Syllabus

Syllabus
Course Title/No: Advanced Acupuncture Point Combination
Credits/Hours:
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Randy K. Otaka
Day/Time: Thursdays, 7:30-10:00

Recommended Texts:
“Applied Channel Theory in Chinese Medicine : Wang Ju-Yi’s Lectures on Channel Therapeutics” by Wang Ju-Yi and Jason D. Robertson

Course Objective: The objective of this course is to teach students how to intelligently combine acupuncture points to achieve the greatest effect with the fewest points.

The Course Blog: I have created a blog for the students of this course.
The address of the blog is:

icaompointcombinations.blogspot.com

Presently, all materials of the blog are open and accessible to anyone. If students wish to close access to the blog, then everyone who wishes to use the blog must create and submit a valid gmail account.

Homework:
Every week, one student must bring in a case study for the class to review.  The name and any other identifying information of the patient should be redacted.  The diagnosis and acupuncture points used in the treatment should not be displayed (although these should be brought so that we can compare our class results with what was decided in the treatment).  We will be practicing the diagnostic process and point selection process on this case.

Also, every week, students must come up with a "reverse case study" for one of the point combinations that we have reviewed.  This "reverse case study" should clearly represent the given point combination, but it should not be a simple listing of indications for the point combination.  Try to "embellish" your case study with enough information that it seems like a real, believable patient.  One or more of these reverse case studies will be used in the next week's quiz.  You must email me the reverse case study you have written before Sunday at: mid.error@gmail.com

Quizzes:
There will be an online quiz posted after each class.  You can take this quiz to prepare for the paper quiz that will be administered the following week.  You will not be graded on the online quiz, but you will be graded on the paper quiz.

Course Outline:
1) Thursday, September 5th.
General Outline of Treatment Steps: Intake, Diagnosis, Treatment Plan, Execution.
The Influence of Style
General Principles/Types of Point Combinations.
A Review of Important Point Classes.

2) Thursday, September 12th.
Review of Important Point Classes, continued.
A Closer Look at Diagnosis/Treatment Plan: Channel Differentiation, Channel Selection.
Point Selection (Combinations) on a Single Affected Channel.

3) Thursday, September 19th.
Point Selection (Combinations) on Internal/External Paired Channels.

4) Thursday, September 26th.
 Point Selection (Combinations) with Associated Hand-Foot ("Same Name") Channels.

5) Thursday, October 3rd.
Point Selection (Combinations) with Five Elements (Five Phase) Relationships.

6) Thursday, October 10th.
Point Selection (Combinations) with Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

7) Thursday, October 17th.
Empirical Points
Local Point Groupings
Point Constellations: Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons

8) Monday, October 24th.
Other Styles: Richard Tan/Master Tong Style, Shudo Denmei Style.

9) Monday, November 4th.
Other Styles (continued): Yoshio Manaka Style, Kiiko Matsumoto Style.
Review

10) Monday, November 11th.
FINAL.

Grades are determined by the following criteria:
25% Quizzes, 50% Final, 25% Homework