Japanese Acupuncture Education, TCM and Eastern Europe

The following discourse has taken place over the last week or so with an ex student of mine who graduated from college in Australia and spent about 18 months with me in clinic in Brisbane, Australia.

Against all odds she has established a successful practice in Eastern Europe, she is indeed a dedicated practitioner of  Traditional Acupuncture, her persistence in the face of all manner of bureaucratic resistance and public ignorance is truly inspirational!

My responses to her questions and comments are based solely upon my clinical experience and my best efforts at refining my clinical skills and implementing the theories as espoused by Masakazu Ikeda sensei and esteemed colleagues on behalf of the Society for Traditional Japanese Medicine and the Meridian Therapy Association of Japan and should in no way be perceived as the be all end all, merely my perception of the above.

Traditional Japanese Acupuncture is most definitely based on the Traditional Chinese Medical texts, written a couple of 1,000 years ago.

The theories espoused in these TCM medical classics have been tested using the refined skills of Traditional Japanese Acupuncture in a clinical setting by many dedicated practitioners over the last century or so as a part of a renaissance of Traditional Acupuncture.

As I said before, my comments are based on my 25 years in clinic and in no way reflect the entire compass of the practice of Traditional Japanese Acupuncture.

I hope you find R’s story inspirational and my comments useful.

Kind Regards,

Alan

—–Original Message—–
From: R
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 5:53 PM
To: alan jansson
Subject: Re:Daniel Kowalski uses Japanese Acupuncture and Breaks 3 World Records

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the newsletter and yes, the name appears correctly…
I know you’ve had your website for a while now but I’ve been ridiculously busy for so many years now without a real break that I had a proper look at your web only recently.
It’s a great service I think that you are offering.

I’m finally getting to the point where I feel it’s the right time to change the way I practice.

I have to say despite of you saying TCM acu doesn’t work and despite of me not doing the strong manipulation and getting De Qi that belong to that style, I’m amazed at some of the results I’ve seen in some of my patients.

Of course with some I’m completely stuck and of course I know I’m nowhere near my potential… Even so I managed to triple the amount of clients when compared to a year ago….

I searched for some Japanese acu courses in Europe and apart from Toyohari, I found Kiiko’s course.
I read it’s very effective and often with immediate symptom relief.
I’d really need this because many of my clients try it for two or three times while I’m still figuring out the Rx in some cases…

I know you can relieve symptoms quickly too but for me still it’ll be longer learning while I need some fast strategies now….

I’m also going for Will Maclean’s seminar on Lingering Pathogens, taking place in three weeks time in London.
My first educational activity since I graduated. It’ll be interesting and hopefully will recharge my batteries a bit…

Take care and keep up the good work with the education. I’ll join your web as soon as I recover from overloading myself with too much work…

Have a good rest of the weekend too.
Regards,
R

Hi R

Delighted to hear you are getting some excellent results for your patients.

Yes, Toyo Hari and Kikko’s protocols are effective, no question but their diagnostic flexibility is limited as result of not utilizing Zang Fu physiology at all.

I have never said that TCM does not work, I have been in practice for 25 years the first 12 years exclusively using TCM.

Whilst I obtained some excellent results using TCM the ability to discern why the treatment was effective or not effective was always marginal at the best.

The discomfort levels of my patient’s proved to be a limiting factor in their willingness to return for maintenance treatment and the lack of recognition of the importance of utilizing a comprehensive understanding of the meridians in my opinion severely limits the clinical efficacy and flexibility of TCM

Most importantly using abrasive needling techniques on Yang deficient patients will always result in a negative outcome for the patient.
In other words they feel terrible after treatment and sometimes stay that way for weeks afterwards.

I cannot tell you how many people have come to me in fear after being hurt by TCM needling.

It takes a lot of convincing to get the people to try acupuncture again and it saddens me that so many people are alienated from using acupuncture again as a result of the Neanderthal needling skills of   some practitioners!

In TJM, a protocol that embraces both Meridian Therapy and Zang Fu theories, the ability to navigate my way to a clear and concise diagnosis is far superior to either TCM or Meridian Therapy.

The needling and moxibustion skills required to deliver spontaneous results in clinic requires much dedication and practice.

Without question, for me the TJM protocol is light years ahead of TCM.
It is not just a matter of bunging the needle in and turning it around!

For me quality acupuncture is about the level of effectiveness, dynamic results and consumer comfort.

The gentler the treatment, providing the results are effective, the more likely the patient is to return for follow up treatment.
It is much easier to sell the concept of Preventative treatment if we are able to treat in a gentle and consumer friendly manner.

As you know I use acupuncture exclusively in treatment, my choice.

The results that you see on the videos and in the posts on my blog reflect the efficacy of a single modality namely Traditional Acupuncture.

http://www.worldacupunctureblog.com/acupuncture-for-post-natal-depression-and-recovery-from-spinal-surgery

http://www.worldacupunctureblog.com/japanese-acupuncture-treatment-to-relieve-the-symptoms-of-adult-onset-chickenpox

http://www.worldacupunctureblog.com/japanese-acupuncture-relieves-severe-flu-symptoms

http://www.worldacupunctureblog.com/japanese-acupuncture-for-3-year-old

I hope you enjoy Will’s seminar and love the fact you continue to strive for improvement.

Thanks heaps for your email and I wish you all the best, as always.

Kind Regards,
Alan

PS.
If you want to refine your acupuncture skills you could do a lot worse than researching http://worldacupunctureblog.com PLUS http://worldacupuncture.com will be up and running in the next couple of months, at $10 per month it is a lot cheaper alternative than those you mentioned in your email

Alan

Hi Alan,

Thank you kindly for taking time to reply in such a detail. I was checking the web in more detail and have to say, those pictures of the nature are just absolutely amazing…
They remind me of my stay in Oz and they really are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing them…

Well, you persuaded me to try it your way, even though I planned to do things in different order. I’d like to sign up for a membership but before I do that, do you mind if I have a few comments and questions please?

1) Is it possible to pay in bulk for the membership till the end of this year? Or you automatically charge the credit card once a month? It would save me time thinking that I need to pay for my credit card using the first option. I use credit card belonging to my UK account and get the bank statements with significant delay, so it just would be easier for me to pay it all in one bigger payment if possible in order to avoid forgetting to pay it back on time.

It will be possible but we are still working on that option, your patience in this regard world be much appreciated.

2) I’m not sure if it’s still on offer or not, I read somewhere on your website about you providing one-on-one mentoring.   How does this work, because I imagine it’s very time consuming for you, so is there a time limit per month that you offer help with our clients’ case studies?

As a special introductory offer to you I can put aside one hour of one on one instruction per month for the first six months.
You will need to be on skype to access the mentoring program.

3) I cannot seem to access the videos related to your case studies. I assume I should click on “online videos by veoh.com” link just below the text of the blog post but this informs me that Veoh is no longer available here, so it’s not accessible this way for me. I came across some of these videos somehow when browsing on YouTube I think but yours were mixed with some other acupuncture videos so I probably didn’t get to see all of them and also the picture is really small in the right top corner of the screen…
Try http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=worldacupuncture&aq=f

This is now a viable alternative to Veoh since we have posted a vast majority of the videos from http://worldacupunctureblog.com on You Tube.

It’s not a big deal for me but I’ll see if I’ll be able to access the instructional videos related to your tutorials and if not, I might ask you for some guidance…I’ll see…
The instructional videos on http://worldacupuncture.com will be ready in the next month or two, please be patient on this one.

4) While browsing your web, it caught my eye the home study that Mr Rosenfarb is promoting. He mentions Laws of Attraction are responsible for his success etc.
Andy has built a remarkable Acupuncture practice in New Jersey, with patients flying in from all over the planet.
I have no doubt he would accredit some of that success to the above course.
Without question Andy has a highly developed work ethic and continues to strive to perfect his treatment protocols especially when working with the visually disadvantaged.

http://www.acupuncturehealth.net/

Have you done the course by any chance?

If it is what I think it is, I’ve known of laws of attraction and other metaphysical concepts and have been using it for years so I was just wondering if you might have any personal experience with it…Not that I want to be seeing so many clients a week but if there is something I don’t know yet….

I don’t think so,  I believe gratitude for our blessings can go a long way towards opening the abundant door of opportunity.

5) What’s the best way to start do you think? I have the book “Practice…” ( and DVD which I haven’t had a chance to see yet) by Ikeda Masakazu, so I can start reading it. I also have the pinkish violet book. I suppose some basic introductory explanations will be on the web itself…

Read ‘Traditional Japanese Acupuncture, Fundamentals of Meridian Therapy’ http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Japanese-Acupuncture-Fundamentals-Meridian/dp/0967303443 in conjunction with viewing the DVD’s http://www.worldacupuncture.com/products/department1.cfm then get stuck into ‘The Practice of Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibuston’ http://www.eastlandpress.com/books/the_practice_of_japanese_acupuncture_and_moxibustion_classic_principles_in_action.php

Short answers are sufficient, pls don’t spend too much of your time on this. And you don’t have to rush either with replying, I’m busy anyway:)

Thanks a lot and have a good one mate:)
Cheers,
R

Alan Jansson is an internationally recognized teacher and practitioner of Traditional Japanese Acupuncture.  For well over a decade, independent of and in conjunction with Masakazu Ikeda sensei and Edward Obaidey, Alan has presented, convened and hosted in the vicinity of 30 Traditional Japanese Acupuncture workshops in Australia, New Zealand and USA. Driven by a strong desire to promote the consumer friendly nature, clinical efficacy and potency of Meridian Based Traditional Japanese Acupuncture, Alan is a staunch advocate of practically based workshops and draws upon his 25 years clinical experience and 14 years post and undergraduate teaching in a concerted effort to lift the bar globally in the clinical application of this most amazing medical art.

Join him in Exploring the Art of Acupuncture in the 21st century at http://www.Worldacupunctureblog.com

For more info, please visit: http://www.Worldacupuncture.com