

One of the mantras I can still hear my master JR Worsley telling us was: "Even a little child can understand this", and by "this", he meant the underlying principles of five element acupuncture.  One of my own mantras, following on from this, is:  "Find the element and the element will do the work".  A person's element is the imprint which nature gives each of us as the stamp of our unique individuality. By supporting this element through treatment directed at it we are helping nature do its work, with each treatment strengthening the element and allowing it to return our patients to a state of balance and harmony within themselves.

There is never any need to reach for complex point combinations.  We should rely instead on the simplest treatments, and the least number of them to help the elements.  We should also avoid over-treating our patients.  We should wait until we have proof that the element we have chosen confirms our diagnosis, before gradually spacing treatments out from one to two weeks, then to a month and eventually longer.  

It is good to understand that each time we insert a needle into an acupuncture point this can be seen as an interference with a patient's energy, and to some extent as disempowering the elements.  We should therefore interfere in the most gentle way and as least often as possible to allow the elements to regain the control over patients' energy which nature intends for them.  Unnecessary treatment encourages the elements to continue to hand over control to us rather than empowering them to do their own work.

 

And finally, always remember when in doubt choose a command point.  Unlike other points, you can use and re-use them as often as you like.

Helpful hints for the novice five element acupuncturist: 2 Curiosity

One of the most essential qualities a five element acupuncturist should aim to develop is the gift of curiosity.  If we want to help other people, we have to be curious about what is going on inside them and what makes them tick.  This also means that we have to be just as interested in what goes on inside us, too, so that we are able to relate their experiences to our own.  With every therapy there is a risk that the therapist will, often quite unconsciously, stand apart from their patient, viewing them as though through a glass screen.  This can create a kind of "them and us" divide which ignores one of the simplest, most profound truths underlying all human interactions.  It is that we all, therapists and patients alike, form part of a common humanity,

 We must therefore use what we have learnt about ourselves to help us understand our patients.  We, too, are formed of the interaction of the five elements, amongst which we have one dominant element which imprints us with its signature.  We, too, show, in balance, this dominant element's strengths, and in times of imbalance, its weaknesses.  But being therapists, whose task is to help patients representing all the elements, we have to learn to adapt ourselves to the needs of elements apart from our own, and that requires much insight.  We must learn to accept that everything our patients may be experiencing is to some extent also something that is familiar to us from our own life experiences.

 

Helpful hints for the novice five element practitioner: 1 Learning to be alone with a patient

There is nothing more daunting than to find ourselves alone in the practice room with our first patient, just the two of us.  There are no reference books we can take with us into the room to remind us of what we need to do; all we have is ourselves and the experience we have gained during our training.  Nor, unlike Western-trained doctors, do we have any physical information to help us make a preliminary diagnosis, such as blood or other clinical tests.  We just have ourselves, and our senses of seeing, hearing, smelling and, above all, feeling to guide us.

 What novice practitioners often forget, however, is that we should not think that it is diagnosing the element which is the main purpose of our initial interactions with our patients.  Instead, we should first concentrate on establishing a warm and caring relationship with them.  The more at ease a patient feels, the more comfortable they will be in telling us what is really going on in their lives, and this in turn will allow their guardian element to reveal itself more clearly.  And the more relaxed we feel with our patient, the more we give ourselves time to explore the feelings our patient evokes in us, and the sensory impressions we are receiving from them.  All this will gradually point us in the direction of the right element.

 

I would therefore advise each novice five element practitioner to worry less about trying to diagnose the patient's element, and concentrate instead on making sure that their approach is making their patients feel safe and at ease.  It is by doing this that their element will also reveal itself more clearly.   

A lovely compliment from an American subscriber to my second Net of Knowledge course

It is always very rewarding and heart-warming to receive such a nice compliment about the second of our Net of Knowledge courses, On Being a Five Element Acupuncturist, which has just been published. 

"Thank you for your honest, practical, and grounded perspective. I really liked how this course gave a general, global perspective on what it means, from the teacher's years of experience, to be a five-element practitioner. I found it very interesting and relatable.”

So I thank the American subscriber who took the time to write to me telling me how much she had enjoyed learning from the course. 

The link to my two Net of Knowledge courses, The Handbook of Five Element Practice and On Being a Five Element Acupuncturist, for anybody else also interested in learning from either of them is:

 https://netofknowledge.com/Discover?search=Nora+Franglen 

My favourite acupuncture points: Conclusion

Many people may wonder why I don't include my own descriptions of acupuncture points, but only list them.  There are many reasons why I am reluctant to do this, the main one being that I don't think that I can explain the reasons for my choice clearly in words.  I have developed these choices after many years of practice, and mainly through something I call my "feel".  I find it very difficult if not impossible to describe how today I might feel that CV 14 is a good point for one patient, whilst III 38 might be the one for another patient.

One day I decided to look back at the treatments I gave to my first patients as part of my initial training, and was amazed at just how few points there were on this list.  And they were all such simple treatments, mostly consisting of command points plus the very occasional additional point, ones we called "spirit points" (although as I often say, all points have their spirit, command points included).  Of course we always started with an AE drain, and were on the look-out for blocks.  The main emphasis of treatment was the simple requirement to confirm a patient's element and then strengthen it in any way we could by choosing points on its two meridians, or points relating to them, such as AEPs or Windows.

I have often talked about the magical day towards the end of my postgraduate study with JR Worsley when he picked up his "brown chart", the well-known bible of acupuncture points all us five element acupuncturists have at our side, and started reading out the names of one point after another, starting with the first, Heart 1, Utmost Source, and ending with GV 28, Mouth Crossing.  He did not tell us how we should use these points, except occasionally murmuring, almost to himself, "this is a lovely point", or "only the most experienced practitioners must use this point", or "this is a forbidden point to needle".  But he spoke each point's name as though he was addressing his beloved.

 

I knew I had heard a master at work, with an understanding of what points meant to him that I would never acquire, but which had touched me at different times to help illuminate my own understanding of my craft.  Perhaps, too, I like to think that he was passing on to the few of us in his class some hint of his mastery to help us develop our own approaches to the points.  Or at least that is what I like to say to myself.

My favourite CV/GV (Ren Mai/Du Mai) points

I have now reached the final selection of my favourite points, those which are on Conception and Governor Vessels.  I have left these to the last because I think they should be viewed as a very special group, to be used always with care.  These two great meridians form the trunk of the great five element tree, from which each element branches out.  Unless there is the major blockage which we know of as a CV/GV block, where the energy from this trunk is unable to feed its branches as it should, I regard these points as adding something very special to the main body of a five element approach to treatment, to be drawn on only where necessary. 

One great distinction between these two series of points is that Conception Vessel runs over the front of the body, its yin aspect, and Governor Vessel over the back, its yang aspect.  In deciding which of these points I might consider adding to an element's points, my first thought is therefore whether my patient needs strengthening from a yin or a yang aspect.   Simply stated, do I think that he/she needs more backbone (yang) or more inner strength (yin)?

 

I also base my selection on a point's anatomical position, and on the name it has been given over the thousands of years of its use.

 

But I turn to CV or GV points only when I feel that all the good work I am doing to strengthen a patient's guardian element is somehow lacking something, and I need to add a deeper layer to my treatment.

 

 

CONCEPTION VESSEL (CV)

 

CV 1                Meeting of Yin             (5 points)

CV 8                Spirit Deficiency

CV 12              Middle Duct

CV 14              Great Deficiency

CV 22              Heaven Rushing Out

 

In addition, there are many CV points which have a special connection to individual officials, and are together known as the Alarm Points.  These points have a special relationship to each official, and on being palpated can provide information about the health of the official.    

     

 

GOVERNOR VESSEL (GV)

 

GV 1                Long Strength             (6 points)

GV 4                Gate of Life                 

GV 12              Body Pillar

GV 14              Great Hammer

GV 19              Posterior Summit

GV 20              One Hundred Meetings

 

 

 

My favourite Water points

(In addition to Command Points)

KIDNEY (IV)             (7 points)

IV 16   Vitals Correspondence

IV 22   Walking on the Verandah

IV 23   Spirit Seal

IV 24   Spirit Burial Ground

IV 25   Spirit Storehouse

IV 26   Amidst Elegance

IV 27   Storehouse

 

BLADDER (III)         (19 points)

III 10   Heavenly Pillar

 

Inner Bladder Line

III 13   Lungs Correspondence

III 14   Heart Protector Correspondence

III 15   Heart Correspondence

III 18   Liver Correspondence

III 19   Gall Bladder Correspondence

III 20   Spleen Correspondence

III 21   Stomach Correspondence

III 22   Three Heater Correspondence

III 23   Kidney Correspondence

III 25   Large Intestine Correspondence

III 27   Small Intestine Correspondence

III 28   Bladder Correspondence

 

Outer Bladder Line

III 37   Soul Door

III 38   Rich for the Vitals Correspondence

III 39   Spirit Hall

III 42   Spiritual Soul Gate

III 44   Thought Dwelling

III 45   Stomach Granary

III 47   Ambition Room

 

It has been a most illuminating exercise for me to gather together the list of my favourite Water points, and realise so clearly for the first time the very unique position the Water element occupies.  For unlike its fellow elements, its points can be used to treat all elements, and are not limited to treating only itself.

 

The Kidney chest points and Inner and Outer Bladder points are routinely added to reinforce the effect of points on the other elements.  This gives it a very special place in the hierarchy of the elements.  It helps us understand that it is in many ways our core element, the original element from which all the other elements spring and from which all life emerges.