Seminars on:

Shen - Psychic aspects in Chinese Medicine: classical texts and contemporary practice

Presentation:
Chinese medicine with its intrinsic continuity between the emotional, mental and physical level, is a therapeutic instrument very effective in dealing with cases where the alterations of the shen are both obvious and subtle.
The seminar focuses on the psychic-emotional-mental aspects of patients conditions and it is purposely constructed to facilitate practitioners formulation of diagnosis and treatment.

Choice of the main items

Emotions and movement of qi
- Terminology
- Emotions and classical thought
- Emotions and illness
- Emotions and movements of qi

Research, text interpretation and clinical application of the material described in the classical sources
- shen, hun, po, yi, zhi
- Constraint-yu
- Emotions and heat
- Irritability and restlessness – fanzao
- Mania and withdrawal – diankuang
- Classical syndromes – zangzao, bentunqi, baihebing, meiheqi

Clinical patterns according to TCM differential diagnosis:
aetiology, pathology, clinical manifestations, potential developments, treatment possibilities, discussion of points and their combination (and what to look for in our patients regarding the ‘emotional’):
Main patterns of excess-shi
- Liver-qi stagnation
- Heart-fire
- Phlegm-tan
- Blood-xue stasis
Main patterns of deficiency-xu
- Heart and spleen deficiency
- Heart-yin deficiency, with empty-fire

On patient-practitioner relationship:
resources and difficulties characteristic of acupuncture, and on its inherent problems and qualities
- To regulate shen
- Blocks, traps and spider webs
- This strange object: the needle
- Therapy’s space and time
- Relation dynamics
- Restraining, empathy and neutrality
- The patient within me

Other items can be:

· Report on a protocol applied in a special psychiatric hospital department for Anxiety states

· Contemporary applications by Chinese acupuncturists:
- Stress-related conditions: considerations and clinical notes, Qiao Wenlei
- Points used in serious psychiatric pathology, Zhang Mingjiu
- Mental diseases clinical aspects, Jin Shubai
- Qi alterations and somatic manifestations, Zhang Shijie

· Use of the different stimulation methods: classical (moxibustion, cupping, wooden hammer) and contemporary (auricular and scalp therapies, electro-stimulation, “pulse-ankle” method)

o Any part of the lecture can be followed by personal clinical cases, with discussion on diagnosis, choice of points, on-going treatment and problematic situations

o There can be a space for discussion of cases told by the participants or visiting and treating of their patients

o An overwiew on conventional diagnosis (DSM-IV) can be added, i.e. for Panic Disorder