Category Archives: Blog

Facial Acupuncture for Treating Drooping Eyelids (ptosis)

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi, Michelle. Gellis here. I want to thank you for attending this AAC live presentation and thank you to the American Acupuncture council as well. Today, I am going to be talking about treating. I chose. And for those of you who don’t know me, I teach cosmetic and facial meaning neuromuscular acupuncture classes internationally.

So the topics for today are going to be how some possible techniques for treating eye TOSA. Looking at the etiology from an Eastern and a Western perspective and then different treatment techniques, including submuscular needling motor points. And I’m not going to get into scalp, acupuncture and cupping, but those are some other treatments that can be used.

To treat I ptosis. So what is ptosis of the eyes? I chose this is when the muscles that raise the eyelid and there are a few of them. So there’s the levator muscle and the superior tarsal muscles. And in some cases also the frontalis muscle, when these muscles are not strong in. One or both of the eyelids can droop.

So testers can affect one or both eyes. It can be congenital. It can be cause through disease or injury. It’s more common in the elderly as the eye muscles begin to weaken and deteriorate. And here are some pictures of different degrees of eyelid ptosis. So in this person here on the top left, it’s very mild and in the person right below them both of the eyelids are what is referred to as hooding, meaning the.

Eyelid itself is eclipsing the part of the eye that allows us to see, and this again, can happen with old age. It can happen due to disease or injury in the middle photo. We have a slightly. More pronounced degree of eyelid ptosis, and then in the photo on the far right. Someone who has severe ptosis.

And so I am going to go into, again, some of the etiology and treatment for the varying degrees of islet. So Don damage or trauma to the eye can happen through injury or anything that damages the third cranial nerve, which is the ocular motor nerve, which controls this muscle. If someone has Bell’s palsy stroke they something like this can happen from a brain tumor, even conditions like diabetes or my skin you gravis can cause ptosis of the another cause common cause of ptosis is Horner syndrome and that is a.

Nerve damage that occurs in the face and the eyes. And in that case, it most likely wouldn’t just be the eyelids, other sorts of brain injuries, spinal cord injuries cancer can cause harm. Syndrome and ptosis cluster headaches can also cause ptosis what a cluster headache is a severe headache that has a frequent pattern for a period of time.

And then it will go into recession from a cheese TCM perspective. Ptosis is due to a congenital deficiency. Either a deficiency of the spleen or the kidney or balls or an obstruction of the collaterals by wind flam, leading to some sort of malnourishment of the upper eyelids. When we’re looking at doing body points to.

TOSA is from a TCM perspective where you would differentiate between the spleen kidney deficiency with wind flam and points on the stomach. Bladder and spleen meridians are typically used in that instance. And some of the manifestations for. The deficiency of spleen and kidney is it’s typically bilateral.

There might be some soreness and weakness in the lower back and the knees, poor appetite, loose stools, and the tongue body would be pale with a white coating, deep, weak pulse. And so the treatment principle would be to reinforce the spleen, warm the kidney. And I’ve listed some possible points that you can do, and you might want to add in let her 20 and 25 use a mocks that are really tonify the spleen and the kidneys.

And then the explanation is listed here below.

for us spleen. Whoops, sorry for a spleen deficiency. With when phlegm, the manifestations would be more of a swelling and numbness in the upper eyelids, possibly difficulty moving the eyeball. Numbness of the limbs fatigue, poor appetite here, your tongue would have a pale body with a white and sticky coating.

The pulse is going to be soft and thready, and the tree treatment principles would be to reinforce the spleen and resolve the phlegm. And the primary points are listed. And then the explanation. For why you would do each one of these points is listed below. If we have time at the end, I’ll come back to this, but I’m always mindful of time when I’m doing this live presentations.

For a scalp acupuncture, I had mentioned that you can treat. Eyelid ptosis with scalp acupuncture. We don’t have time for a whole scalp acupuncture lecture, but needling the lower two fifths of the motor area on both sides. And. For doing motor point. So facial motor points, you could do the motor points for the and those are two motor points.

It’s the extra point show how, and you would do an oblique absurd insertion. And there’s also a motor point halfway between gallbladder one and Sanchez 23. Again, you would do an oblique insertion also for the corrugator because the corrugator muscles work in conjunction with the eyebrows and the eyelid.

So treating the corrugator muscle. By doing the motor point that is just lateral to bladder too. And also treating the motor point for the front desk. Because as I mentioned, the frontallis, which is which are these muscles right over your eyebrows, the frontallis raises the eyebrows. So doing the motor point for the frontallis, which has gallbladder 14.

And again, a bleak insertion, and you can also do facial cupping and guash Shaw gently around the orbicularis ocular a little bit inside the orbital Ram. You can even stimulate the acupuncture points, all the acupuncture points around the eye, stomach to gallbladder one, the X per point. Ladder to you?

Yeah. Sanjay 23. So gentle cupping, gentle guash Shaw stimulating the point. We’ll all work on the ambiguous virus. Oculus. And if you choose, you could even use a Derma roller around the outside of the eye area. You never Derma roll inside the orbital rim, but really stimulating that area can be very beneficial.

So I mentioned these three points, bladder to you yell and Sangyo 23 when I needle them, especially with you. Yeah. I will lift the brow up out of the way and I will needle straight. Yeah. Under the eyebrow and for you. Yeah. If you go in line with the pupil, as opposed to the center of the eyebrow, if you go in line with the pupil, you can catch the edge of the levator muscle Azure noodling, and it really helps to lift this entire area.

I think I have a video.

Let’s see if I can get this sleigh, like really this. What I’ll do is I’ll pull up, but for her, I would just use the two and push underneath the brow like that. So again, I’m not on the lid on underneath the brown. Okay. Where they call this you yet? Don’t you? Yeah.

So those of you who don’t know me I do teach cosmetic acupuncture classes, which is what all of these other points are. And I incorporate this in my cosmetic acupuncture classes because as we age for many people, the drooping eyelids is very much a concern. And I realized the video is a little jumpy, but a few go to my social media.

I have a lot of these short little videos. I do a facial acupuncture tip of the week. So you could see it a little more smoothly than than you just did,

like really another. That can be very beneficial is gallbladder 18. This is not a widely used point, but it is a fabulous point for treating the eye area. If you look at this drawing from a medical textbook, this shows right here, the supra orbital nerve, and. This runs right along the Gallia up and erotica, which links the subtle and frontal bellies of the occipital from talus muscle gallbladder 18 is in line with do 20.

And so do 20 is here. The bladder line is here and then gallbladder. The way you can find it is you go to a gallbladder 14 and then 15, and you’re going to follow it straight back till you get to 18 noodling. This affects the entire occipital frontalis muscle and helps to open up the eye area.

So I had talked about the motor points for the , which is the muscle that goes all around the outer side of the orbital rim here. And the two motor points of. Between gallbladder one and Sanjay 23. And then the extra point Q ho. And you would treat only the affected eye. If both eyes were affected, you would treat both eyes, but if it’s just one eye that was affected, you would just treat the one eye.

And here is a picture of gallbladder 18. You can see it is in line with do 20 and it is right along the gallbladder line. Another point. That I will thread actually is I start at bladder four and the way you find bladder four is you go to bladder two, you go straight up to bladder three, and then you are going to come over at 1.5 soon to.

Bladder for. And when you were at bladder for you thread, a long, the scout all the way back to ladder six. You can use a half inch needle or a one inch needle, but this added in with the other points here. Whoops. I have a little delay here. So if you add these points, gallbladder 14 and Gulf letter 15 all together,

along with some of these motor points and you leave them in for about 20 minutes or so, what I do is I would leave the points and I might include. Some scalp acupuncture and with the scalp acupuncture, you would come in every 10 minutes or so and stimulate the needle. Then you would take the face points out, continue to stimulate the scalp point.

Cause you want to leave that in for about 30 minutes and try to get your patient to lift their lid. And sometimes it helps. If you’re doing scalp acupuncture to have them sitting up, you hand them a mirror and have them really focus on lifting up their eyelids. If they can see in a mirror, it helps to connect the brain to the muscle group.

Once the noodles come out, then you would do your. Cupping and Guam Shaw and Derma rolling. And I also sell my patients a set of cups and I teach them how to use the small cup and the facial wash shot tool. And. That way in between treatments, they can be working on these muscles. It’s a great way to reinnervation the muscle to re educate the muscle.

Obviously your patients can not be needling themselves at home. Teaching them to work, these muscles at home can be. Very beneficial. And so the order would be you put in the body points, right? You’re going to treat the underlying condition. Then you’re going to do any points around the eyes and scalp.

And then once the eyes. Come out, continue with the scalp points, have them work the muscles, then the cupping and GWAS Shaw, and then the German walling.

This was a patient of mine. She was actually young. Sorry. She was actually young. She had come to me for. She was going to be getting married and she had ptosis of her left eyelid, her entire life. And she was concerned because when she got tired, It became more pronounced. It was more noticeable and she suspected, or if she was sick, it would become more pronounced and more noticeable.

And she was very concerned that moving forward that the day of her wedding in all of the wedding photo, That she would have this one, very droopy eyelid. So she came to me for about three months before the wedding. And. Worked very much. He had very deficient kidneys. I spoke to her about getting proper rest and drinking.

Plenty of water treated. Her kidneys, did a lot of work. And what I would do is I would do the points on her back. Lots of mocks, a heat lamp. Then I would turn her over. I would do the body points on the front of her body and treated her. Eyelids. And after about six treatments, she really started to notice a difference.

And then by the end of three months, the treatments were holding to the point where I only saw her from time to time and you can see the after photo. This was a close-up actually from one of the. Photos a day of the wedding. She did it before she put her makeup on her. Eyelid had opened up and she was very happy.

Think so worried about time. I talk really fast. Let’s go back to the beginning and I just want to run through the diagnosis. A little more thoroughly and then wrap it up. So for the actual points that you would use, if someone had a deficiency of spleen and kidney, the primary points would be the eye points that.

I spoke about, so gallbladder 14 bladder to tie on, which I didn’t mention. You could also do gallbladder one. You yell Joe 23, very gently manipulated, do 20 stomach, 36 spleen, six, kidney seven. And then the explanation is. Bladder 20 and spleen six reinforced the spleen and tonify that she bladder 23 warms the kidney yang, especially with moxa stomach 36 and do 20 reinforced.

She raised the yang and can help to lift things that are sunk in. Gallbladder 14 bladder to Ty young and you yeah. Are all local points. They helped to nourish the upper light eyelid and strengthen the local muscles for the spleen deficiency with wind phlegm, the primary points would be gallbladder 14, bladder two.

Ty young you. Yeah, again, so a lot of the same local point do 20 Sanchez, 23 and stomach 36. Again, spleen nines, blend three and stomach 40. So stomach 36 helps to reinforce the kid, the stomach chew spleen nine spleen three, reinforced the spleen and remove dampness stomach. 40 helps to transform phlegm, do 20 dispels the wind and gallbladder 14 also promotes a nourishment of the.

Upper lip. So I think that is everything. I don’t recall if we can do Q and a, but I don’t see any questions popping up. So I am just gonna conclude. This talk today. And next week we have Matt Callison and Brian Lau presenting live. And if you missed any part of this, or if you’re interested in seeing any of the other AAC, Facebook or Instagram live shows, they are available on YouTube and on the AAC.

So thank you again for coming and I look forward to seeing you again. .

Ghost Point Treatments

Click here to download the transcript.

To the point, generously sponsored by the American Acupuncture Council today. My guest is Leta Herman. And I’m Virginia Duran of Lumina beauty.com. And LE’s gonna talk about the ghost points and her special approach to treating them. Leta was on, I think it was last month on my show. And I don’t know if we need to introduce you again.

Thank you to the American Acupuncture Council for having me on the show. Yeah, I’ve been in practice for, over 20 years in teaching, a lot of different concepts related to alchemy. And so the 13 ghost points are alchemical treatments and we have a teaching a school called alchemy learning center.com.

And so we also have a clinic in Northampton, Massachusetts alchemy healing center.com. But my history is that I’ve been doing this work for a very long time. And I study extensively with Jeffrey UN. Who a lot of this work, I was doing the ghost points before I met Jeffrey UN, but a lot of the work since then, since, early two thousands has been about Jeffrey’s, influence on my work.

Yeah, that’s good. And tell us, or for anybody who doesn’t know or at least your view of the ghost since not everybody uses them and they may not understand them the same way as you. So there are actually quite a few ghost points, 20 ghost points, and they were invented a very long time ago, but sun, which is also a very long time ago, sun, the king of medicine in China, a very famous practitioner decided to put together 13 of.

And these 13, he called the 13 ghost points and he wrote a what’s called the song of the 13 ghost points and owed. That explains how to do this mysterious treat. And it wasn’t, it really was a different kind of treatment and it really was for ghosts or obsessive thinking or any kind of obsession.

And so if you take these individual ghost points that, we all have learned and you just do one or two of them, you’re not really accessing the power of the ghost points. You can do one or two in the mode that. Working with them as a unit of 13, you can even do three is a common way.

People do them two or three of them in a treatment, but you need to understand the deeper ways of working with them, which I call getting into the void of your heart. And so in terms of just how you’re gonna do these points, they’re almost like rich ritualistic points. You have to think about the influence of doism on the treatments.

So those are some things to think about. And so the way that we are working with them is gonna look very different than, modern, classical or TCM type of practices. Do you, is there any kind of energetic flow with them? Like the way Meridian acupuncture looks at things? That’s a really good question.

They’re their own. Yeah, that’s the really good question. The flow isn’t so much aligned with the meridians at all. The flow has to do with things that are more external to a person. How I interact and react to the world would be the beginning of the treatment. And as you walk through the treatment, we’re looking at deeper and deeper issues.

So by the time you get to the last point, which is the identity of a person. You’re talking about the deepest kernel of a person’s authentic self. So you’re you’re beginning at what I like to call the door to your palace due 26 and you’re ending at well, there’s two alternative points.

We can explain that later, but we’re ending at what I like to call the identity of a person. Like when you came into the U in utero and you were a fetus, who was that spirit before you were even born and messed with by life who is that person? Yeah. And so that’s the flow. And do we know why he chose those 13 out of the.

No, we do not know why, from years and years of having treated these points, I do a as I’ve gotten more and more sophisticated, I really see that one leads to the next. And in my more advanced classes, I try to explain this, but it could take, hours for me to go through it.

But so it’s definitely a longer topic, but if you really look at the flow of things, And how things basically, how does like a trauma let’s say you experience a trauma, you were in a car accident. Okay. So now how is that trauma going to infiltrate into you and begin to really mess with you?

So in other words, we know a common. Side effect of having been in a car accident, let’s say you were on the highway every time you’re in that particular situation. Again, your body gets tense, you don’t, you’re looking around. You’re really alert. You’re in hyper drive, it’s like these are common, reactions to having had an accident before.

So how deep does that go? How much does that affect you? And that sort of how this flow of the treatment works. You begin to see that the more serious traumas are going to get in much deeper than. Oh, I had a little accident. I was a little traumatized for a few days. Maybe I was in shock, and then I got over it and I forgot about it.

And I moved on, so not much, or, something that changed your life dramatically. And we all have clients that come in and they’re like, ever since that day I’ve been changed dramatically. And that’s when you start thinking a 13 goes points, treatment would be really fantastic.

. Yeah, I see. What do you sense when you’re doing it? I wanna ask how the, how you do the treatment, but between the differences between these various ghost points and are they all involved with something like a trauma? Are there certain ones that you find seem to be more implicated? It’s certainly not just for trauma because there’s life circumstances that go on for a very long time.

That can be very trauma, like in a life let’s say you have parents who, when you get into your teens they’re just on you all the time. Be like me. I don’t like who you are. That’s very. Traumatizing, you might not consider it like a car accident or sexual abuse know or like trauma, but parental indoctrination or, yeah, there are a lot of things like that maybe in modern society, we wouldn’t think of as trauma.

Just even neglect by a parent. Is something the ghost points would be very helpful with. So you have to expand your horizons on really more. What we’re looking at is the symptom. What is the symptom? The symptom is, obsessive thinking and, or even some kind of entity possession, if you wanna go there.

Definitely I use the ghost points in my practice, mostly for. As I, I said before in our last podcast, anytime someone who is pretty much older than the age of 20 is as you move along in life, you accumulate more of these things. And so we go, oh, I don’t want that to ever happen again.

And every time we say no, that I’m never gonna let that happen again. That means we are on the alert constantly. For any scenario that looks like the previous scenario so that we can make sure it never happens again. Yeah. So that’s a lot of work. It’s exhausting. For, again, for anyone who’s older over the age of 20 I, I used to think the ghost points were really just for extreme cases of psychosis and, extreme O C, D or ex all kinds of things that we see, in our practice mental issues I used to think it was just for that.

And then what happened was I would treat people and their loved ones would say, wow, this person is completely changing, doing so great. I want that treatment and then I started doing it with them and I said, wow, look, it’s more mild with like you or me, if we had it and we’re not having any of those other symptoms.

Of psychosis or mental illness of any type. But these days, a lot of people have at least anxiety, if you think of that as a mental illness. So what we’re looking at is expanding the idea of these points to more of a general population and saying, yeah, not everyone needs that.

Some people are really living pure in themselves. Just really their authentic selves. They’re beautiful selves. They’re just really living who they are and they wouldn’t be a good candidate for this, but the rest of us , who’ve been around a while. We get a little funky and.

Most of the time is cuz we don’t want that thing to happen again. And that’s where the ghost points can really help. So I certainly still do them with people who have been diagnosed with mental illness and that level, but I’m also expanding it to say a lot of us need that right now. And I think in this society, I have seen a huge increase in people who are anxious.

Or depressed then, when I started 20 years ago. So I think it’s just been more and more something that has helped people and that I believe could help a lot more people there. It’s there’s something in the air people are feeling, and they don’t necessarily understand what it is.

And so it’s UNC. Panic or confusion, or could be depression that, is this gonna go on? What’s our future. And yeah, I think it’s very valid. So because you do a much longer, like a four to six hour treatment, can you kinda walk us through it because it’s, I think it’s hard for people to envision.

How do you do the good points in 46 hours? What is it that you’re doing differently? Okay. So imagine, trying to do something radical to help someone in an hour. We all know what the feeling is. When the clinician says time’s up, see you later. And you’re like,

so what we decided to do maybe 15 years ago or more was what if. And this isn’t just for the ghost points. There are other alchemical treatments and even the Worsely treatments like the IDs and the EDS can be done in this format. What we decided to do is say, What if the person could put aside time and space in their life to work on their stuff for the day, we’re not, we only say four to six hours because you really can’t predict, but you gotta give the person a little bit of okay, I should be available between these hours of the day.

Yeah. But what if we said there’s no time limit? What if we said you can tell your whole story in one session? I had a therapist the other day say to me I’ve never, and this is a psychotherapist. She said, I have never. Told my whole story to one person in one sitting in my entire life. And even if nothing else happens from this treatment today, she said that is such a healing and such a gift.

So if not everyone wants to tell their whole story in the ghost pointing treatment, but if that’s what, obviously what she wants, she’s a psychotherapist. But, in terms of what happens if I create a space for you to enter into and to give. Complete attention, complete presence and no judgment, none.

And I allow you to let whatever happens happen. You bring the treatment. I don’t do the treatment. I just facilitate the treatment by walking through this ancient sort of almost like a ritual of points. And as we go through those points, I can talk to you about what each theme is. So each point has a theme.

And as I say what do you think about the door and how you interface with the world? Since that trauma, did it change who you are? And then we begin to have this like really intelligent conversation about. Oh, yeah. Before that, I, when I was a little kid, I used to do things like this and I used to be like really social and now I’m not.

And so what changed that person? And so as you go through theme and you take your time and you don’t switch to a new point until that theme is done until you feel in your. Body mind, spirit that, okay, that’s good. I can move on to the next point, which is a big skill that we teach and how to develop that.

But all of us do that in our Chinese medicine treatments as acupuncturists, when the, the point is done, it’s just a little bit harder if you’re gonna spend an hour on one point . So we take our time and as part of how these treatments were done, traditionally was with music.

And so the idea is to bring in another vibrational component, we have the vibration of the point and the manipulation of the needles. However, you’re doing that. But in terms of how they looked at it now, remember a lot of these were DOIs priests. They did chanting, they played symbols and wood blocks and all kinds of instruments.

And so they would bring music. And so in the modern day, once the technology, now I started this before this was available. Once the iPod technology came out and the idea of shuffling songs and having a large body of music that you can access we now do that. We do it to music and it’s incredibly powerful.

I call it the divine DJ yeah. Oh, that’s funny. With the long treatments, this is something that I do in my own, in regular acupuncture, as well as the facial acupuncture, because I feel like you just can’t do really deep, transformative work. I can’t in a short period. There’s some perhaps that can, but I want to. relax into it and go deeper and deeper.

And I want the patient to have that experience instead of it being this sudden, I want it to be a smooth entry and exit, so to speak of in the treatment. So with you, do you find. Possible to do, cuz realistically it may not be possible for all practitioners to do this.

Maybe their patients can’t afford extended time sessions. How do you work with that? I. That’s a great question. And it’s probably the number one question that practitioners ask me. So when we teach our apprentices how to do these treatments, we start them by doing one point in the session or two points in a session.

And we pick points that from the ghost point, That aren’t going to disregulate a person too much because what can happen? What I love about doing the whole session in one, one day is that as you go through these points, you’re gonna get stirred up a little bit and sometimes a lot of it, and you’re gonna have a lot of things released and it’s nice to wrap it up in that day and to send them off with.

Some things resolved, to really get revolution. And that’s why it takes so long. And then I have them come back the next day or within a week and do a follow up session to make sure that they’re stable and not disregulated by, in some cases opening Pandora’s box. Frankly, if you’ve had a lot of really traumatic stuff in your childhood, it could feel like Pandora’s box.

If that happens, you need to make sure you’re there for them, the next day or the day after. And it can happen that someone feels that way. It’s rare that it’s like really distressing for them. Because again, if you do them together, there’s a resolution, there’s an elegant kind of map of that.

And they usually end up going home feeling like, yes, I feel great. But that’s, again, everyone’s different. And so that’s why I do this, what I call the follow up session that I include in it. So if you’re gonna break it down and say, Hey, I’d like to do the 13 ghost points over a period of time.

And if you wanted to map it out and do that, I’ve done that with people. But the risk you’re taking is that the person’s going to have to go home and deal with those emotions. Yes that may, maybe each point is accessing. And in some cases it’s too much for them. They’re not able to do that on their own.

They don’t have, me in their pocket as they go home going, Hey, it’s okay that you have these feelings. Let’s, the safe container. That I create in the room. Isn’t with them at home, they’ve got their partner, filling up whatever. So let’s say you just wanted to do a few, then there’s a few that I often teach in my webinars that are pretty safe.

So due 26 is my favorite one. And that is called ghost palace, but I like to call it the doer palace because it, it basically is the entryway. How you breathe, how you eat. It’s symbolizing, how things get interface with you. And so if that, one is out of whack in you cause of something that happened and you, and now, like you don’t know, maybe you used to have an open door to the world and now it’s like shut and you’ve got some locks on there and a little people, and you’re just really cautious everywhere you go.

That’s not the true, authentic, you. That’s the trauma that’s made that happen. But however, that’s a point that isn’t really that triggering for people in terms of, some of the deeper points like pericardium eight is later in the treatment. Now that point is for deep part pain. So you have to, so I actually had a person, I was treating the ghost points with over time and we got to this point and the strangest thing happened.

We treated it. And she went home that day and wherever she went that day, people screamed at her like at the gas station, like at the line, getting. She went home and her partner screamed at her. It, her kids and it, and, but here’s the weird thing. When I was doing the point, I wanted to scream at her and I didn’t know where that came from.

That’s never happened to me before, but something in her was evoking from the external world, what she felt and the trauma she had was so significant. Intense probably, I say there’s no hierarchy to paint, but most of the people in the world would’ve said, okay, her turn, she wins she wins that at very unfortunate contest.

And so that she was like the picture of the scream painting, she was like the. In herself. And so when she activated that point, now it, it made people outside of her, like furious with her. They wanted to scream at her. It was very bizarre. So that, , that’s an extreme example, but a lot of ghost points, stories sound really extreme, but there’d one off, that’s that happened once.

So I don’t want you to think. Yeah, sure. Every time we do. I see a couple questions coming in. One is a. You obviously can’t build their insurance. Okay. Here’s the thing I think. Every case is different. And to me, it depends on if you’re doing them in one hour sessions. It’s, as far as an insurance company is concerned, I think it’s just acupuncture.

However you build that. If you’re, if you wanted an all day session, like I would actually recommend, that’s gonna just depend on your insurance company and what they. Say about a long session. Like they might be more open to a two hour session. And maybe you break it up into longer chunks.

Like you were saying, Virginia, maybe you do two hour sessions. That’s enough to at least I would recommend, two hour sessions at a minimum. If you’re gonna, if you’re gonna try to break it up for insurance purposes, I think you might get coverage for that perhaps so while one person asked are the points done?

Bilaterally? Yes. And then also somebody said, where is there something more written about it from you in the way that you’re doing. I like the book it’s through the mystery gate, is it? Yes. Yeah. The book through the mystery gate explains alchemy in general, and we have some case studies that we included in the book in terms of points, we have a ghost points online workshop@thealchemylearningcenter.com and we have an apprent.

and we have classes that are more in general, not just the points themselves. So if you’re thinking, whoever asks this question, if you’re thinking about doing this, I recommend also looking at what I call the becoming and alchemical healer classes that we’re going to be. Having on the site in the future and alive at different times.

So you have to just go check the site out, but those kinds of classes are more about the technique than the physical points, the points you already know, we’re gonna explain them more in the classes, if you wanna take a class in and the ghost points, but the really hard doing that as an online class, we.

It’s always available so you can sign up yeah. At the alchemy learning center.com. And so you wrote on with, I have the transcript from your webinar with Lotus and each point is your teacher. Yeah. You must develop your own relationship with each point. I love that. So I don’t know if there’s anything more you wanna say about.

Or any specifics. So I think what I really think about what I bring to this work, because it’s not like there’s any secrets out there. Like we all know what since emails owed is you can find it online. But what does it mean? And so even when I learned it from my different teachers They explained it more technically, and as we use the points over and over again, so I’m doing two or three of these treatments a week, so I’m really learning.

So they teach me. So over time, for example, calling this the door to your palace was something that I began to feel maybe 10 years ago. So I started saying, oh, wow, whenever I’m doing this point, people wanna talk about this topic. and when I learned what the character meant. For the point. It did.

It does mean that when they say palace for that as a translation, what they’re talking about is the part of the palace where the common people can come in. So it’s the interface of the palace. It’s like a big courtyard or hall where, you know, where everyone gets met, as opposed to later in the treat.

There’s another point due 23, which is called or often translated as hall, you can translate it many different ways, of course, but that hall character is the hall that’s closest to the emperor’s bedroom. So it’s the place where the safest people get entry. . So how does that interact or interface with the pericardium?

Energetic. I think of that. Yes. Think of the heart is a sovereign rule and you have your small official, official at the outer gate. Then you have the pericardium official yes. Regarding the inner gate so that the heart is not, or the sovereign is not burden with all the dramas of life and or people’s dramas.

So is it that kind of. . Yes. So actually there are two pericardium points in the list of the 13 ghost points, and there’s actually a number other of other paracardial points that are ghost points that aren’t in the 13, but the two that are in the 13 are pericardium seven and pericardium eight. And interestingly pericardium seven is playing the role of more that outer level. It’s it? It comes in the treatment at the point where things start to get deeper. But they’re not quite deep yet. So the first Trinity is really about how the trauma on the outer part of you, like, how do I see the world differently now?

How do I interact with the world? I would explain how do I see the world differently? And now how. How do I trust that things are okay? Do I start having am I racked with doubt for the first time? Yeah. About what’s gonna happen out in the world. So those are very external things. And then as we go to the second Trinity points, pericardium seven is the first one.

So you would think that would be a really deep point, but what it is it’s transition. Okay. Now that this is happening all out there. How are my relationships gonna change? How am, how is my heart gonna start to feel about interactions still with the outside world, but it’s that interface that, that pericardium that heart protector function that pericardium seven points about.

And then much later in the treatment, right before the intimacy point we just talked about due 23 is pericardium. and it’s like, where do we store our deepest heart pains, in the void of the heart in, so it’s representative of much deeper issues. So that, that, that’s how now, oddly, there’s no small intestine point in the beginning.

It’s not really it, small inte doesn’t. Ma talks about pericardium six for like breakups and relationships and the, that, those kind of yeah. Traumas. And then he says pericardium seven for men for men makes me, yeah. Okay regarding sex for women. So I, it just made me think do you find a difference that might be attributable to, we know about the differences in pulses between male and female.

Is there any difference you notice with the ghost points between the two sexes? We’re gonna limit it to that. Oh, between the two sexes. I was gonna talk about Perone six of pero seven. Okay. Oh, about that? Yeah, that would be really interesting. I’ll hold that thought. Between the sexes. Other than the physical points, we do a different point for men than women on the ghost.

Hidden. Theme. We do Ren one for men and we do an extra point called you men on women, which is above the clitoris. So that’s, obvi an obvious difference. But other than that, I’d have to think about it because nothing comes to mind about the differences. Like he’s saying. However, Perone six of Perone seven is a really interesting topic because in another treatment that we do in alchemy, which is called, I call the nine heart pains.

Treatment and that we’re going through all the pericardium points in as part of the treatment . And as we get to pericardium, actually we go reverse direction in the pericardium channel, as we do pericardium seven. Now, remember pericardium seven is often translated as burial ground. So what is that person needing to put in the ground?

What do we wanna have a funeral for? Oh, that rape that I had that has plagued my entire life and made me miserable from that day forward. Maybe it’s time to set it aside and bury it in the ground and say, can I put it away? Can I let it go? Can I let it go? So as part of this long treatment of heart pains, we’re working through some, I’m just using a very extreme example.

Of course, then when I get to paracardial, It’s okay, now maybe you successfully put that away. And can you now open your heart? That inner frontier. Can I allow that pericardium now to begin to like a flower begin to transform and open again. So that would be Perone six. And again, that wouldn’t really matter.

Male or female this is a good example of why a longer time, a longer session, a longer treatment is all more viable because we’re running outta time. Yes, according to this program. And I just say about male, female, that I just forgot. That’s really obvious. We start with male on the left and we start with female on the right when you’re treating bilaterally.

So that’s an obvious difference. That might answer somebody’s question. Yes. A little bit. There’s so many, so much more we could say, but thank you so much for doing this, taking your time and It’s just such a fascinating topic love to know more about it. So I wanna also thank the American Acupuncture Council for hosting the show and all the work they’re doing.

And I’m grateful leader for people like you who are exploring the outer reaches in such a beautiful way. Thank you for tuning. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Oh, sure. Thank you. Okay, so your website again, alchemy learning center.com and alchemy learning center.com.

Yeah. And you can look at the live event page for, upcoming live streams. Great. And on luminous beauty.com, having some problems with my website, but you can email me if you have a question. So thank you again, and we will see you all soon. Bye. Thank.

Prolo-Acupuncture with Anthony Von der Muhll

As our viewers can see the title of our talk today is Prolo acupuncture, and I’m guessing that stem from prolotherapy, but I’m not sure what that is. So you can tell us what that is.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi, welcome to this week’s Facebook podcast show for the American Acupuncture Council. My name is Poney Chiang from neuro-meridian.net. I’m talking to you from Toronto Canada today. My guest is Dr. Anthony Von der Muhll who is joining us today from Al Cerrito, California. Anthony Von der Muhll graduated from the five branch university of TCM, 2002, and founded as Santa Cruz, acupuncture, orthopedic and sports medicine connect in three.

He now practices at the sports acupuncture connected in Berkeley, California. Anthony’s one of very few acupuncture in the United States with extensive experience serving as an expert witness for the California acupuncture board and civil mal. Practice litigations. He emphasizes the highest in safety.

Ethics is sustainability in his classes. He’s the founder of AOM Professional. Has taught certification acupuncture, orthopedics since 2015, he has served as a clinical supervisor at masters in doctoral levels for close to 20 years. And he has taught acupuncture, orthopedics and pain management programs at the doctoral level for.

Numerous, very highly prestigious academic institutions across the United States. I’ve invited Anthony to join us today for interview because he has a lot of experience with the, with orthopedics, but he does something that very few people talk about, which is using acupuncture to increase joint stabilization and increase joint mobilization.

So it is my honor. To have you here today, Anthony, my honor to be here. Thank you very much for the invitation let’s get started. As our viewers can see the title of our talk today is Prolo acupuncture, and I’m guessing that stem from prolotherapy, but I’m not sure what that is. So you can tell us what that is.

And how is pro acupuncture differs when. Yes. Yeah. Great question. Yeah. This name, Prolo acupuncture is basically what I call it. There, isn’t a a defined name for this technique in some classical text, but the technique has its correlates in ancient Chinese medicine. As best we can tell, or at least I can tell from reading descriptions of kneeling techniques, but I happened to learn it through a rather different route, which was another acupuncturist.

Who had studied extensively with I think primarily osteopathic physicians. The acupuncturists I learned from was Alan Marcus, who is now retired who specialized in orthopedics and what he learned from studying with some osteopaths and sports medicine physicians is the technique of probing lax, ligaments, and joint capsule.

To bring about tightening and re stabilization of the joint. And the same technique can also be used to remobilize a joint that is lost range of motions, say through adhesive capitis or joint contractual osteo. Although those are more difficult to treat than a joint that is simply lax in a, in, one or more planes.

And so the derivation of the name again is, proliferative therapy is the term is used by physicians who use this technique. Typically they’re injecting an irritant solution of some sort like Dex or salt water, or sometimes they have cocktail like MSM or Conroy and sulfate and they’re.

But a lot of the effect is actually from just simply the needle itself is the mechanical and various neuromuscular reflexes that occur from. Needling into particular tissue. And so it can be done with a dry needle, an acupuncture needle, a filoform needle, or sometimes occasionally a seven star needle.

Interesting. Are there any indications, counter indications for this type of technique? Yeah. Good question. So the indication is very simple, but it’s not intuitive. The indication is simply a joint that has an abnormality either hypomobility or hyper-mobility in one or more planes, not pain.

And so that I’m emphasizing that at underlining that because we are so wired by our training and education to to think about only pain and to respond to patient’s complaints about pain. But pain is a complex multifactorial phenomenon and there’s all kinds of ways to treat pain. But this is a technique that is very specific to restoring the function and the integrity of joints, which in my clinical experience.

And there’s a lot of, other clinical experience and evidence to support this, that joint hyper mobility or hypo mobility. Can be at the root of a lot of chronic pain and disability. So in some sense, it’s an indirect method, but the benefit of focusing on the joint rather than on pain is that you’re improving structure and function.

You’re not just providing temporary relief for addressing psychosocial factors that contribute to pain, which are important, but. Pain tends to come back until you improve structure and function in certainly in my experience. And so that’s why I gravitated to this technique is that it seemed to have a longer lasting effect on not just symptom relief, but actually bringing somebody back to their full functional capacity in everyday life work, et cetera.

That’s very interesting. Yeah. I I never thought about, stability or instability. Independently from pain. And it’s definitely making me very curious about the your method and your instruction. I’m curious about you mentioned seven star and needles.

So we can use this with our existing toolbox. There’s no special, copyrighted trademark products. I have to buy to, to take these courses. Okay. That’s very cool. Having said that, are there certain tools that you find work better for this. Sure. Sure. That’s a great question. So the one thing that’s a little different from what many of us are, were used to or experienced at say the master’s level training is that in general for probing deep into larger joints, we often used need to use larger gauge needles than some of you might be comfortable with.

And certainly I was comfortable with initially. And I’m talking, for example, a very large joint, like the knee joint, where we can do a lot of good in restabilizing a stretched out sprained anterior crucial ligament. I may use a 24 gauge needle. That’s much thicker than the 32 34 36 that are common in in more superficial acupuncture.

Using, classical locations. But the thickness and the stiffness of the needle are important because I don’t want that needle to bend or worst of all break off inside a joint. And I actually have better control and ability to direct the needle that might sound like it would be much more painful.

And actually repeatedly from both patients and my fellow practitioners to whom I’ve taught this technique, the response is surprisingly, it actually does. It feels different. It’s more like a blunt probe and a little less sharp and pokey than a very thin gauge needle. So it’s not necessarily any more painful.

It’s just different. So what type of a gauge are we talking? That’s at one end of it is a, a very large joint, like the hip or the knee on a large patient. I may need, I may reach for a 24 gauge needle, but more typically I’m using, a 30 gauge needle, a 28 gauge needle on small joints, like the fingers, a 32 or even a 34 will work.

Okay. But a deeper, larger joint needs a stiff. Thicker gauge needle to be both safe and effective in my experience is is the technique completely manual or is there like electrical stimulation in conjunction or depending? Sure. Good question. The answer is no, it doesn’t depend on anything else.

Besides the mechanical probing with your hands electrical stimulation can be useful for a patient who does have a lot of pain at the site of the joint hypermobility or hypermobility, but the essential technique. Itself is one of the reasons I began using it is that it works very fast. Under a minute worth of probing with a needle, and then you can take it out and you’ve accomplished your entire treatment effect.

You don’t need to retain the needle. On a very a joint that is badly sprained with, multiple planes that are hyper mobile. I might spend, four or five minutes, probing around till I get the joint stability I’m looking for. But again, once this is a. There is a, an immediate response that I’m looking for.

I can probe for a minute or so, withdraw the needle and recheck the joint through a manual technique called joint play testing, or end field testing. And I get immediate feedback. It’s oh, it’s either more stable or it’s not, if it’s not, I. Probably just didn’t quite get the angle. Right? Didn’t get the needle into the right location.

I can go back in probe around a little more, but with a little bit of experience, you get very fast and accurate at knowing exactly where to go with the needle and getting that re stabilization, take the needle out. You can move on to the next joint, or you can do something completely different. You can, do GU hour cupping or herbs or, treat a different condition like their I or whatever.

So I do retain the needle though on a patient who is experiencing either a lot of post needling discomfort or is just in severe pain and then I’ll hook up the electrical stem and that will provide some additional, that’ll provide the pain relief, but it doesn’t really, it’s not necessary for the effect on restabilizing or Reil the.

To help our viewers visualize, can you describe a little bit of what you’re doing with your hands? Certain change, intensity you’re feeling for, are pecking, are you going through resistance because most people have not learned this technique and we’re not asking you to teach us, but give us some idea.

What is the technical feel or the sensation that you expect the patients to feel while you’re operating this method? Sure. That’s a great question. So the technique there are basically two methods of physical exam that, that. Guide me to where the needle needs to go. The easiest one that comes, that is you need the least training for essentially is simply palpating the joint for tenderness.

And typically it’s the joint line, the crack or crevice in between two bones that span by ligaments and joint capsule. That’s where the palpation is most instructive. And for example the medial knee, extremely commonly sprained, the medial tryout of MC ACL and medial meniscus palpating along the tibio Foral joint line to find where is it most tender in its medial aspect tells me exactly where I need to go.

And then I will take that needle and I’m often asked a question, what’s the right angle is the angle that you need to get into the tender area. That in occasionally you have to be careful about bypassing a major artery, the hip joint, for example, we have to avoid the femoral artery.

So there’s some safety considerations there, but most joints, most of the time, it’s simply finding the tender aspect of the joint line and inserting directly into it. The second method that allows you to verify whether or not your technique has been effective is what I mentioned earlier. The joint play testing, and probably the best way I can do this actually is the, I’m just.

It’s basically a two handed technique, but I can grab a needle here and give you an idea of how I would do this. For example, say on my own, say I, sprained my thumb. And I wanna restabilize an inter financial joint there. And so I will, and it’s perfectly safe to do this on an uninjured joint, by the way.

So if for some reason, your history and physical exam guide you to a joint that doesn’t need this, you’re not gonna do any harm as long as you follow basic safety procedures of clean needle technique. And like I say, occasionally avoiding a major artery that’s in the area. So I’m gonna take my uninjured thumb here and I’ll show you how this would work.

I can palpate along the joint line, say, oh, ouch. And what I’m really looking for is a patient. I actually watch the patient’s face while I’m doing this. Cause what I’m looking for is reflexive unconscious, involuntary grimacing or wincing, not just them telling me verbally it’s tender, but I want, I’m looking for something like this.

I press in the joint line and they go, oh, Wow. Yeah, that’s it. That’s where it’s really sore. And then this is counterintuitive. I know, but remember, I’m not treating pain here. I’m treating structure and function. I’m gonna go right into that tender area. Will it be sore? Yes, actually. That’s how I know that I’ve got the needle where it needs to go.

Is that the patient says, oh, you’ve got it. You’ve produced my typical symptoms. That’s the bulls. And then I know I’m in an injured ligament because uninjured ligaments in joint capsules, oddly enough, won’t really hurt that much. You’ll feel a little poke as the needle goes through the skin, maybe a little pressure, a little mild achiness, but nothing beyond that.

But when the patient goes, ah, that’s it, that’s the pain I’ve been feeling. I know that the needle is where it needs to be. And then I can probe around a little bit pecking, but it’s not hard pecking, it’s more probing. And then. Like I say, typically within a minute, I can just take the needle out, recheck that joint and it’s rest stabilized.

I see. No, that’s very helpful. Thank you very much. Do you find that there are certain joints that you tend to apply your technique more often than others? Like the, for example, in other words, like other which joints in your clinical practice, do you find the most? Unstable and most able and or, or most hyper mobile.

Yeah. Great question. So the I’ll just mention three joints that really were where I first started using this or that really got my attention. I was introduced to this technique by being a demonstration patient for Alon Marcus. Some gosh. 1520 years ago where he, I was having a lot of chronic low back pain at the time.

And he needle into my posterior SAC, IC ligaments along the SAC IC joint line. And, within a couple minutes of probing around the needle, he took it out. I stood up off the table and I was like, Wow. I have never felt an acupuncture treatment like this. Not only was the pain down in my back, but my entire posture from head to toe felt completely realigned in a way that was more comfortable.

And required less energy and essentially to stay standing and that lasted for a good week or so, and then slowly dissipated. Like all of our acupuncture treatments, it does need to be repeated sometimes, but I was so I, I had felt completely different that I was like, wow, I wanna learn something about this, but the two joints where I’ve actually probably used it the most commonly that where I saw the biggest difference in.

Patient’s clinical outcomes was, number one is the acromioclavicular joint that small little crack in between the clavicle and the AROM which is very superficial, easy to find, easy to needle into safe to needle into as long as you don’t needle immediately towards the lungs. And I began to, I was having a lot of trouble with, chronic rotator.

Shoulder, pain and dysfunction and so on. And I was like, oh, that’s right. There’s that technique that Alan showed me, let me try that on the AC joint. And right away, I started getting, instead of 60%, improvement, et cetera, Mo almost invariably, most of my patients. I found through joint play testing had a loose AC joint that they weren’t even aware of.

It was not painful or symptomatic, but needling into it. Suddenly we got stability of that joint full range of motion in the shoulder. Very often, sometimes there was still some range of motion deficits coming from the GLE humeral joint, but improvements in range, muscle strength. Verified through manual strength testing very frequently, fully restored or greatly improved.

And interestingly neck pain also going down because the upper trapes is attaches to the clavicle. And when that joint is hyper Hoag and not stable the muscles around it, overcompensate and tug on the neck. Wow. One needle, one joint, huge regional effect. Couple of minutes worth of probing. Big difference.

Objectively verifiable that lasts sometimes indefinitely from a single treatment sometimes needs to be repeated a few times, but typically will last for months or years without any repetition. After an effective re stabilization. The other joint I’ll mention very quickly is the ankle similar, easy to treat, easy to.

With effects up and down the biomechanical chain from the hip to the foot improved by restabilizing a hyper mobile ankle joint.

Very fascinating. So it’s you have to, if you’re scaffolding, your foundation is compromised, then your muscles are not gonna properly. Improperly it’s different.

Are. Able to share us with us a inspiring clinical story that you’ve had recently, perhaps your practice or from teaching where it was something that, was very transformative. It made a difference. And wasn’t for this technique. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll mention a patient in her mid seventies that I’m actually currently treating , who a long time ago she was in her twenties.

So 50 years ago was an. Obese large person fell on her from, and sprained her superior tibio fibular joint, a small joint. That’s actually part of the calf, but where the superior part of the fibula articulates with the Tal Condi and also sprained her ankle. So she had a she fell sideways onto the ground with this person falling on Herra her superior tib joint, and her ankle.

And her. Couple of small midfoot joints as well, and has been in somewhat chronic pain ever since in her leg. And it’s affected her back and her neck, et cetera, 50 years ago. And and comes to me. And she happens to be medical professional herself has tried a number of different modalities, nothing really helped.

And I should say, this is why this technique is so important because there isn’t really any other technique that can restabilize a hyper mobile joint. You. Repair and replace it surgically, you can inject cortisone to reduce pain and inflammation, but actually changing the function structure without surgery.

This is really the only thing. Guha cupping manual therapy. Won’t do it. Distal kneeling. Won’t do it. So anyway, so I evaluate her calf and your ankle and go, wow. You’re on your superiority, fib joint and your lateral ankle ligaments. Small joint called the Calkino cuboid joint and the spring ligaments on the medial arch of the foot.

All of these are hyper mobile and stretched out from that single injury because they were never treated locally with this type of technique. About three or four minutes a couple of minutes per joint, again stands up off the table. It’s wow. My leg feels completely D.

And I recheck all the joints. Everything is stable. don’t see her for a month. She comes back in, everything’s still pretty good. The superior tib joint needed a little bit of tune up a little more kneeling, but I didn’t have to treat the ankle or the foot joints again. And then I see her, three or four weeks later and she’s can we work on something else?

Now? My life’s doing pretty good. I can. Yes. I love it when you get that oh, by the way, can you also treat this? And it’s yes. Got it. That’s that was super enlightening. I can’t wait to study with you. So if somebody like me wanted to study with you, where can we find out more information? Sure.

Thank you very much for asking and I’d be happy to work with anyone on this technique. My website is www dot a as in acupuncture, O as an Oriental medicine. And I know this is a been a standard term and I’m in the process of actually changing everything in my notes and eventually my website.

But right now it’s www.AOM, A as in acupuncture, O as in Oriental M as in medicine, professional, all is one word AOM, professional.com. And that’s where you can go for information about live webinars, distance learning classes, and returning to in-person teaching this summer, after a couple years off for the pandemic.

Excellent. Thank you. Once again, I’d just like to thank you for your time on behalf of the American Acupuncture, Acupuncture Council, and and to all our friendly viewers out there. If you have any feedback please comment. And and we would love to hear from you. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you all for your time too.

Cupping – Coding, Billing and Reimbursement

how do I code for cupping? Can I get paid? What is the proper code? Let’s really get into that.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi everyone. This is Sam Collins, your coding and billing expert for acupuncture and the American Acupuncture Council Network. With our other episode on always looking to continue to grow your practice, to give yourself more opportunity, to see people and help people. And as always, I’m going to give you tips on coding and billing and really practice management.

This is a great time to be an acupuncturist, but how do we make sure we’re getting from gaining full advantage to get access to patients and the services we provide? So what I’d like to do with you today is to talk about coding and billing specifically for cupping. This is one that I get this question a lot is that seminar producer, as well as doing our network services, where people call them with questions.

One of the questions I get is, Hey Sam, how do I code for cupping? Can I get paid? What is the proper code? Let’s really get into that. So let’s go to the slides. Let’s take a look. What’s going on with. And how do we do it? What’s the coding and billing. Please note, there is our website. This is the network, not the insurance company, ACM phone network.

Remember we always have updates and news for you there. So what are we looking for? What do we need to do? What is. A cupping as well. Let’s define that cupping as a therapy at ancient form of therapy, where a therapist puts special cups on your skin or a patient skin to create suction.

That suction is to help with circulation, for pain, inflammation, blood flow, and so forth. And of course has become very popular. You’re seeing it all over. Let’s talk about, we know what it’s good for it. How do we use it? But can we get paid for it? Let’s talk about cutting more to define it more clearly.

What I’ve been able to research is that there’s about 10 different types of cupping, and I’m sure some of you might say, oh no, I think there’s five. This is just what I was able to research. And it shows you can have things that they call weaker, like cupping medium or. Moving cupping. I see that commonly needle cupping using moxa or needles with it empty or flash cupping, full bleeding, cupping.

You got to remember that. Is it within your scope for your state, but I’ve seen it used with herbs water and realize the cups can be made of several substances. I generally see some type of glass. I seen some very heavy plastic metals I’ve even heard. I’ve never seen it. I’ve even heard of bamboo.

And that kind of makes sense. What we want to focus on. How do we bill for it? Is there a CPT code that we can use that says it? The first thing we have to remember is whenever you select a code, and this is something that you must always do, you must select a code that accurately describes the service.

Not has to accurately do not be creative. Don’t select a code because it’s like it, like my example, if you were to use. Would you be able to code that as acupuncture? Just because you put seeds on a point, doesn’t make it acupuncture because it’s not needle. So it can’t be it’s gotta be all the way.

So don’t be creative with what you describe, do not select the code that climate is close. Always has to be exact. And within that. If there’s no code for it, there is a code, always. There’s a code called the unlisted code and it can be a modality or a procedure. So whenever you have any service and we’re talking cupping today that doesn’t have a code, that’s going to be the more likely code to use, but let’s take a look at is their way of coding.

It’s I’m going to show you something. I deal with a lot, which is dealing with audits. Many of you are insured with American acupuncture council. And remember if you’re audited who’s there. Remember, if you have American acupuncture council of malpractice, they’re going to help you with audits depending on your policy, anywhere from 30,000 to $50,000 a defense.

And this was one of the cases we had here was an office that had issues with coding. And you’ll take a look. I highlighted in blue. So here it says on 52 claim lines, manual therapy was identified as. In the medical records and reporting of the code 9 71, 4 0 is not appropriate using for the Madame for the modality to indicate as cupping.

So I want to make clear, some people will say Sam, I’m putting the cups on manually and I’m moving them around. So it makes it manual therapy. Nope. That would not make it manual therapy. It’s. And though you’re doing it manually, it doesn’t make it manual therapy. So again, be very careful and you hear a lot of people say, oh, sure.

When I use a cup, Nope, that would not be correct. And I want to make sure you can see this. This is directly from. And again, very clear that it’s not to be used for it. So is there a code for cupping? So if you start thinking of all the codes, infrared heat. Okay. Hot packs, electric stem.

You’ll notice there is no code for cupping. So we want to talk about how to do it. And frankly, let’s be clear. Is it really even a covered service? And I think that’s what I want to focus more on. How do you get. And to get paid for it by insurance. That’s what we have to have a code, but is it a covered service?

Take a look here. This is the VA and I’m sure you’re all familiar with VA claims. The VA is one insurance that will indeed pay for cupping 100%. You’ll notice here and I highlighted it where they indicate the services that can be provided along with your acupuncture. And clearly. Cupping, along with other things, but cupping is there.

So a lot of people look at the codes that are allowed under the VA. And I’ll give you the list here. Here’s the codes that the VA pays for an acupuncturist. Notice it was updated for this year. And you’ll notice that code. I put the blue arrows it’s 9, 7 0 1 6. Now I would say in theory, I think the VA is saying you could use that code.

I don’t think it’s quite correct, but let’s talk about. Should you use it? 9, 7 0 1 6 indicates something that’s called a Vasos nomadic device. And the indication for it is to reduction of a deem after acute injury lymphedema and the use of a pop. So I want to highlight you see this little, long kind of blood pressure cuff goes over the area.

That’s what a visa nomadic devices. It’s a large pressure device that goes over an extremity or part of the body that gets pumped. To prevent a DEMA post-surgical maybe prevent blood clots. It might have vibration to promote circulation and deal with lymphedema. Now I’ve had some people argue that well, could a cup be listed under that?

I would say I can see the argument, but I think this goes against the rule. It has to either fit it or not. I don’t think this would fit it. So I don’t think this is the best choice. And I also don’t think it’s the best choice, because if you use it, I will say the VA will pay it. But the VA Medicare rate is 12 to 1400.

It has a relative value of 0.35, which means it’s about 25% of the value of acupuncture. So again, not a very expensive code, 12 bucks now that’s better than zero, but is that potentially the best code? So remember an application modality, one area Vaser pneumatic says devices that provide external pumping forces to soft tissues to the lower and upper extremities.

And I would say trunk as well. So you would say with cupping, could it fit that definition? I could see you dovetailing it, but I still will stay. It is not the best. Cupping is very popular. You’re seeing it amongst sports and athletes and my goodness, the rock has even had it. And I love what he does because he has moons of followers that if he’s getting cut, the more people are likely to try.

Do I see even the person’s left, had a lot of cups place it’s really popular. It really has efficacy. I’m seeing a lot of additional practitioners from chiropractors to physical therapists that are doing it. So how do we. I mentioned the visa nomadic device. And I said visa, nomadic. I think you can argue it for the VA.

I would never use it outside the VA, but for the VA you could. But I think from a monetary point of view, you’re losing money because it doesn’t pay as well. Using 9 7 0 1 6 will literally get you paid less than 50% of what you would be paid. Otherwise when you use what’s called the unlisted modality code.

Now I want to go back for a second and I’ll go back here and show you. You’ll notice those codes are like, 9 7 0 3 9 and 9 7 1 1 3 9. So you can see they’re all on the list for the VA. In addition tonight 7 0 1 6, but those codes do not have a Medicare value, which means when there’s no value purported by Medicare, they pay at usual and customers.

So what I’m saying to you is simply. If you’re billing, even the VA for cupping, what is the best code to use? It’s going to be the enlist of modality. Whether you want to say it’s unattended or attended. Now here’s the difference. 9 7 0 3 9 says unlisted, modality and modality in this way means something.

You apply to a patient, but you don’t have to be there. Like I know when I’ve had cupping, they placed the. And they leave them there for a bit. I would say that’s an unattended, probably appropriate code, but I’ve also had cupping where the provider is constantly in attendance adjusting and moving them a bit.

That’s going to be more of a procedure or hands-on. So the more hands-on and that you’re spending time with the patient 9 7 1 3 9 would be the better choice if it’s completely unattended 9 7 0 3 9. The difference, just to give an example, if you bill 9 7 0 1 6. They’ll pay a 12 to $14 bill 9 7 1 3 9. I’m going to say payment is going to be between 30 and 45, depending on your area.

So would you rather get paid 10 or 30 or 40? I would opt with the higher one. So how do we code this though, to make sure they know what’s coming says it says unlisted procedure, which means it could be for anything. So you have to indicate cupping on the 15th. Actually, it’s not hard. You’ve all seen a 1500 for here’s an example.

Notice on this line item, it says 9 7 1 3 9. And then in the pink shaded section, right above it, you simply indicate that tells the insurance it’s cupping. Oh, by the way, what if you’re doing moxibustion how would you do that? Actually the same way you would just indicate moxibustion whether it’s fully active.

Or one that it’s unattended. My point here is that coding for cupping, the best code for you would be the unlisted code and indicated this cupping, the VA will cover it. They will pay for cupping. It’s part of the authorization. They will pay it under 9 7, 0 1 6, but at a third of the price. So I think it’s better to use this one.

Now, what about regular? Do regular plans generally cover cupping. The unfortunate answer is no, I’m not finding any type of consistent payment here and there I’ve seen it, but not enough for me to really say yes, it’s covering out. The more likely places to be covered would be personal injury more than likely.

But outside of that, if you go to, gosh, the Cigna, Aetna, the blues general, they’re going to come back and say, it’s experimental investigation, which doesn’t it. From your standpoint, it’s not effective, but you know how insurance companies are without a double-blind study. We’re not going to cover, explain to the patient.

This cupping services is going to be integral to you getting better. We’re going to apply it. This is why, and what we’re doing. And here is the cost. If you show the value and the patient sees the value, they will pay for it and it will be covered. So don’t be afraid to pass it on because if you’re not willing to pass it onto the patient, why bill and insurance, if you’re going to give it away, So I would say, yes, I don’t want to bill for it.

It takes time. It takes effort and it is effective. Quite frankly, I’ve seen some really good responses with muscle injuries that I’ve never seen with other types of modalities. Now we’ll hacky puncture too, but that cupping is really been something I’ve noticed because of the amount of use I’ve seen has really made things work better for patients.

So make it available. Billing wise, what’s the best. Unlisted therapeutic procedure or modality, identify it as cupping and then simply put your price. And when we’re talking just simply price, you’re far better to bill cupping under the unlisted code to the VA. Cause it’s a little bit worth three times the money.

So keep it simple. You know how everybody makes insurance billing hard. You just have to understand the parameters. And that’s what our program with you is to do and realize I do articles and acupuncture today, and this one date back to 2010 and actually talks about it and why I wanted to bring it up today.

That this question though, a lot recently, and it’s because it’s become popular because of the VA. Here’s the thing. You can have me as your. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the network service, because from that I become part of your team where you can call, email me, fax me. However you want to get ahold of me to help you with coding and billing, and frankly get paid my goal to make you better.

I’m your doctor of billing to make your office work better. So go to our side, take a look. I would suggest take a moment to go to our Facebook page AAC. Give us a like there and we always update and put news out. We’re always going to be a resource. The American acupuncture council of course, is your malpractice resource, but will your billing and coding and business to resources as there’s our site, there’s our phone number.

Please reach out to us. Don’t be afraid. My email was at the front end as well. What I’ll say to you all is thank you for the time and next episode, we’re going to have Poney Chiang and again, always go out and be successful. But remember, the success is more about being. Which means being good to your patients, be that person.

And I’ll see you next time. Everyone take care. So what I’d like to do with you today is to talk about coding and billing specifically for cupping. This is one that I get this question a lot is that seminar producer, as well as doing our network services, where people call them with questions.

One of the questions I get is, Hey Sam, how do I code for cupping? Can I get paid? What is the proper code? Let’s really get into that.

Grow Your Practice Through Empowered Teams

Some people are feeling burnout and but yet the desire to create impact in the world and to grow your practices. And this is where somebody like Simone has some great advice in some answers for us.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hello, and welcome to the point. I’m your host Lorne Brown. I’m a CPA certified professional accountant. I’m a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and an author as well as the founder of Healthy Seminars.com. And today we have a special guest. We have my coach, Simone Janssen on to the point. And we’re going to talk about grow your practice through empower teams.

And I know having, taking the pulse, no pun intended of my colleagues and knowing myself. That some people are feeling fatigued. Some people are feeling burnout and but yet the desire to create impact in the world and to grow your practices. And this is where somebody like Simone has some great advice in some answers for us.

Cause when it’s time to grow and serve at that highest level that, that you all want and know that you can do. You’re probably becoming aware. And if not, I’ll let you know, you can’t do this alone. The greatest athletes, the greatest people that have made impacts in this world.

Although you think they’ve done it alone, they’ve had some. They have stood on other people’s shoulders. And so yes, you may see them in the news as somebody’s done something incredible. But please know that all of them have incredible teams. But the key is how you build a trusted team of a players.

Basic that’s an extension of you, or at least extension of your vision that have your back and can rock all the outcomes that you’re looking for. Focus on the expansion that you want. And this is why I personally joined Simone’s coaching program is because I’m very aware that I have a team. And if it’s, if the clinic.

Optimal or it’s not going if it’s not growing the way I want to, or I’m fatigued. I know the first responsibility starts with me, not them with me. And I’m always a big fan of investing in yourself. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re going to bring own in, but I brought her her coaching into my.

Because I knew I needed to up my capacity, my skill level, so I can lead this team. Let’s bring on Simone Janssen. So let’s see. There she is. Hey, Simona. Good to see you again. Hey Lorne. Good to see you. And wow. What an awesome podcast you have here. I’m excited to. I’m glad to have you on here with us.

So I want to let them know that so Simone here, she’s worked with hundreds of growth minded leaders help build the right systems and teams helping them scale quickly. Cause you want to expand and grow. It feels good when you go to flow, it does not feel good when you’re stuck and she helps you get out of their own way while avoiding burnout.

And I know from my own experience, feeling tired and burnt out, I was getting in my own way, which is why I had the. Insight to know that, Hey, I need some help. I do mentoring for people. I’ve run some great practices and businesses. It’s always good to get help. And we all can benefit from interest and coaches, and this is what Simone does.

So she’s going to talk to us a little bit about what she does and and give us a presentation. So you’ve set up a little presentation for us called grow your practice through empower teams. If we can bring up your slide deck, I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say, and please we’re looking forward to your questions.

Yeah. Sounds great. So hello everybody. How’s it going? I hope you’re having a fabulous day. So it’s Simone here with Bulletproof startups and we do have an incredible training for you. So hopefully you have something to take notes with because we’re going to dive right in. We’re going to move pretty fast because we have a lot of content to share with you.

Let’s get to it. So as you see, the title of today’s presentation is grow your practice through empower teams. So you, as the practice owner can really get out of the driver’s seat and change. The world one patient at a time. So who this is for is really, if you are a CEO or a practice owner, and basically if you’re ready to scale your practice and you can’t do this on your own and you are ready to take your existing team and really optimize them so they can deliver amazing results for you and for your patients.

Then this is. Or if you’re just hiring your first two to three key people to start expanding, then you’re also in the right place. So you might fall into

not able to appear. We go. You might fall into one of these two categories. So if you are like Christine, Christine had a very successful acupuncture clinic was already handling more patients than she could with the addition of one grade assistant. But if she knew if she didn’t hire more practitioners, she wouldn’t be able to help more people as her client load was already completely maxed out, but she had never.

Hired anybody never really led a team before. So this was all completely new to her. So she used the same principles and practices that I’m about to share with you. And she’s currently about 300 K a month. Now, more importantly, she and her team really have the privilege to help three times the people now than they could before.

Or you might be like Frank, Frank has a very successful. Physical therapy clinic and he had already hired and trained five providers in his method, but really they weren’t proactive. They weren’t strategic. So everything kept falling back on his plate and he could never really get into growth mode, no matter how hard he tried.

So Frank came to us because he wanted some, he wanted to create some freedom and some leverage to grow his initial. And his impact using this the same kind of strategies that I’m about to share with you. He retrained his team and he hired five more providers. So he was able to serve twice the amount of patients in just the first three months that we worked here.

And he opened his second location soon thereafter. So whether this is your first attempt at hiring a team, or you’re a seasoned veteran, it could be working better pay very close attention because of this training really does have the duty to change your life and your business. So let’s look at this, what this is really.

So we’re going to talk about how to grow your practice through empower teams. Get out of that driver’s seat and change the world one patient at a time. Now we need that clear vision that brings more value and teamwork to the table. Step-by-step action plan to create highly accountable team. We’ll talk about the right communication strategies to get and keep your team focused.

Getting leadership practices in place to foster great accountability. And so that you can really be that thought leader in your space. Now this will work. Even if currently everything is always all on you. You don’t have everything, you do everything. Even though you have a team you are far from where you want to be.

Maybe your culture needs some cleanup. Maybe it needs some defining, or you haven’t been successful at hiring before.

Just a little bit about me very quickly. Lorne said something already, but why you should listen to me, I’ve been doing this for more than 15 years and through our Bulletproof start-ups system, we’ve helped hundreds of companies of all different industries, sizes kinds of mission by really by putting the right systems and structures in place that help their teams show up with their a game.

Get strategic. And take care of serving the patients and really rock all that everyday operational stuff. So that it’s not on my client’s plates anymore. Many of my clients, CRA clients, we’re getting, we’re trying to all sorts of stuff. They had heard about a million different things, but for most of them, nothing really ever quite work or really.

So because what’s, most of what’s out there, they’re actually not systems. So the different pieces don’t necessarily play together. And oftentimes that you can contradict each other. So over time I found what works best and I could create a system where all the pieces fit together without big gaps and everything builds on each other.

So you constantly don’t have to reinvent the wheel. So 3d systems might clients have. Over a billion dollars to their bottom lines over time. And just imagine how that translates into lives changed. Patients helped. So what do our customers all have in common? Pretty simple. They want the income, they want the freedom and they want the impact.

So let’s unpack this for a moment because while that sounds simple, this may not be. All that easy. When we look at revenue, a lot of our clients money is not their first motivator, but let’s be real here. If you’re not making money, this is not sustainable. It’s also the easiest way to measure business success, which is in direct correlation to our first, our third may.

Impact. So for now, just let’s agree that revenue is a powerful measure, but in the long run and even more powerful measure that we really need to pay attention to is profitability. Of course. And the other thing about revenues, it means proof of concept. It means what you do is working, which is really important.

So that’s revenue, but then freedom for most of our clients. Freedom is one of the biggest motivators when they started their business. Only, think about this only doing what you love and the rest of it, your team takes care of. And that’s often the thinking that beginning entrepreneurs have, except for most of them pretty quickly that being in business for yourself as anything, but.

Unless you figure out how to create a great leverage team and you become a respected leader for this team. So many of our clients are really brilliant at what they do, but they know they need more people on their team. And if they want to expand, treat and have more impact, they really have to get into this piece.

But whenever there’s a challenge, they keep stepping into. Working in their business versus just staying, working on their business. And you might wonder why. It’s, because most of them have not created a team that they can really trust. So how do we do that? It’s this thing that I call the holy business, Trinity, that we have to pay attention to because when your team is not performing the way that you need them to, we have to look at three really important variables.

One is the people. Do you have the right people on the bus? Two is the systems. Are you giving them the systems and the structures that they need to be successful? This means giving them the tools that help them implement your strategy and utilize their talents to help you level this thing up. And then three, of course, as leaders.

Are you the leader that will be able to challenge and support them so that they can bring their, a game to the table, help you build your vision, but you in turn have to be that leader that can really help them grow. And for any of you who are out. And you were having a hard time hiring onboarding, and really cutting down on your churn.

This part is huge. What is your RQ, which is your readiness quotient for helping your team members grow and keep raising the bar with you. Let’s unpack this a little bit more because people, and there’s a lot to be said about that, and you might think you only have control over two out of these three variables, but there’s a significant caveat.

If you don’t have the right people on your bus, all the systems and leadership in the world, aren’t going to change your outcome. So how do you know if your people are the right people? Now here’s an obvious one. If. Your culture is toxic. You have a lot of drama, backbiting, your team. Isn’t delivering, people are being resistant and sometimes outright contentious.

That’s no fun for everybody. And you and your team included, and it certainly doesn’t help you deliver stellar results. So this one is easy because everybody is in so much pain that you have to change it if you want to be successful. And if you don’t want to lose your good people on your.

If you have any left, that is so that’s, that one is pretty obvious, but then we get to the second one where things are pretty pleasant, but actually it’s lazy. So this is a sneaky one because everything seems fine on the outside. There’s no drama, generally. Everybody’s nice with each other, but for lack of better term, they are lazy.

And what that means is they’re set in their ways. They are too comfortable. They haven’t challenged themselves in a long time. And if you’re honest with yourself, their performance is lackluster and often has been declining steadily for some time. So this is sneaky because it often feels comfortable because you all have become like a big dysfunctional family and it’s not all bad, but certainly it’s not enabling you to when you are part of the problem, because.

You too have probably become too comfortable and maybe set in your ways. And if you’re being truthful here, this hasn’t really worked for some time now. So being too comfortable, here’s the issue when people are putting in the minimum effort required. It looks like they’re doing their job, but it certainly won’t put you or the rest of your team to to growth and this really the mindset that everybody needs to bring to the table.

So unless your team has a growth mindset and every person on your team has a plan for what that means for their specific role. When you’re getting ready to grow. At some point, the business will outgrow. And slow growth is often a painful indicator of that situation. So how do you figure this out as always, it starts with you, and this is really where the other two factors come into play that your systems and your leadership.

So you may have the right people, or you may not, we don’t even know that yet. And we won’t really know until we give them. We’ll give them. And you clarity because clarity is here is the key word, because without clear goals and expectations, they don’t have any clear targets. And if they don’t have any clear targets, you and they have really no idea what to measure performance thigh, you’re right.

People. Craving this clarity, they’ve been waiting for it since the day they joined your team and they will be super excited when you start sharing their brain with them because they will get the context that they need to understand the big picture and how they contribute to the overall company outcome.

And of course, that’s only the beginning, but this is really the foundation for everything. So we can’t make wine out of. And you ought to you yourself, your business, the rest of the team to make sure, first of all, that your team has the right DNA. And then you said that the right culture so that everybody has the right mindset, the right values standards, and the behaviors that will support the growth strategies that you’re going to bring to the table.

So you see, when we come back to. The main outcomes that you want for this business, which was revenue, freedom, and impact having the right people on your bus. Is non-negotiable sometimes it’s hard to make the decision around this, but without the right people, this is all a nonstarter. You will never get to the next level of revenue goals.

You will never have the freedom that you want, and you certainly won’t have the, you won’t be able to create the impact that you craving because you don’t have the support you need to make all this happen. So let’s look at systems a little bit. Yeah. Upfront, there are operational there’s. This is an important distinction there, operational systems, which is what’s working in your business or your leadership systems, which is working on the business.

And as your business evolves, both of these have to evolve with. So for operational systems, the most important ones are your KPIs, your key performance indicators and your SOP, your standard operating procedures. So hopefully you are super clear on your KPIs because that means what numbers define your performance.

And everybody, every business has a unique answer. But if you’re not clear about that, talk to your CFO, your CPA, your bookkeeper, whoever you have, who can help you manage your financial performance, talk to them and get really clear on this. You have to know your numbers. If you want to grow your business otherwise, what will you feel?

So your SLPs are your shared agreements and principles for how you do stuff in your company. We need a clear structure and we need to make sure that everybody uses the same structures and documents. Anything that hasn’t been documented before. Of course, this requires discipline and it’s a big step towards being a cohesive force as a team.

We all need to do things the same way. For anything, that’s a shared outcome. So we have to get really clear about what that is and we have to share it. And this may sound restrictive, but making things repeatable is part of what makes them scalable. We need to agree on what processes we use to get to our outcomes.

Sometimes it’s hard to get people to follow. And it’s yours and your leader’s job to let your team know why following protocol is so important. And look, you’ll have to say it over and over again because. If you don’t, people will just go with the path of least resistance, which is generally their own, which creates a lot of disparity over time.

So you have to tell them, you have to show them, you have to tell them again, and then probably do that another 25 times before it sinks in. But the more people get the why, like the context behind everything, the more willing they tend to be to follow along. Now the other systems, the leadership systems are how you get people to show up at their highest level, how they become high performers, how they own their outcomes, how they take on responsibility and show up at the highest level for you now to get all this stuff, to tie it together.

We want to look at this from this perspective, we want the four cornerstones to create a Bulletproof business. So the first part of it. Is crystal clear, detailed three-year strategic plan that serve as serves as your. And it gives your team not only the big picture for the company, but also a clear understanding of what that means to them, like how they fit into with what, why they’re there and how they contribute to the overall company direction.

And it what’s in it for them. So it’s the benefit of. Of doing this. The second thing is having a tight, specific, measurable operational plan that really helps everybody understand how they get from that highly conceptual 30,000 foot view of your vision down to the nitty gritty of that mean what that means for this year, what that means for this quarter, this week of this month, this week, this like today, so that the team works together as a cohesive force and.

Do it, they’re doing the right things at the right time so that they can deliver the best results. And there are many ways of creating an operational plan, but the big game changer happens when this operational plan is in full alignment with your vision when it’s based on a very clear company plan.

And when it becomes a collaborative project throughout all the layers of your team, because you need everybody to know what everybody else is. And there’s a couple of there’s the old way. And the new way of doing this the old way is delegating and people telling people what to do. And the newer way is.

Bringing in their full talent, their ideas and their inspiration to the table, because now this staff, when it’s their idea, they’re a whole lot more engaged and they’re going to do be a whole lot more likely to take ownership over the execution and delivery, which means accountability. And that’s what you really want.

So when you think about what builds that, that culture of accountability for you that you need so badly. Which one do you think works better? So this is the two principal guidelines here. And then the third one is your most important one for communication, but this is your meetings. Everybody loves to hate meetings.

But let’s be honest. It’s not really that meeting stuff is that we suck at running them. So your meetings really are the opportunity for you to focus and refocus your team. This should not be a boring redundant status update, but it should create focus, alignment, positive conflict collaboration. And really that cross departmental visibility and partnership.

So they need to be prepared. These meetings need to be prepared and really clearly structured and provide really stellar outcomes to be worth the tremendous investment and time of resources that they require. And many companies royally fail at doing this. And then the fourth thing is you are leadership practices, and this is really where the pedal hits the metal.

This is not only where you help your leaders hit their top performance, but you modeling it for them, helps them understand how they need to support their own teams. So that. This practice really cascades down through all the different layers of the company. Oftentimes the breakdown in overall team and company performance happens because between your mid-level managers and the rest of the team.

So this piece is really. Many people don’t like conflict and avoid conflict at all costs. So by the time they finally give their direct feedback, it’s often it’s too late and many issues that could have been avoided have taken their toll. So your ability to handle challenging conversation is in direct correlation to the size and quality of business that you can.

This is also your opportunity to build strong and loyal relationships with your team so that they’re emotionally connected and invested in the larger outcome. If you do this right, these practices will make the difference between having constant churn and your good team members being poached by other businesses and having a loyal, committed team who goes to the extra mile.

Whereas your. And who shows up for you if you do this wrong, or if you don’t do this at all, this can be the reason for why you will never be able to rely on your team and create the business of your dreams. Really. So we talked about revenue and freedom. What about that impact piece? Everything we’ve already talked about.

This is what supports impact. When you serve more patients, you exponentially scale your impact. When you add more people to the team you add more impact. But it’s not just about more. It’s also about the level of quality and the care that you deliver to whoever your customer is your patient, your team, your partner, your investor, like anybody who is touched by your business.

So you see part, if part of your purpose on this planet is serving your mission and creating positive impact. You owe it to yourself, you or to your family, your team, your community, and it really everybody else connected to. That you get the mentoring that you need just like Lorne was talking about so that you can be the very best leader for all these people who are, depending on you.

Everything that, got you here. And to get to that next level of business, it’s really time to kick it up a notch. There is no time like the present and we know not being decisive costs our clients a lot of time, money and impact. So what’s the fastest way and most effective way to get to your new level of.

It is invest in mentoring. So what we’ve done is my team. And I have set aside some time for you in the next few days to speak with you personally. There’s no cost for this on the call. What we’ll do is we’ll go over, what’s working, what’s not working and what may be standing in your way to really optimize your team and to get into growth mode.

So of course the slots are limited. So I would go to Bulletproof startups.com/apply right now and grab. And I will speak to you very soon. Very excited. Maybe it’s a month. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that presentation. And just a quick question for you in your experience, what’s been the biggest issues that you have found that’s keeping practitioners from growing and how have you seen that?

They get in their own way the most Lorne. Okay, this is a, this is an easy one to answer because when I think about most of our clients, whether they’re practitioners or whether they’re in another business, but most pump people become entrepreneurs because they love what they do. And they’re really good at it.

And at some point they decide, Hey, I have to take this to another level. I want to have more impact. I want to impact more people, but that means they have to hire it. And that also means they have to start allowing that team to start actually taking things off their plate. And then, so they’re switching their role, right?

Because they come in as the practitioners, as the technicians, the people doing the work and the big shift happens when that’s not the important part anymore. It’s that mindset shift of now I’m instead of I’m contributing through. Or actually, if you’re contributing myself to, I am contributing through another group of people.

So that is letting go of control. That is really being able to share your head with people is influencing people in the positive way. It’s helping them create those major outcomes. So you go from being the doer to being the leader. And that’s a tough shift because this is your baby. You’ve been working on this for a long time for most of our clients, their results and the client experience is extremely important to them.

So they want to make sure it goes right. So that’s why, everything you talked about and I talked about is all about how did you create that team that really, that you can trust that has your back that’s forward-thinking that strategic that you don’t need to micromanage every. Because only when you feel like that, can you actually get out of the way, stop being the bottleneck and let your team do the stuff.

And look, as you get bigger, you want to make sure that you only hire people who are better than you, at least in their respective areas so that they can actually help you up level the company. Instead of having you be you who’s limiting the talent and ability. Thank you for that. Thank you very much for that.

Yeah. And Lorne, I’m curious since I was going to ask you, since, you have firsthand experience in what it’s like to go through Bulletproof startups and working with me, what’s been your favorite results so far I don’t know if you want to tell people where you came from and where you’re going with.

Yeah, I can totally address that in that, we get stuck. And so the biggest bottleneck is me. So I’m the bottleneck and that’s how I think successful people stay and become more successful is they don’t blame. They take responsibility. And so I was feeling tired, burnt out. And what I like.

Coaching and the program is now I have clarity, I’ve tapped into my vision and I’m not feeling stuck, so I’m excited to get, so I have the energy and what I find with coaching in your program and in general having mentors and coaches is the accountability responsibility, but if I could put it just as a, an easy way to understand it is we’re all living in these glass jars with labels on the outside facing.

So I’m stuck, but I don’t know why I’m stuck. If I did, I wouldn’t be stuck anymore. And having somebody who can look at my chart and read my label and give me direction. And so we started off our conversation that nobody reaches the top of the map. All by themselves, and everybody who’s successful.

There’s a team. And the idea here, and what I’m liking is that I’m investing in myself so I can be more supportive to my team. So we, as a collective, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. So I’m looking for the collective for us to make an impact in the world. So we’re all making an impact and we’re using the entity, my clinic, as a view of.

To serve our purpose, our mission. And so it, it fulfills us and it financially it fulfills us and we come together for that. And it starts with me, the bottleneck, the leadership. And so I need more leadership skills. Hey Simone, thank you again so much for being on our show. We’re at our time.

So I want to thank you guys for joining to the point, and I want to remind you that next. Not next up. Yes. Next up on Friday, we have Shellie Goldstein. So make sure you tune into that.

Why An Acupuncturist Insurance Is Vital (And How To Find The Best Provider)

You should perform a comprehensive search for prospective providers for products as valuable as acupuncturist insurance. You have to make sure that the company you choose can deliver its promise. Your choice will have a crucial impact on your finances and your professional reputation as an acupuncturist.

Many companies in the market present themselves as the best acupuncturist insurance provider you can find around. However, as the saying goes, “there’s more than meets the eye.” That implies you have to be careful in choosing an acupuncturist insurance product to buy; make sure you do it based on an informed decision – not just on how these companies portray themselves. With that said, here are some crucial things you need to consider when choosing an acupuncturist insurance provider:

Experience (you would want to look for an acupuncturist insurance provider with proven track records, probably with decades of industry experience)
Good reviews from previous and current clients (there is no better way to learn about how good (or bad) a company is than those who have experienced their product themselves.)
Package quotations are transparent (what you see is what you get; what you get is what you pay)
The total value of insurance claims they pay out each year (this provides insights into the company’s capability to deliver the insurance protection as promised)
Has physical location or office (that means they are legitimate and have the approval from regulating bodies to offer insurance for acupuncturists.)

Some benefits of acupuncturist insurance

Offers liability insurance to protect your business and professional reputation from potential malpractice lawsuits;
Offers workers’ compensation, covering all employees (except those from independent contractors);
Offers premises liability protection or commonly called slip or trip and fall insurance (covers the potential risks of a guest on the premises alleging damage to their personal property or injury in the clinic area such as slipping from a wet spot on the floor, tripping on a frayed rug or fainting and falling off the treatment table)
Offers protection for business personal property (can cover the named insured for lost, stolen, or damaged property of the business, such as equipment)

Online looking for a reputable and most qualified acupuncturist insurance provider? Reach out to the team at the American Acupuncture Council today.

Some benefits of acupuncturist insurance

Please call (800) 838-0383 for inquiries.