This is the first of three conversations with Sharon Weizenbaum. Here Waleed Almusharaf and Yassin Gaber speak with Sharon about the errors that cloud precise diagnosing and how to clear those errors.
Sharon Weizenbaum has been practicing for forty years and teaching the Graduate Mentorship Program since 2001. This two and a half-year program is designed for those who have obtained the basics of Chinese herbal training and wish to bring greater skill, effectiveness and confidence to their practices. A unique component to this program is the focus on diagnosis. Many programs teach the indications for herbs and formulas but then when a complex patient walks through the door, you may still be confused about which formula is appropriate. Patients come in and we see a multitude of symptoms (experiences patient’s suffer from) and signs (manifestations we perceive such as pulse, tongue, abdomen, complexion etc., that patents don’t notice) as well as diseases diagnosed by other practitioners. How do you sort through this plethora of input to succinctly determine a very accurate herbal formula? Sharon, recognizing this gap in practitioner’s skills, has been studying and teaching students how to hone the intake process and avoid the pitfalls that drive a diagnosis off track. This is a hallmark of her training.
Through an in depth study of classical physiology the program takes students through the key formula families, the formula architecture and the formula’s relationship to the texts, the Shāng Hān Lún and Jīn Guì Yaò Lüè.
When practitioners engage in this unique and supportive program, their grasp of physiology, diagnosis, herbs and formulas increases exponentially, which naturally leads to profoundly more reliable clinical results and hence, confidence and joy.
00:00 Seeing clearly
03:19 Reasons for not seeing clearly
12:25 Examples of not seeing clearly: depression, dysmenorrhea
16:57 Tools: Examples of clear seeing
25:29 How do you work out “for sure symptoms”
31:24 How exactly the classics help clear seeing
44:29 Classical analogies for clear seeing I: battle or harmony
52:14 Classical analogies for clear seeing II: lines or circles
57:27 Classical analogies for clear seeing III: general or specific disease
1:03:03 Classical analogies for clear seeing IV: whole patterns
1:09:33 Example: Constipation in classical context
1:20:01 How does it feel to see clearly?
