Advanced TCM

Purpose of this Page

The purpose of this section of Heidi M. Hawkins' Acupuncture World is the sharing of information with practitioners and students of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). If you are a student or practitioner of TCM, I welcome your thoughts on the ideas put forth in this section. Perhaps it will develop into a forum.

Apprentice/Small Group Learning

I am interested in apprenticeship and small group, discussion-oriented teaching. If this style of learning interests you, please send e-mail as below. Also, please check the schedule of classes for more details.

Special Topics: HIV/AIDS

After three years of working at the Kang Wen Clinic in Seattle, providing TCM treatment for people with HIV/AIDS, I started to develop some of my own ideas. I had become dissatisfied with "band-aid" type treatments, where treatment would focus on the symptom of the moment. I started to seriously consider the idea of treating the HIV itself, as a Lingering Pathogenic Factor (LPF). I devised a protocal for doing so, using the following acupuncture points: This protocal is not about treating symptoms, but on eradicating the specific lingering pathogen which causes the syndrome known as HIV/AIDS. Granted, every client will have his/her own imbalances to address, and other lingering pathogens will undoubtedly be involved. This acupuncture point protocal is specific to HIV. The protocal is probably most useful on asymptomatic clients who are not on heavy medication, or those whose symptoms are minor. Treatment requires committment on the part of the client to receive treatment weekly, and to generally take care of his/her own health. Such treatment on people who smoke, drink alcohol with any frequency, use drugs addictively, or are heavily medicated would be pointless. People with advanced HIV/AIDS are usually too symptomatic for treatment to focus on the pathogen itself. Adding a number of other acupoints to this protocal in practice will greatly diminish its effectiveness. Comments? Opinions? Try my protocal if you can, and let me know what you think.

Special Topics: Hepatitis

I was asked to come up with a protocal for treating chronic Hepatitis as a lingering pathogen. Here it is: Once again, lifestyle factors and preponderance of symptoms are likely to make this treatment ineffective. Adding a number of other points to the protocal will greatly diminish the effectiveness of this protocal.

Special Topics: Zang System Energetics

This is a project mainly focused on observing and cataloging the Zang System energetics of the endocrine system and individual parts of the brain. If this interests you, or you have something to contribute please send e-mail to heidimo@gmail.com. Research is too experimental to be posted yet, but please check back!

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