Yesterday was a day when life came full circle in many ways – and it was a chance to look back on my professional life and see how far I have come. More than 40 years ago I sat my final exams as a UCL psychology undergraduate in the Mary Ward centre in Bloomsbury. Yesterday I attended the annual conference for the Association of Acupuncture Clinicians – a dynamic new professional body who are trying to get to grips with some of the thorny problems that need to be confronted for the profession to have its rightful standing in the world of medicine and healing in the UK. All practitioners in the AAC have a degree level training in acupuncture. Building bridges of understanding about traditional acupuncture and the level of training we have seems to be the way forwards being championed by AAC – a practitioner led organisation – who strive hard to bring our much needed skills together with other healthcare professionals.
We had some terrific presentations – we heard from Sarah Matheson, who I trained together with in supervision in 1998, about the importance of mentoring/supervision. Mentoring and practitioner support are, to my mind, essential in the helping professions to prevent burn out and keep practitioners alive to their own needs – so these do not get in the way.
We heard from Peter Deadman about the Yang Shen tradition – and ‘cooling the heart, calming the mind’. Ancient practices and philosophies that have striking relevance today. I was grateful to the reference to Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, which I learned about in 2013 at a workshop with Professor Porges that I shall never forget – entitled the ‘Healing Power of Safety’. It was through work on premature infants that the theory developed to explain the infant deaths – because these infants so frequently die of heart problems. They have no way to run or fight, their social engagement system isn’t developed – and the freeze response can put great pressure on the heart. Neonates are completely vulnerable to stress.
We had a powerful calls to action and learning from Beverley De Valois to support cancer patients and cancer survivors and from Anne Gledhill, a York colleague, who is an independent midwife and acupuncture practitioner, to help support patients in the field of obstetrics. Both practitioners – highly experienced in their respective fields, passionately informed us that our acupuncture skills could potentially help and were so much needed.
I feel a better understanding is needed about what acupuncturists bring to patient care that is so unique – and for me, Gerard Kite’s presentation on Five Element acupuncture really delivered on this front. It also brought me back to the start of my acupuncture journey, when like Gerard, I found myself treating severely ill young men (mostly – I treated one young woman too) with a death sentence in the AIDS crisis. I used only Five Element Acupuncture to support them as it was all I knew. I had no way to cure these patients. It was such a humbling time. For more than thirty years Gerard has stayed the course with Five Elements – deepening his understanding of practicing and working with this tradition, which is profoundly spiritual and, I would argue, out of necessity if we practice it well, keeps us connected with our own humanity. The Five Element tradition is not about cure, although sometimes disease and symptoms do get better, it is about being aligned with our Dao.
I left the conference feeling uplifted and so immensely grateful that I studied acupuncture all those years ago. Heart centred medicine for a modern age that is so much needed.
Do give me call or send a message to find out more about how acupuncture, Chinese medicine or craniosacral therapy might support you to be well and healthy in mind, body and spirit. If you are not local, to find an AAC member near you, click here
ceramic heart by Katie Jane Hill