Integrating Five Elements and TCM - Deepening your Acupuncture
Treatments
Chinese Medicine teaches that there are three main areas causing disease. These
are ‘internal’ (emotional), ‘external’ (climatic) and ‘miscellaneous’ (primarily to
do with lifestyle).
Five Element acupuncture mainly deals with diagnosing and treating the internal
causes, whilst TCM focuses mainly on the external and miscellaneous causes. By
integrating these two styles the three main areas are addressed, leading to a
broader range of conditions that can be treated at the same time as allowing
treatment to reach a deeper more profound level. This ensures that the patient’s
body, mind and spirit are all supported. During this seminar Angela and John
Hicks will be discussing:
• The similarities between Five Elements and TCM and where they overlap
• The differences between Five Elements and TCM and how each different
aspect enhances treatment
• An overview of how the two styles can be integrated
This session aims to give us insight into how we can broaden and deepen what
we do in our own practices.

By treating the weakest link in the Elemental chain, the practitioner achieves a deeper and more lasting change. Treating this constitutional imbalance also forms an important part of any treatment designed to improve symptoms and/or a patient’s overall well being.
The constitutional imbalance is diagnosed by colour on the face, sound in the voice, the patient’s body odour and the most-out-of-balance-emotion. The emotional imbalance is the most revealing of all of these. Each Element produces a wide range of related emotions. For example, anger is the emotion associated with Wood, but an imbalanced Wood can produce depression, mild frustration, anger and ballistic rage – with many variations.
Simple observation, whilst sometimes successful, is rarely sufficient to determine the emotional imbalance. J.R. Worsley developed the process he called ‘emotion testing’ which produces what simple observation alone cannot achieve.
John will show you:
• Through demonstration and lecture, how to develop an ‘emotion-testing’ strategy,
• By using videos of patients, how to see the difference between a normal and an abnormal response, and
• Through exercises and practise, how to develop the required skills.