The Sternum Treatment

Today's topic of the advanced course was about "the sternum treatment".

When looking at the body in terms of yin and yang, each line of back shu points (the outer line, the inner line of bladder meridians, JJ line, GV line) is given each meaning, but the same thing can be said even when comparing it with the abdomen. The GV line, the pole of the yang side, the back, is used when the practitioner judges that the deficiency of Jin qi is severe from his/her experience. When the deficiency of Jin-qi progresses further, the treatment would be done on the CV line on the yin side. Even within the CV line, there are yin and yang; the sternum is on the yang area and the lower abdomen is on the yin area.

As well as the back shu points treatment, these CV points in the sternum also follow the abdominal diagnosis pattern. This treatment is very effective especially for patients who cannot lie on the prone position. In addition, the sternum treatment is used right after the outer line, without using GV line, so the choice of tools are also important; Teishin needle or Chinetsukyu. It is very difficult to use a filiform needle and tonetsu-kyu (heat penetrating moxa). For reference points, one should check Shaku mainly and reactions such as the bicipital groove. However, you have to be very careful for a female patients because of breasts and the underwear...

You might not use this treatment so often, but you have to be used with it in your practice so that you can use it when necessary.

Insertion of SJ Needle

It is difficult to insert a SJ needle, how can I insert it? We'd like to talk about this question today.

Firstly, let us consider this technically. Is the posture of your Oshide (pressing hand) foamed stably? Oshide plays the role of opening the skin and guiding the needle towards its direction. If the right and left balance of Oshide is not equivalent, you are unable to make the angle of the needle that is perpendicular to the surface of the skin. In this situation, it is impossible to transmit the pressure of Sashide (needling hand) to the needle tip properly.

In fact, the pressure required for penetrating the needle is very subtle. It is as small as not bending a soft silver needle, so if you missed only a little, the pressure transmitted to the needle tip can be reduced, nearly zero sometimes. If you are continuing this, it is impossible to insert the needle forever.

In addition, if the purpose is just inserting the needle, you can force to insert the needle. However, this forcing needling is not related to tonifying the Jin-qi and healing process of diseases. It is notable how to insert a needle is also important.

Here, let us look at it from a different point of view. The needle used in Shakuju therapy is special for its tip being round and difficult to insert. Comparing with other needles, SJ needle is a kind of difficult-to-insert-needle in terms of its needle tip and its elasticity. Actually, this is the point.

Let me give you an example. When teaching students who just start learning acupuncture how to insert a SJ needle, they can insert it easily. However, as more years of experience of acupuncturists pass, more difficult for them to insert a needle. Why? Hint lays in the word "comparing with other needles" mentioned above. The difference between senior and fresh students are the difference of the amount of "common sense" of acupuncture sphere. If the difference of them is only the amount of practice, the senior students must take the advantage.

Moreover, I myself don't think that a SJ needle is not an especially-difficult-to-insert-needle. The difference between the easy-to-insert needle and the difficult-to-insert needle is not in the needle itself, but in the body of the recipient. This needle can be inserted anywhere in the body, so the stereotype that it is impossible to insert the SJ needle is irrelevant.

In other words, it is necessary to understand that it is you who accept the common sense of its difficulty of insertion and create its result. The common sense such as you have to needle in the painful area, incurable diseases, impossible to cure with acupuncture, these are what you accept and create the phenomena. You have to cross the border of such common sense. Here, coming back to the today's question, the answer is that you have to break the common sense that you have to insert a needle to be able to insert a SJ needle.

basic training of insertion (BL 40)
The round needle tip
Open the point with the thumb and index finger of Oshide.
(1) Inserting skill
(2) The ability to grasp change of the body
Perpendicular to the skin

Thank You for Attending at Pacific Symposium 2012

Thank you for attending the lecture and post-symposium workshop of Shoji Kobayashi's Shakuju Therapy at Pacific Symposium 2012!

It is a great honor for us to participate such a big successful symposium! We hope that those who attended Shakuju Therapy lecture and workshop got some ideas of Oriental way of thinking and its application to clinical practices!

In the workshop, more than 50 people joined at the workshop and it covered the whole procedure of basic treatment of Shakuju Therapy! Please practice Shakuju Therapy, and hope to see you next March in Boston!

Thank you very much again for everybody who attended the symposium, and we would like to thank especially for those who organize the Pacific Symposium and our wonderful interpreter, Stephen Brown Sensei! Arigato gozaimashita!!!

Pacific Symposium 2012

Pacific Symposium 2012 is coming very soon!!! Kobayashi Sensei's lecture will be on 11th, and the post-symposium workshop will be held on 12th and 13th!
We, Kobayashi sensei, Hara sensei and other members of Shakuju Association are getting ready for the symposium!

We are looking forward to meeting you all attendees in San Diego! Let us explore the world of acupuncture together!