Continuing education for clinicians
Follow Your Tension
A palpation-guided clinical method for locating the anchor points that may hold chronic pain in place — and for verifying, case by case, whether an anchor is actually connected to the problem in front of you.
For licensed acupuncturists, Chinese medicine clinicians, and practitioners treating chronic pain.
What this is
A method for observing the body directly
Modern imaging and laboratory testing answer questions that no hands can answer: what a structure looks like, what a disease is, how severe it is, what the prognosis may be. This method does not replace any of that.
It answers a different set of questions — the ones that live in the five minutes in front of you: How is this particular body behaving right now? Which regions might be connected to the symptom? Where do I actually put the needle today?
The practitioner starts from the site of the symptom, uses a structured form of palpation to trace relatively continuous change through skin, subcutaneous tissue and fascia, and looks for an anchor — a key point whose tissue state, tension, mobility or direction may be keeping the pattern locked. The patient then confirms or corrects what the hands have found. Only after an intervention does the practitioner look again, and decide whether the connection between anchor and symptom held up.
The clinical chain
Eight steps, repeated
Every treatment runs the same loop. The loop is the method — not any single technique inside it.
- Symptom or lesion siteThe patient's complaint, and where it actually expresses itself in the body.
- Tracing palpationA structured examination of skin, subcutaneous tissue, fascia and deeper layers.
- A relatively continuous change pathFollowing a change that holds together along its course — sometimes clear, sometimes faint.
- Locate the anchorA key point that may be clinically related to the symptom site.
- Patient confirmationThe patient confirms the region, the referred sensation, or the specific quality felt.
- InterventionTreatment directed at this anchor, at this layer, in this position.
- Re-examine lesion and anchorLook again. Has the symptom site, the anchor, mobility or tissue state changed?
- Revise the judgementConfirm, adjust, or drop the hypothesis — then begin the next layer.
The heart of the method
The three-verification loop
Three findings, in sequence, hold a clinical judgement together. Each one is checked by a different source — the practitioner, the patient, and the body's own response.
What the hands find
Tissue changes the practitioner actually encounters during tracing palpation, and the relatively continuous path they form.
What the patient recognises
The patient's own confirmation of the abnormal region, the referred sensation, or a characteristic quality they recognise as theirs.
What the body does next
Change at the lesion site, the anchor, the symptom or the range of motion after intervention. This is what supports — or weakens — the connection.
The third verification is deliberately narrow. It confirms only that, in this one case, this anchor and this lesion appeared clinically related. It does not establish the cause of a disease, a physiological mechanism, long-term outcome, or that this method is superior to any other treatment.
Who it is for
Five groups of practitioners
1 · Licensed acupuncturists
Practitioners who want a reproducible way to decide where to needle, rather than relying on pattern alone.
2 · Chronic pain clinicians
Chinese and Western medicine practitioners, orthopaedists, chiropractors, physiotherapists, pain physicians and fascial practitioners.
3 · Students and early-career clinicians
TCM college students and recent graduates building palpation skill early rather than late.
4 · Integrative health practitioners
Clinics and practitioners working with chronic conditions and long-term health support.
5 · Anyone interested in how acupuncture is actually practised
Readers and clinicians curious about the reasoning behind a treatment, not just the protocol.
What this method does not claim
Stated plainly, because it is what separates clinical observation from marketing:
- It is not standard evidence-based medicine, and the word used in the Chinese title does not mean the same thing.
- It does not establish the cause of any disease, or explain a mechanism.
- A single case does not become general proof, and individual results are not universal outcomes.
- It does not claim long-term cure, reversal, or superiority over other treatments.
- It is not a self-study needling manual. Needling remains a licensed, hands-on skill.
This programme teaches an observation and reasoning method. It does not teach a protocol for treating a named disease.
Format and fee
Three days, opening at ten practitioners
Two taught days and one supervised clinical day. A cohort opens as soon as ten licensed practitioners have registered for it.
Two taught days + one clinical day
Days one and two build the examination and reasoning method. Day three is spent treating patients under direct supervision.
Opens at ten practitioners
Registration is free and commits you to nothing. Dates and location are confirmed by email once ten have signed up.
US$3,000 — early rate US$2,000
The reduced rate is held for the first fifty registrants. No payment is requested before the dates are confirmed with you.
Register your interest
Enrolment is by registration first, so the programme can be shaped around the practitioners who actually sign up.
Sign upRegistration is free and does not commit you to anything.