Guest Teacher Module
52 hours Grand Rounds with TSCA Senior Faculty in Acupuncture Orthopedics
Select and Grand Rounds from the almost 200 hours offered Thursdays-Mondays with the college’s senior faculty. NOTE: Grand Rounds hours may be completed between September 2012 and June 2013.

_______________________________________

Module 1 Seminar: A Foundation of Qi with Andrew Nugent-Head: July 13-15, 2012
Developing Your Qi and Using It in the Clinic: From Personal Practice to Treating Patients

 Mistakenly thought of as ‘energy’ in the West, Qi has many different meanings in Chinese. First by explaining what Qi literally means in Chinese language and cultural usages, and then by contrasting it with current English translations, Andrew Nugent-Head creates a clear understanding of what Qi is and isn’t from the Chinese perspective. Participants then integrate this clear understanding with real experience by learning the Eight Storing Qi & Developing Sensitivity Exercises. These are the foundation practices of the Yin Style Bagua medical tradition, which reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty court at the end of the 19th century. They bring the practitioner's awareness to the Qi within their own body and then increase, store and move Qi within the body. This is followed by demonstration of affecting Qi in other people, critical to testing and strengthening one's own practice.
 Taking this skill into the clinic and to the treatment of your patients is what defines Classical Chinese Medicine. The patient has to tangibly feel the Qi, and the practitioner must be able to tangibly control the Qi. To do so means not just having a personal practice like the Eight Storing Qi & Developing Sensitivity Exercises, it means understanding the issues involved with affecting Qi in others within the context of Chinese medicine and internal cultivation. After learning the subtle hand, breath and body skills necessary to generate obvious Qi sensations at specific points and along the channels, participants pair up for partnered practice. A person skilled in these techniques should be able to create an intentional, obvious and controllable sensation in 8 out of 10 people.

Integrating this understanding into the clinic means understanding how to channel this skill through a needle or into a bodywork technique. The tangible manipulation of Qi must be organic, built into every part of the treatment a practitioner gives in whatever circumstances are present. It must be a natural extension of the practitioner, not a complicated state to achieve. Participants are challenged to develop a flexibility of application, realizing that tangibly affecting Qi in a patient is not the end goal of the treatment, but the starting place. Manipulating Qi is not a high skill secretly passed on but a simple ability once commonly shared by all practitioners. Demonstrating with acupuncture and bodywork, Andrew Nugent-Head walks participants through each stage of the process to completely demystify the use of Qi.

Finally, participants will end by revisiting the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Practices from the perspective of tangibly manipulating Qi in patients. Aside from personal development, which of the practices train what clinical techniques? How can I integrate the practices within my treatment strategies? With these questions answered, participants will have the information and techniques needed to approach every clinical situation from a foundation of Qi.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork.

Module 1 Grand Rounds Clinic: July 16
This three day intensive seminar is followed by Grand Rounds focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly.

Module 1 Teaching Daoyin Health Practices to Patients: July 17-18
Each morning, participants learn and practice the Eight Healing Sounds from the Yin Style Bagua Tradition, then each afternoon teach them to actual patients in the TSCA community clinic under Andrew' supervision. Taught to patients at the end of a treatment session to dramatically speed their healing process, each Sound affects a different organ and is prescribed individually or in combination in the same manner as herbs.

Module 2: Core Clinical Skills with Andrew Nugent-Head: July 20-22, 2012
Qi Based Needling Skills, Integrating Bodywork & Ashi Techniques for Back & Joint Pain

Building upon the Foundation of Qi in Module 1, participants first review the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Exercises, followed by a brief Question and Answer session on previous material. Participants are then introduced to the concept of the Eight Functions of Qi within the context of treating physical injuries and residual pain. This theoretical foundation is critical to achieving complete and lasting results for your patients, whether it be to avoid a potential surgery, recover after one, or treat the pain they live with due to their condition.
Manipulating the Qi within your patient is the very core of classical acupuncture and bodywork. Whether you are gathering the Qi in an area to strengthen a joint, or dispersing a blockage of Qi inhibiting the healing of a muscle, the language of Qi defines the diagnosis, treatment strategy and treatment method. Having this language is the first step, making sure your techniques are Qi based is the next. Participants learn to Tonify and Disperse the Qi with acupuncture from the foundation of Qi covered in Module 1. This integration of Qi based theory and Qi based treatment is central to being a clinically confident practitioner in the field of orthopedics and rehabilitation.

Acupuncture, however, is rarely enough on its own. Treatments of joints and muscles often require bodywork to be fully effective. Integrating bodywork techniques with acupuncture dramatically increases efficacy and recovery time. Learning classic bodywork and bodywork-acupuncture combinations from the Yin Style Bagua medical tradition, participants enter into the 'hands on' approach to physical medicine that once was integral to the field of trauma within Chinese medicine.

In the treatment of physical injuries and pain, the most important of all acupuncture techniques is Ashi needling. Originating in the Nei Jing's Ling Shu靈樞 (Spiritual Pivot), used by Hua Tuo and described in detail by Sun Simiao, Ashi points are the single most important treatment method for treating physical injuries manifesting as pain in the back and limbs. Depending on the situation, patients can see clear improvement within 72 hours of treatment and often be free of pain with just a few sessions. To achieve this level of efficacy, however, involves recognizing the pathways of pain, understanding body mechanics, and being able to differentiate the Yin-Yang aspects of new and old injuries. Andrew Nugent-Head will cover these critical topics as well as demonstrate Ashi needling by itself and as part of a protocol involving multiple needles and bodywork.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork.

Module 2 Grand Rounds Clinic: July 23
This three day intensive seminar is followed by Grand Rounds focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly.

Module 2 Teaching Daoyin Health Practices to Patients: July 24-25
Each morning, participants learn and practice the Eight Healing Sounds from the Yin Style Bagua Tradition, then each afternoon teach them to actual patients in the TSCA community clinic under Andrew' supervision. Taught to patients at the end of a treatment session to dramatically speed their healing process, each Sound affects a different organ and is prescribed individually or in combination in the same manner as herbs.

Module 3: Pattern Recognition with Andrew Nugent-Head: Sept 21-23, 2012
Treating Qi Stagnation vs. Blood Stasis; Needling & Bodywork Integration II

Expanding on the techniques already learned, Andrew introduces deeper aspects of Qi based needling and bodywork integration methods. Never losing sight of clinical application, the focus is on building better bodywork skills to affect the skeletal system and maximize the smooth flow of Qi and Blood.
From this perspective, Andrew Nugent-Head then addresses Qi Stagnation vs. Blood Stasis within the context of physical injury. Understanding the traditional method of Qi and Blood differentiation 氣血辨證 means one can readily identify Stagnation 滯 and Stasis 瘀 as factors of pain. Qi and Blood are the active manifestations of Yin and Yang in the body, thus understanding them is understanding movement and flow in the body.
As Qi and Blood are defined by its flow in the body, acupuncture is the greatest tool to treat their disharmony. The acupuncture, however, must reflect a solid grasp of the situation and then make use of different needling techniques to achieve the best result. At this stage, clear theoretical differentiation of Qi Stagnation and Blood Stasis becomes key to raising the scope and efficacy of clinical practice. In this module, we address the inseparable link of Chinese medical theory and clinical skill as our method of understanding and treating disharmony. Clearly outlying theory and demonstrating the difference in needling techniques, Andrew lays the foundation for successful hand skill and classical theory integration of Chinese medical treatments for physical injury.

Note:
This seminar begins first with a review the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Exercises, recap the treatment theories and treatment techniques covered to date, and follow up with a Question and Answer session based on previous modules. This Q&A is focused on addressing issues participants discovered while integrating modules 1 and 2 into their own clinical practices.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork. Friday and Saturday night from 5-7 PM participants will continue to help staff the Daoyin Clinic.

Module 3 Grand Rounds Clinic and Teaching Daoyin Health Practices to Patients: September 24
This three day intensive seminar is followed by a half-day Grand Rounds focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly. The other half of the day will focus on the therapeutic use of Daoyin practices in clinic and further Daoyin practice.

Module 4: Channels & Points with Andrew Nugent-Head: December 7-9, 2012
Ma Danyang Heavenly Star Points in the Clinic; Needling & Bodywork Integration III

Module 4 introduces the final piece to confident and effective in the field of physical injury treatment: acupuncture channel theory and clinical application. To this point, we have learned to:

1.ensure tangible Qi is the foundation of our treatment;
2.clearly use acupuncture and bodywork to Tonify or Disperse
3.treat injuries through bodywork and Ashi needling
4.integrate the all important concept of Stagnation and Stasis in viewing trauma

By using the Ma Danyang 12 Heavenly Star Points as our vehicle, we now bring what we are all most familiar with into the clinical theater: the twelve channels and point functions. We do it, however, with a focus on orthopedics and rehabilitation, and at a level of inquiry rarely discussed by acupuncturists today.
Not only can channel theory be applied to obvious physical injuries, it is the key to treating the issues which western medicine cannot point to a specific cause. Atrophy, deep achiness, wandering pain, groaning with movement, inability to lift the limbs despite a desire to do so... all are problems addressed by the Heavenly Star Points because of their functions and channels they belong to. Knowing the why of the twelve most important points in acupuncture means knowing the why of every other point on the body.

Note:
This seminar begins first with a review the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Exercises, recap the treatment theories and treatment techniques covered to date, and follow up with a Question and Answer session based on previous modules. This Q&A is followed up by an intensive dialogue on technique integration within participants' clinics after 5 months of practice in the techniques thus far taught.
This is followed by an introduction to more advanced needling and bodywork integration techniques drawn from the group discussion. Andrew focuses the demonstration of Qi based needling and bodywork integration methods based on the practical issues raised by the participants in their own practices.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork. Friday and Saturday night from 5-7 PM participants continue to staff the Daoyin clinic.

Module 4 Grand Rounds Clinic: and Teaching Daoyin Health Practices to Patients: December 10
This three day intensive seminar is followed by Grand Rounds focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly. The other half of the day will focus on the therapeutic use of Daoyin practices in clinic and further Daoyin practice.

Module 5: The Experience of Our Ancestors with Andrew Nugent-Head: March 1-3, 2013
Yin Style Bagua Treatment Protocols I & Integrating External Medicines

The basics of physical injury treatment from both the theoretical and technique perspectives now covered, participants have everything they need to be successful practitioners in the field of orthopedics and rehabilitation. Everything that is, except for experience.
At this stage of practice, it is no longer the application of techniques that defines success, but the sequence in which the techniques are applied that decides how effective the treatment will be. The strategies of interspersing Tonification and Dispersal, correct timing of distal and local points, the sequence of affecting Blood and Qi are the most overlooked and underestimated part of any treatment protocol. Often, it is not even addressed by teachers who do not realize its importance, and the classic books simply list points with no guide to using them at all.
Drawing from his years with the late Yin Style Bagua practitioner Dr. Xie Peiqi and his own clinical practice, Andrew shares the most important part of clinical medicine: experience. He lays out classic protocols for both acute and chronic problems in the realm of physical medicine, and discusses the why's behind the sequence of treatment. This includes seeing the problem from the inside and the outside, from an acupuncture and herbal perspective.

As practitioners of Chinese medicine, we stand on the efforts of our medical ancestors. Their hard won knowledge and the records passed on through each generation is not to be taken lightly. Zhang Zhongjing states of his contemporaries, "Strange it is that practitioners of my generation do not treasure the records of the past, studying them diligently to treat those above, allieve the suffering of those below, and maintain their own health."

Aside from presenting protocols from several generations of the Yin Style Bagua medical tradition, Andrew will finish by asking for case histories from participants and creating protocols on the fly to encourage a flexible understanding of treatment strategies and methods. He will also include suggestions throughout seminar for including external medicines in powder, herbal soak, alcohol extraction, paste and other forms to speed the treatment process.

Note:
This seminar begins first with a review the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Exercises, recap the treatment theories and treatment techniques covered to date, and follow up with a Question and Answer session based on previous modules. This Q&A is followed up by an intensive dialogue on technique integration within participants' clinics after 6 months of practice in the techniques thus far taught.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork. Friday and Saturday night from 5-7 Participants continue to staff the Daoyin Clinic.

Module 5 Grand Rounds Clinic and Teaching Daoyin Health Practices: March 4
This three day intensive seminar is followed by Grand Rounds for half day on Monday focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly; The other half of the day will focus on the therapeutic use of Daoyin practices in clinic and further Daoyin practice.

Module 6: The Experience of Our Ancestors II with Andrew Nugent-Head: May 3-5, 2013
Yin Style Bagua Treatment Protocols II & Integrating External Medicines

Module 6 focuses deeply on the importance of sequence in any treatment protocol. Taking examples for treating the shoulder and knee, Andrew arranges and re-arranges the sequence of techniques to be used in a protocol based on whether the injury is acute or chronic and whether the patient is constitutionally strong or weak. This matrix of changing according to the injury and to the person segways into protocols for treating the elderly and infirm–perhaps the patient group in most need of our medicine.
Participants will also have been encouraged to send in cases they have questions on ahead of time to be addressed in a detailed fashion from a theoretical and treatment protocol perspective by Andrew during the seminar.

"At this point, we are all equals as practitioners, all of us sharing a common knowledge base of theory and treatment method. I will have shared everything I can possibly think of to give you all the knowledge I have learned over the years treating physical conditions. The only thing I cannot give you is those actual years of experience. But I can give you its fruits by explaining how I would see and address what you are treating in your clinic. My hope is that you will grasp in a flash the key to Classical Chinese Medicine: it is the perspective of how you see things that defines your techniques, thus your protocols, and thus your successes."

As before, Andrew will also include suggestions throughout for including external medicines in powder, herbal soak, alcohol extraction, paste and other forms to speed the treatment process.

Note:
This seminar begins first with a review the Eight Storing Qi and Developing Sensitivity Exercises, recap of the treatment theories and treatment techniques covered to date, and follow up with a Question and Answer session based on previous modules. This Q&A is followed up by an intensive dialogue on technique integration within participants' clinics after 7 months of practice in the techniques thus far taught.
All seminars include partnered practice and guided practice time using both needles and bodywork. Friday and Saturday night from 5-7PM participants staff the Daoyin clinic.

Module 6 Grand Rounds Clinic and Teaching Daoyin Practices to Patients: May 6
This three day intensive seminar is followed by Grand Rounds focusing on applying the content covered this seminar. In Grand Rounds, Andrew treats actual patients in a clinical situation while talking about his treatment methods and accepting questions from the group during the process. The Grand Rounds Clinic features an overhead camera broadcast to monitors for the audience to follow his hand and needling techniques clearly; The other half of the day will focus on the therapeutic use of Daoyin practices in clinic and further Daoyin practice.

Module 7 (June 28-30, 2013) with Mark Seem, PhD

This seminar begins with a critical review of the French Association of Acupuncture Approach to Rheumatological Disorders in the work of Guillaume and Chieu, and the APM approach that derived from French Meridian Acupuncture with its Acupuncture Trigger Point Dry Needing techniques. The latter will be compared to Medical Trigger Point Dry Needling within the context of Physical Therapy in the work of Baldrey, Gunn, Dommerholtz et al. Each day will begin with didactic sessions from 9-11 facilitated by participants who will work in teams to present the main ideas. Seem will then lead a didactic review of the Taiyang, Shaoyang and Yangming Protocols, one per day ending with a Demonstration of Techniques, from 11-1. Partnered Practice of techniques covered will run from 2-4 and each day will end with one Grand Rounds treatment demonstrating the APM Approach to Physical Medicine Disorders.

Module 8 (September 2012 to June 2013): Grand Rounds with Senior Faculty

Participants will from the Grand Rounds offered by the college’s most senior faculty for 52 hours total over 10 months. These Grand Rounds are offered in 4, 6 and 8 hour formats on Thursdays through Mondays depending on the month and the practitioner selected. The actual schedule of Grand Rounds will be made available to all participants by July 1, 2012.

Program and Malpractice Insurance Fees

Tuition: $5,000
Malpractice Insurance: $150

Payment Schedule: $500 down payment # 1 due with course application; $650 down payment # 2 due (incudes malpractice insurance) 6/15/12; $1,000 due 8/1/12; $2,000 due 10/15/12; $1,000 due 1/15/13.

After $1,150 down payment and malpractice has been paid, participants may elect to pay on a monthly payment plan, which incurs a $25/month service fee as follows: $425/month (includes service fee) from July 15 2012 to April 15, 2013 inclusive for 10 payments ($4,250).

Application Process

Mail application form with $500 made out to TSCA, earmarked AORM course;
Enclose a copy of your most recent NYS acupuncture license or permit, or other state acupuncture license and request a formal a copy of your AOM college masters degree diploma to be sent directly, or equivalent OR NYS certification for physicians and dentists;
Indicate if you will be requesting a payment plan.
Send all materials to Tri-State College of Acupuncture/ Attn: Sandra Turner, Director of Admissions, 80 Eighth Avenue, suite 400, NY, NY 10011.