Medical Acupuncture / dry needling
London 23/24/11
Always on the lookout for additional techniques for my portfolio, and obviously attracted by the idea of sticking needles into people, we signed up for this dry needling course. the course is specifically tailored by trained osteopaths to suit professionals with a good anatomical knowledge basis and normal practice. That means that indeed these needling techniques will be perfectly combinable with a normal osteopathic treatment. I have found so myself when I was treating a friend for Achilles tendonitis today. Whilst there were needles sticking in his gluteals, hamstrings, gastrosoleus complex and in and around the calcaneal tendon insertion, I was happily treating his pelvis and back prone.
I won't go into detail regarding the initial experience of getting needles stuck into oneself or of sticking them into the skin and muscle of others. At least the latter was not as difficult or unpleasant as one might assume at first. I may hint at the fact that I was very glad when we reached the end of the course at 5 pm on Sunday, after what I estimate must have been about 130 needles that we were at the receiving end of throughout this weekend. That included techniques with the martial name of 'periosteal pecking' (yes, like a woodpecker tapping your bony skull) and bloody four centimetres of threat going through your thighs. Importantly, we also learned about the physiological effects of needling and I feel very confident both explaining those to patients and professionals and performing the techniques themselves. However far down the traditional Chinese way one might want to go, the basic toolkit is there now and many interesting things with regards to meridians etc. will be found in books. I am looking forward to some more practice... |