Engaging Vitality EN

This one-day course is an introduction to Engaging Vitality which is a unique toolbox for the practice of East Asian Medicine developed by Dan Bensky, Charles Chace and Marguerite Dinkins. Engaging Vitality fuses osteopathic concepts and diagnostic techniques with East Asian Medicine, putting palpatory awareness and feedback at the centre of clinical practice. Using palpatory techniques it is possible to determine what processes are taking place within the patient’s body, decide which acupuncture points to use and gauge whether or not treatment is helpful.

Course details
This course is directed to students who have received basic acupuncture training and are currently in practice. 
In this course you will learn the basics of :
1) The Engaging Vitality approach to diagnosis and treatment and how these concepts and techniques can be adapted for any kind of acupuncture or other modalities in East Asian Medicine.
2) Qi Signal Assessment, which is a reliable estimation of the general condition of Qi in a given area. We will first learn how to use it as a screen to check how functional the Qi is in the three Burners. Then we will learn how to use it as part of a methodology for finding useful acupuncture points, as well as one way to get feedback to see if your needling has had a beneficial effect on the body.This technique also enables us to find areas of restriction, active acupuncture points and monitor the effects of our acupuncture treatment on the patient’s qi during treatment.
3) Yang Rhythm, another method of checking both the regional and systemic state of the Qi. Appreciating this not only allow you to select the area of the body that is where treatment needs to focus, but also will give a clear palpable sense of when acupuncture causes the qi to arrive, as well as feeling whether the effect is merely local or systemic.

In addition to Dan and Felix de Haas, we will be lucky enough to have three EV teachers from Germany (Ferdinand Beck, Verena Schnapp and Velia Wortman) present at the course not only to help with the teaching but also to relate how they have integrated these and other Engaging Vitality techniques into their own clinical practices. These teachers all come from very different backgrounds, having studied a wide variety of acupuncture styles under different teachers and can serve as examples of how these techniques can be incorporated into a wide variety of treatment styles.