PRC Elective: Refine Your Acupuncture Diagnostic Skills: Palpation, Pulse, and Needling Techniques

Introduction
Why, hello! Meet Gillian Marsollier, R.Ac. She’s your instructor for this course with over 20 years of clinical experience. She will be giving you a broad overview of what you will be learning in this course in order to understand fast and accurate diagnostic methods!

Course Outline
Gillian says that there are 5 Pillars of diagnosis and also that asking is the LEAST effective form of diagnosis. Find out what she is talking about and also exactly what you will learn in your new course!

Sensing | For a Continually Fresh Perspective
Here, Gillian asks you to forget ALL of your college education. Say what?? Yes. Just for this unit though. Don’t worry, it is all part of the plan.

Sensing | Emptying Your Vessel
This just may be one of the most valuable lessons that you learn for your practice. Perhaps you see it right away, perhaps this takes a few years to sink in. Either way, do stay open to this concept and reflect on it after listening.

Sensing | The Energy in the Room | Part I
The immediate sense that you get off of the patient in the room can sometimes be the only diagnosis that you need to do. Learn this. Practice this. You will see what she means!

Sensing | The Energy in the Room | Part II
Can a patient be both excess and deficient in the same element? How do you use pulse to help decide what is what? Plus, Gillian discusses some useful techniques to use if you take on energy too easily and/or would like to advise patients with anxiety. 

Sensing | Section Summary 

Asking | Why Asking is the Least Effective Form of Gathering Information
Asking is certainly essential for finding out red flags (biomed), medications, surgeries, family history, etc., but it really is one of the LEAST effective methods for diagnosis. Find out why plus get an early look at where you are headed with the techniques that you will learn in this course!

Listening | Behind What is Being Said
This unit will be a great one to listen to over and over so that you can hear these types of voice inflections/sounds/words in clinic (remembering that the severity can vary by different degrees).

Smelling | Learning to Smell Again – With Fun Challenges
Sure, you have learned the 5 odours in TCM college, but here Gillian will guide you through them in a bit more detail. Learn how to create these odours at home so that you can sense them quickly in clinic!

Palpating | An Example to Showcase the Power of Mu / Source Points
Gillian shares a story about why these points are so powerful!

Palpating | How to Assess the Mu Points – Full Demo on a Male Patient
A quick review of your mu points, and also EXACTLY what you are looking for. Most likely, you will get your diagnosis right at this stage, and then explore further with the other techniques in this course. Here, Gillian does a full demo on Michael of mu point palpation and preliminary diagnosis. Very powerful!

Palpating | How to Assess the Mu Points – Full Demo on a Female Patient
Similar to the last unit but this time Gillian works with a female and mu points. What preliminary diagnosis does she find with Carolyn? Find out!

Palpating | How to Assess the Source Points – Full Demo on a Female Patient 
Here, Gillian examines Carolyn’s source points to see if it is matching the earlier mu point findings. You will be amazed at how much can be uncovered with a quick look and palpation!

Palpating | How to Assess the Source Points – Full Demo on a Male Patient
An observation of all of Michael’s source points. Gillian finds some very interesting correlations with his mu point assessment and is able to homing in on a diagnosis (truly – your diagnosis is usually formed by this stage, but good to keep going for verification).

Palpating | Meridian Palpation & Observation 
Learn about how to do quick palpations and observations of the meridians to understand what you are looking for. Gillian discusses doing this when you are still searching for the patient’s diagnosis, and when you already have a diagnosis.

Palpating | Treating and Assessing Changes Simultaneously – Putting it all Together
Watch these techniques in action as you see the start of Carolyn’s knee treatment. Learn exactly how to feel for changes right under your fingertips by using proper needle technique and palpation.

Palpating Section Summary 

Pulse | The Pulse is a Poem
A great big thank you to Samantha Jennings for showing Gillian this pulse method that she’s used for 20+ years to help her understand her patients deeply. And now, she would like to pass it on to you. Move over left brain! This is the right brain time to shine!

Pulse | I Just Don’t Get Pulse. Help!
A quick discussion about understanding pulse when there are extraneous conditions (patient just had a coffee, is on medications, etc.) and a little clinical story to kick off the pulse section!

Pulse | Needle Depth – Using Sensing and Meridian Palpation
Sure, we all learn needle depth in college, but it doesn’t really make a lot of sense when we encounter different body types as well as different types of qi. Gillian looks at how to actually find your needle depth so that you are full connecting the meridian.

Pulse | Using Pulse to Decide Needle Depth and When to Stop Needling 
The same as the last unit, except that Gillian shows using pulse to find needle depth over meridian palpation. She does a demo on Michael so you can see a real-time pulse shift.

Pulse | What if the Pulse Does not Change?
You choose your diagnosis and you pick what you think are the perfect points for your treatment. However, the pulse doesn’t change at all after needling. Here is what you do when you encounter this situation as it happens a lot!

Pulse | General TCM Pattern Pulses and Desired Changes
Here, Gillian discusses how to listen to exactly what kind of changes you are looking for in your main pulses so that you know you will get the result you want. This will inform when to stop needling as well!

Pulse | How to Know when the Treatment is Finished Using Pulse
Gillian uses two methods in order to know when the treatment is finished. These practices can have a huge effect on your results, so do try this yourself and clinic and see the difference! In TCM, everyone is seen to be in a dynamic state of being.  Different energies in different amounts. In this section, Gillian explores all the main energies so you can see where you fit in.

Pulse | Section Summary 

Needling | Needle Order
Do you ever wonder about needle order? We learn all of these great acupoints and needling techniques in college, but no one ever talks about the order of putting them in and taking them out! Needle order is the key to the patient not having adverse reactions to your treatment. Are you ready to dig in further?

Needling | Honing Your Needling Technique 
Using the techniques that you have learned in this course, now is the time to start putting it together by watching both a tonification and reduction on 2 different acupoints. This is where the real power of acupuncture starts to shine through in terms of results!

Needling | Connecting and Visualizing the Energy Movement
This is really the icing on the cake for creating a stronger treatment, results and connecting with your patient at a deeper level. This can be a skill to build up to over time as you empty your vessel, or you may be able to be effective with it immediately. Either way, add it in!

Needling | Summary 

Full Course Review 
Wow! Here you are already. You’ve learned so much in this course about how to take your college skills and some new skills and refine them to increase the power of your diagnosis and results 10-fold. Let’s have a quick review!

Full Course Techniques Demo 
Here we will take all of the techniques that we learned in this course and do a full diagnosis and point selection in just a few minutes. If you practice these skills diligently, you will be able to cut down on your intake time tremendously and simultaneously increase your results!