Acupuncture Archives | White Pine Institute

Missing Sa’am

Toby Daly

Last autumn, I decided to take a sabbatical starting April 8. At the time, little did I know that my clinic would be closing by mid-March anyway. My practice barely became telemedicine when I handed it over to Daniel Eng for the duration of my sabbatical. At this point, it’s been two months since I’ve done acupuncture, save a few treatments on myself and the group I live with. I find myself missing it. This is especially true since I fell in love with Sa’am acupuncture, after studying with Toby Daly. Sa’am acupuncture is so refreshing in its simplicity and effectiveness. A year of practicing it only served to make me hungry to do and learn more.

I want to let people know that Toby Daly, my own teacher, will be teaching an introductory course on Sa’am through healthy seminars.

June 13 and 14, 2020. This is a great time to learn these principles so you can restart your practice with this powerful form of medicine.

Toby is also teaching a class a one hour class on Structuring a Food Therapy Consultation on May 17, from 1-2 through Qiological. I’ll be in that class for sure. Toby is a delight to study with no matter what he is teaching.

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2020-05-12T09:23:51-07:00May 12th, 2020|Acupuncture|0 Comments

Guest Post: Birth Basics Class

Guest Post by Claudia Citkovitz

I’ll be there!

Save the date! Birth Basics Class has arrived.

My book, Acupressure, and Acupuncture during Birth won’t be out until December 19, but I’ll be teaching all the content (and then some) here at White Pine Healing Arts on September 28-29, 2019.

The class will cover needle and bodywork approaches for everything from labor preparation and prenatal homework through the three stages of labor and postpartum care. In particular, we will look at the roles of Yin, Yang, Qi, and Blood in birth, and the effects of stagnation and deficiency on contractions, dilatation, and descent of the baby through the pelvis.

Suitable for non-acupuncturists such as doulas and midwives, students learn to recognize the faces of yin and yang, as they manifest and shift throughout the course of labor and delivery. Using a clinical problem-solving approach, you will learn to assess balance and flow from labor preparation through the postpartum period and use acupressure, bodywork, auriculotherapy, and moxibustion to support and encourage healthy labor. Acupuncturists taking the course will learn a full range of needling and non-needling techniques, suitable for even the most conservative hospitals. Non-acupuncturist birth professionals will come away with a powerful but manageable toolbox of new techniques for helping moms with breech, oligohydramnios and polyhydramnios, IUGR and other […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2019-08-13T05:25:32-07:00August 12th, 2019|Acupuncture, Adjunctive Therapies, Books, Gynecology, Obstetrics|0 Comments

SA’AM ACUPTUNCTURE

Before writing this post, I want to let you know about a precious Sa’am learning opportunity. You can learn about it here. This course will be such a profoundly good investment in your acupuncture practice.

Toby Daly and Dog

In my clinic, I’ve been practicing Sa’am acupuncture pretty exclusively for almost a year. I learned about it first from an article in the Journal of Chinese Medicine and then by hearing a Sa’am practitioner, Toby Daly, being interviewed by Michael Max on the Qiological Podcast. It was listening to this interview that really started to get me intrigued by the ideas behind Sa’am acupuncture. In my own work, I had been studying the relationship between the Wu Xing and the Liu Qi, the 5 phases and the 6 Qi in relation to herbal medicine and classic formulas. Toby’s discussion brought the two together for me in relation to acupuncture in an exciting way. Each Zang and Fu is related to both a phase and a Qi. For example, the kidneys are of the water phase and of the fire Qi (the Qi of Shao Yin). The liver is of the wood phase and wind Qi (the Qi of Jue Yin). Based on the characteristics of these combinations, one diagnoses, and treats. I […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2019-07-21T12:42:04-07:00July 19th, 2019|Acupuncture|0 Comments

Nice Little Acupuncture Case

Here is a guest post from a student of mine, Guy Sedan, from Israel. I love the simplicity of this case and the process Guy went through to determine treatment, including taking into account the boy’s fear of needles.

Eleven years old boy. Severe abdominal pain especially in stressful situations like in school. About 5 times a year this situation culminates to fecal incontinence. He is an intelligent, imaginative kid, yet his demeanor reflects some fear. Slightly chubby.

Gets irritated easily.

Tongue (picture on the left): Fluted edges, red spots in the sides, thick white coating, and a slight dip at the root of the tongue.

Pulse: wiry in the Guan positions

Diagnosis: Depressive Liver heat, Damp in the middle Jiao

Treatment plan: course the Liver, transform dampness from the middle Jiao

Acupuncture: Sp-9, GB-34 both Bilaterally, CV-12, very shallow needling, with Seirin 0.12 mm needles.

A week later, the patient reports great improvement with the pain. The tongue (picture on the right), reflects the improvement in the T&T of fluids.

Explanation:

GB-34 and Sp-9 are both He (Uniting) -Sea points. I chose these points for the following reasons:

These points are relatively not painful. This boy feared being needled
In 68^th difficulty in Nan Jing it is said:

合主逆氣而泄
He (uniting) points master movement contrary […]

By Sharon Weizenbaum|2019-06-12T09:53:03-07:00June 12th, 2019|Acupuncture|0 Comments