Chip Chace Workshop

Opening to the Source.

Li Shizhen’s Exposition on the Eight Extrordinary Vessels

in clinical practice

with Chip Chace

“How does one go about making sense of the acupuncture classics? How can we experience those ideas in our hands and then put that information into clinical practice? How we go about answering these questions shapes the way we approach clinical practice. All too often, one can find oneself working with a theoretical idea concerning the extraordinary vessels rather than the qi itself.” Chip Chace

Li Shizhen’s Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels (Qijing bamai kao, c. 1576) is the seminal work on the extraordinary vessels, combining discussions of acupuncture, herbal medicine and internal alchemy. Although it is widely cited in other sources, it is rarely considered on its own merits. A central premise of this text is if physicians hope to realize the extraordinary vessels’ full therapeutic potential, one must have some understanding of their alchemical aspects. From Li’s perspective, this hinges on the skillful use of attentive stillness. The palpatory techniques presented in this training are rooted this very same appreciation for stillness. As such, they provide an invaluable bridge between a fascinating but arcane aspect of the medical literature, and their concrete application in clinical practice.

Weekend participants will learn:

On overview of Li Shi Zhen’s text and other material on the extraordinary vessels
Channel listening, quality of contact, extraordinary vessel pulse diagnosis
Manual thermal diagnosis
Cranial rhythmic impulse
Fluids and fluids tides
General and local listening techniques
Precision in point location
Refinement in needle technique using both contact needling and insertion techniques
Extraordinary Vessel Meditation Set

This training is based on the premise that many of the palpation techniques used in cranial osteopathy can be understood as aspects of the state of the body’s qi, and can therefore be interpreted in the context of a Chinese medical perspective.

Where: Walkabout Creek – Banksia room – Brisbane Forest Park
60 Mt Nebo Road, The Gap, Qld www.walkaboutcreek.com.au

When: September – Saturday 3, Sunday 4 and Monday 5, 2011 8.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.

Cost: $670 for all 3 days. Early bird discount, full payment by July 22, $575
Given the practical nature of the workshop, numbers will be limited.

Chip Chace
Is a student of Chinese medicine and palpation based forms of acupuncture for more than twenty years. He has maintained a longstanding interest in the medical literature of China and is the translator of a wide variety of books and articles on premodern acupuncture and Chinese medicine including a translation of the first textbook of acupuncture from 100 C.E., The Yellow Emperor’s Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Huang Di Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing), and with Miki Shima, An Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels; Acupuncture Alchemy and Herbal Medicine, a translation and commentary (2010), He is a long time practitioner of meridian therapy and has completed advanced Toyohari training. Chip is on the faculty of the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine where he teaches palpatory approaches to acupuncture. He maintains a clinical practice in Boulder, Colorado.