And the topic of my talk today is the importance of clearing blocks before doing cosmetic or any facial acupuncture treatment.

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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, my name’s Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an international educator, and I am also the author of the book, “Treating the Face.” It is a comprehensive guide for acupuncturists and health professionals. It is a full-color, 500-page book encompassing everything having to do with treating the face.

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First, I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today. So what I’m going to talk about today comes from chapter two of my book, which is all about five element acupuncture. And the topic of my talk today is the importance of clearing blocks before doing cosmetic or any facial acupuncture treatment.

So what is a block, and why is it important to treat them and clear them? So a block is the im– is an impediment to the smooth flow of qi throughout the body. It’s if you think about water going downstream if you think of your qi as like a river flowing, and if there were sticks blocking the water from going downstream, that is energetically what a block to treatment is like.

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So how might it show up? Blocks can… The effect and how it could show up is it could make symptoms worse, or it could make your treatments not as effective. And this is important to us when treating the face because when we are treating someone’s face we’re not just treating them from here to here.

All of my cosmetic treatments involve a full body acupuncture treatment, and this is because we are treating the whole person. So if the qi is blocked anywhere, then it is going to affect our cosmetic acupuncture treatments, and this can show up in, again, the treatments not being as effective or your patient can have increased side effects from the treatment strange sensations, headaches, dizziness, these types of things.

So it’s really important to clear energetic blocks to treatment before treating the face. The health of the entire body is reflected on the face, and our face is the most yang part of our body. So things like wind and heat and a lot of different stagnations and deficiencies can show up on our face.

They can show up as red spots, dark spots, dryness, puffiness, especially under the eyes. And when we’re thinking about the face and blocks in particular, all of the yang organs, all of the yang channels converge up on the face, and we’ll get back to that in just a second. Thinking about our five element…

I’m a Worsley trained five element acupuncturist I think a lot when I’m designing my treatments, I think a lot about the emotions and how the emotions affect our overall health, and our face is how we express our emotions. And if we can’t or don’t express our emotions due to some sort of blocked channels, blocked qi or perhaps there’s neuropathy somewhere, or your patient has been getting some sort of neurotoxins in order to relax certain muscles, or if your patient has a condition like Bell’s palsy or myasthenia gravis and they can’t express an emotion, then this is not just affecting the face, it’s going to affect our overall health.

So the first thing that I always do when I’m doing a cosmetic acupuncture treatment is I check for and treat any blocks to treatment. So today I’m gonna talk about two blocks to treatment, and one of them is referred to as aggressive energy. So aggressive energy is contaminated, polluted qi that might be circulating through the channels, and it can affect all aspects of our mental, physical, and emotional health, so body, mind, and spirit And there’s really no way just by looking at a person or talking to a person or probably not even feeling their pulses unless you’re highly skilled to know if someone has aggressive energy.

So what we do is we test to see if the person has aggressive energy through an aggressive energy treatment. So the treatment is a test, and the test is also a treatment. So by testing for aggressive energy, you’re treating the person. The points that we use are the AEPs on the back, all the Back Shu points and they are bladder thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, eighteen, twenty, and twenty-three.

So we’re going to go top to bottom, right to left. We’re going to put the points in, and we don’t push the needle all the way in. You just tap the needle in so that they’re just hanging there, and then you’re going to put in a test needle, one in the upper jiao, one in the middle jiao, and one in the lower jiao.

And if the redness around the acupuncture points, the Back Shu points, is different in size or color than the redness around the test needle, then that is usually a sign of aggressive energy. And the test needles are put either between the inner and outer bladder line or between the inner bladder line and the spine, any place that’s not an acupuncture point.

And you will leave these needles in until the aggressive energy clears. I always leave them in for at least fifteen minutes just in case. And I do this on all of my patients for the first treatment and typically within fifteen or twenty minutes, the AE will clear. Another block that’s very important to check for and to clear when you’re treating the face are entry/exit blocks.

And if we think about the flow of energy in the Chinese clock, the energy goes from heart to small intestine to bladder to kidney, etc., etc., around the Chinese clock. And energy moves that way through the channels. So when you’re feeling the pulses, if you notice that the, let’s say, small intestine pulse, which comes right before the bladder pulse, if that small intestine pulse is really big and pushy and the bladder pulse is very small, then it sh- can be a signal that the energy is not getting from bladder to small intestine, and there is an exit/entry block.

And the way you treat this is by treating the exit and entry points of these two channels. So the exit point for small intestine is small intestine 19, and the entry point for bladder is bladder one What you would do is you would if you feel this on the pulse, then you would treat small intestine 19 by tonifying it, and the way we do that is we put the needle in and we turn it 180 degrees clockwise, and then we take it out.

And then I do bladder one and a half kind of on the bridge of the nose and instead of getting all the way into bladder one, and you are going to tonify that, turn it 180 degrees, take it out, and then you would do the same thing on the other side. And usually, this will clear any blocks. You can also suspect these blocks in addition to the pulse.

People usually report they’re having ear issues with their ears. Some, so something physical, headaches and the headaches that cause you to go like this and it feels better. And this is really important because you don’t want to be treating the face unless the face is completely open and the energy is flowing freely.

Can you put up the slide, please? So there are several other blocks that we check for in five element acupuncture having to do with the Shang cycle and I cover all of these in my book and I go into depth about spirit blocks possession husband-wife imbalances, and all of these have to do with getting the chi to move smoothly throughout the body and the face.

You can take the slide down

That is a little bit about why it’s important to clear blocks before doing any facial treatments on your patients. And if you would like more information, you can visit my website, facialacupunctureclasses.com, and check out some of my recorded classes and my live classes. And I hope to see you in class one day soon.

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So for today, I would like to start out with contraindications. And this is a big subject because it takes into account.

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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, this is Michelle Gellis. I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today. This is part two of the top 10 questions that I get asked about cosmetic acupuncture. A lot of the answers to these questions came from my book, treating the Face. It is a comprehensive guide for acupuncturists and health professionals.

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It is a hardcover book and it is about 500 pages, full color book, and I talk in the book extensively. About how to set realistic expectations with a patient and how to answer their questions, whether it’s a potential patient or whether it’s a current patient. And during my training that I offer to acupuncturists and people who are trained and licensed to perform acupuncture.

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Is marketing information that they can hand out to their patients or put on their websites because a lot of these questions are questions that I get over and over again. And in my almost 25 years in practice and teaching I have found one of the top 10 questions that. People ask me. So last time in part one I talked about how does it work and how many treatments will I need before I get or before I see results?

How much does it cost last? How long do the treatments take? How long do they last? So if you miss part one, you can check that out as well. So for today, I would like to start out with contraindications. And this is a big subject because it takes into account. Two things. One is physical contraindications that patients might have that can be major red flags or maybe minor warnings before you treat them.

And then the other is things that your patients may have. Had done to themselves as far as any sort of treatments or procedures that can be either a minor or a major contraindication for your treating them. So let’s talk about physical. Contraindications to treatment with cosmetic acupuncture.

And the first one is I break it down into two parts. So it’s high blood pressure and you might be thinking a lot of my patients have high blood pressure. A lot of elderly patients have high blood pressure. How am I ever going to do this if high blood pressure is a contraindication? And what I say to you is this, if someone has treated, medicated or untreated high blood pressure, do not make this person or these people your first patient or patients.

You definitely want to treat a few. Healthy patients before you take on patients who have any sort of health conditions. And the reasons for this are you want to build up your confidence, your skills, your knowledge, and really get an idea of how powerful your treatments are before, you dive into someone who maybe has high blood pressure, it’s well controlled with medication, but you do a treatment on them and your treatment causes their blood pressure to shoot up and why would this happen?

The reason is. Cosmetic acupuncture by nature is designed to open the channels up to the face and head and really increase the blood flow, the flow of qi up to the face and head and left unchecked. If you don’t really have good skills or if you do too much, or if your patient’s blood pressure is a little high that day, you could give your patient a headache or worse.

So let’s assume you’ve been doing this for a while. You’ve done many treatments on many patients, and someone calls you and they say. They have high blood pressure. It wasn’t very high to begin with. It was maybe borderline. They’re on medication. It’s very well controlled In that situation, you could start out very slowly, very few points and check their blood pressure before and after.

Treatment and see how they do. They might be a better candidate for more intradermal needles or microneedling rather than treating a lot of chest, neck, face body points. That are designed to bring all this energy up to the head. In my protocol, I specifically have designed. The point structure so that it will bring that energy up.

But you could potentially leave some of those points out. And I talk about this in my classes. My classes are available, recorded and live throughout throughout the world. I, I taught classes all over the world, and you can check out my schedule on facial acupuncture classes.com and look into some of these concepts and some of the theories behind them.

So that, that is high blood pressure, a big conversation Also, pregnancy. You do not want to be bringing all this energy up to the face, head and neck when someone is pregnant. Also, there are points in my protocol that are designed like large intestine four to release things like impurities that would not be good for someone who’s pregnant.

So pregnancy is a contraindication. People who are just generally unwell you don’t want to be doing cosmetic acupuncture on them. People who are diabetic have seizure disorders. People who are very sensitive to needles. As far as contraindications. In my book, in my classes I have a release form and in it are all the different contraindications and all the reasons for them.

So there definitely are some physical contraindications and you would wanna check those out. Additionally, if someone has had Botox recently, you would not want to treat them for about three weeks after the Botox treatments ’cause they take about two weeks to settle in. I like to err on the side of caution and when I say Botox, any neurotoxin.

Dysport. Xeomin I don’t know the brand names of all of them. And then after that, they need to find out from whoever injected them exactly where the neurotoxin was injected. People sometimes forget, or they’re not quite sure, and you wanna avoid that area completely because. Doing cosmetic acupuncture in that area can cause the neurotoxin to wear off.

As far as other treatments such as fillers, peels, lasers any other surgeries on the face. I would direct my patient to the person who did the treatment, and have your patient ask that person. When is it safe for me to have cosmetic acupuncture? There are so many treatments out there now. It’s impossible for us as practitioners to know for each.

Level of chemical peel or laser specific laser treatment, and their practitioner should know the answer to that question. As far as a facelift, cosmetic acupuncture can make facelifts last longer, but because the face is going to continue to age after the facelift, but the cosmetic acupuncture can help.

So that it happens more slowly. And you definitely want to wait about a year after a full facelift before doing cosmetic acupuncture, mainly because of.

Issues that they might have with vascular issues, neuropathy swelling, those types of things. Okay. The next question that people ask me is do I need any specialized training before I do cosmetic acupuncture? I’m an acupuncturist. I know where the acupuncture points in the face are. And the answer is unequivocably.

Yes. In fact, the American Acupuncture Council does ask on whenever you go to renew your license, if you’re doing anything that is outside of the norm for acupuncture and you’re doing specialized treatments. And if the answer is yes, then they do require you to have specialized. Training.

And there are just a few of us in the US that are registered and certified to do cosmetic acupuncture training. I am one of them, and you can check out my classes@facialacupunctureclasses.com. But the reason for this is understanding safety. Around treating the face and neck and head, understanding all of the myriad of contraindications and precautions.

Also their underlying conditions, needle placement, these, and then having a protocol that you can follow that. Doesn’t require so many needles. I go on social media and people that have so many needles in their face, and it’s so not necessary. So specialized training is a must.

Bruising is another question that I get. If you are trained properly. If you are getting using high quality needles and precautionary techniques, such as using arnica gel and really understanding the anatomy of the face, my book has a whole anatomy chapter. The unique nature of treating the face, because the face is so heavily vascularized and the muscles are layered.

Some are thick, some are thin, some are tiny, some are large. Some are deep, some are superficial. Really understanding how to needle the face, understanding good. Precision needling techniques will really reduce the chance of bruising. I rarely bruise a patient, if ever anymore. And the last thing is, can cosmetic acupuncture help with other conditions?

And the answer is yes. When you know how to treat the face and in my classes I teach about facial motor points, submuscular needling, some scalp acupuncture. For treating the face, you can help with things like TMJ, Bell’s Palsy, trigeminal neuralgia. Stroke ms. Myasthenia gravis even facial herpes and a lot of different skin conditions that affect the face, like acne, rosacea, hyper and hypo pigmentation.

So this all, is included in a really good comprehensive facial and cosmetic acupuncture training. And you can be the facial acupuncture specialist in your area because it is a highly specialized training. I hope that answers some of your questions. Again, if you didn’t see part one, you can check it out.

This concludes part two and I want to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you, and I hope to see you in class soon.

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The first question that I get asked about cosmetic acupuncture. And this is a big one…

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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, this is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician, and today I am going to speak to you about the top 10 reasons. This is part one of the top. 10 questions that I get asked both from practitioners and patients about cosmetic acupuncture. A lot of the information that I’m going to speak about today can be found in my my book.

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It’s called Treating the Face, and it is a comprehensive guide for acupuncturists and health professionals. It’s all about treating the face. It’s a 500 page hard cover, full color book. So you might wanna check that out. It’s available@facialacupunctureclasses.com. Okay. Before I get started, I wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today.

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The first question that I get asked about cosmetic acupuncture. And this is a big one because I get this asked almost all the time, is does it work? And the answer to that is Unequivocably. Yes. And there have been numerous studies research studies that have been done, and a lot of them are cited in my book or journal articles that, you can research both on my website or online, and what they have found is cosmetic acupuncture helps to improve the. Thickness of the skin, the depth of wrinkles on the skin, the color of the skin, and the overall vibrance of the skin, both on the face, the neck, the chest, around the eye area. So it absolutely does.

Work. The next question that I get asked very frequently is, how many treatments will it take in order for these treatments to work? How many times will I need to come in? And that is actually a really big question because the answer is, it depends. The way I like to think about cosmetic acupuncture is it’s like going to the gym.

So if someone were to come to you, if 10 people were to come to you and say. How many times will I need to go to the gym before my muscles look like they look when I was in my twenties or before I am fit or before I lose X amount of pounds? The answer would of course be, it depends because it’s going to be dependent on.

With your skin, it’s going to depend on several factors, so it will depend on your age. And the reason for this is as we get older, it takes longer for our bodies to produce collagen. So that’s one important factor. Another important factor is your lifestyle. So that takes into. Account a lot of things.

How much sleep do you get? How much water do you drink? How much alcohol do you consume? Do you smoke? Exercise is a big factor because the skin needs oxygen in order to look good. And so smoking plays into that as well because smoking takes oxygen. Out of your bloodstream. Exercise also increases the blood flow of the skin.

And having a healthy blood supply is very important to vibrant looking skin. Also sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your skin is not going to be going through that. Turnover and repair process. Sun damage is a big factor, so if you have a lot of sun damage, it’s going to take longer for you to see results and you might need more treatments, more in depth.

Treatments, longer treatments than someone who has no sun damage on their skin. Genetics play a big part in determining. How you will age. So both the shape of your face and just your, the thickness of your skin. Is your skin lighter or darker? All of these different genetic factors will play into how many treatments you need.

People with darker skin don’t. Show signs of aging as far as sagging and fine lines and wrinkles as people with lighter skin and people with thinner skin. And our skin tends to thin as we age, but some people just have thinner skin. People with thinner skin are going to show more signs of aging than people with thicker skin.

So that will also play into it. The foods we eat will also determine how we age. People who are eating nutrient core diet are going to look older than people that are eating a nutrient rich diet. It takes vitamin C and protein in order to build collagen. And collagen is the building blocks of our skin.

It determines the thickness of our skin and the how our skin is held up is through the collagen and the elastin. And also another thing going back to age hyaluronic acid, as we get. Older, we have less hyaluronic acid in our skin, and that is what makes the skin kind of plump. So you want to make sure you’re drinking lots of water, eating healthy fats.

Especially the omegas, the Omega threes really play into. The cell functioning and the cell turnover rate. Another thing that determines how many treatments you’re going to need is what sort of products are you using on your skin if you are not. Using quality products that have peptides and vitamins and different minerals.

Things like copper, zinc vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C in some cases, things like hyaluronic acid, serums, retinol, serums. There are. Lots of different ingredients that can go into serums and also day and night creams that you might put on your skin. These will affect how your skin ages and how many treatments you’ll need.

So really to summarize, if you look at the starting point. And how much sun damage, how the person is taking care of their skin, whether or not they’re exercising, sleeping, what they’re eating. Stress. I left stress out. Stress can certainly affect the skin. The facial expressions that we make can get etched on our face.

And in my book I have a whole chapter called the Anatomy of Expression. So people who are very stressed can get those kind of lines between their eyebrows. People who are depressed can show certain signs of aging. So these are all very important factors. All of that said a general rule of thumb for cosmetic acupuncture is once a week for about three months, so about 12 treatments once a week.

And most people, depending on where we’re starting, most people will at least begin to see. The effects of cosmetic acupuncture, and for most people, a good percentage of the people after that time, they can begin going to get treatments less often. Another question is, how much does it cost? And this is another, it depends question.

Depending on what you are including in your treatments. Whenever I do a cosmetic acupuncture treatment, I do acupuncture and I also do cupping. And while SHA and for most of my. Time treating patients. The bulk of my practice was in Maryland. I was in a very rural area, but I was charging anywhere between 150 and $200 US for a treatment.

And again, if you are in a major city like New York. Or Los Angeles, you might be charging a little more. I strongly recommend that you base the cost of the treatment on what it would normally be for you to treat a patient, and then half of that, so one and a half times the cost of a treatment because your patient will be in your treatment space for about an hour.

To end 15 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how quickly you work. On top of that, some people add in derma rolling, they add in red light therapy. So these things might be charged as an add-on to a standard cosmetic acupuncture treatment.

The next question that I get frequently is how long do the treatments take? And this kind of piggybacks on the last question, which is how much does it cost? And so you’re going to be. I tie the cost into how long the treatment is actually going to take, and usually once you’ve been in practice for a while, you can get your patient in and out of the treatment room in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Sometimes an hour and 30 minutes. It depends on whether or not you’re just treating the face, whether or not you’re going to be working on their neck how how many wrinkles they have, how much signs of aging are there, because you might wanna add in more needles and spend a little more time. But the good news is once the needles are in, they can rest on the table and you can go and treat another.

Patient. And another question I get a lot is how long do the treatments last? How long do they last? And this is also a, it depends question. So I’m gonna go back to what I was speaking about earlier, and that is normally people will come in once a week for several weeks, let’s say 12 weeks.

And then after that they don’t just stop going again. Think about the going to the gym analogy. So if you were going to the gym, you wouldn’t just. Stop going, but if you did stop going there would be a certain amount of time where you would still be noticing the effects until eventually they were off.

So for cosmetic acupuncture, I tell people once you’ve achieved the desired effects, at that point you can start coming less often. Every other week or once a month, once most of my patients have dis have achieved the desired effect. They start spreading their treatments out. They come once a month, just like if they were getting their nails done or getting their hair colored or getting a facial.

So that kind of answers the. How long do the treatments last? For some people treatments can last a very long time. I know. When I. Stop seeing patients during the pandemic. A lot of people were buying facial cupping and guha kits from me. They were doing a little self-care at home in addition to using their serums and their lotions.

Some of them were derma rolling at home. So these types of things can help to augment the treatments for at-home care. So this concludes part one of the top 10 questions that I get asked about facial acupuncture. I’d like to again, thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity and we will see you next time for part two.

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Today I am going to be talking about facial acupuncture, what works, what doesn’t work, and, lots of different things that people incorporate into their practice.

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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, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today. Today I am going to be talking about facial acupuncture, what works, what doesn’t work, and, lots of different things that people incorporate into their practice.

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Some are based on Chinese medicine. Some are more modern things. And a lot of the information that I’m gonna be talking about today comes from my book and it’s called Treating the Face. It is a 500 page. Full color hardcover book. And throughout the book I talk a lot about different tools and techniques that people use that practitioners can use in order to not just for cosmetic purposes, but also for neuromuscular purposes.

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So facial ac. When I say facial acupuncture, I am referring to any treatments that affect the face, whether it’s skin level, muscle level, working with the fascia, working with the nervous system, working with the musculature, and. Knowing how to affect the circulation of the face, the lymphatic system of the face, the skin, the nerves, the muscles will really play into what sort of results you will get when you do your treatments.

So there, there are. Effective ways to layer things into your treatments. I am a big proponent on not just one size fits all treatments. And so if we’re looking at just, we’ll start with cosmetics. So when we’re looking at. Cosmetic concerns with the face. We can be looking at the very superficial dark spots, redness, fine lines, wrinkles sagging, things of that nature.

And some of these are very superficial, so treatments that are more superficial, things like microneedling. Red and blue and yellow light therapy and other hues of LED light therapy can be. Very beneficial. Facial cupping and facial gu sha can help to bring blood and chi out to the face. And so this can be beneficial for the skin as well.

Now, going another layer deeper, if we’re looking at. The circulation of the face and we are looking at the fascia and the musculature of the face, then we would be. Thinking in terms of treatments that go a little deeper, so this is where the facial cupping and the guha come in and techniques that aren’t just let’s say intradermal level, but more working submuscular, working with motor points.

And this can help to lift the face so the face lifts itself. And also looking at our facial expressions. We also wanna think about doing body points, so I didn’t want to neglect to talk about that. So body points can help our emotional body, which will. Ultimately show up on the face. And a lot of our expressions, for better or for worse, are going to, can cause wrinkles in the skin, fossil adhesions and permanent sagging and asymmetry of the face as well.

So. I’m going to also now kind of pivot and talk about neuromuscular facial conditions. So things like Bell’s palsy trigeminal neuralgia, TMJ, stroke ms. There were a lot of neuromuscular facial conditions, and when we’re thinking about treating those, we’re not thinking so much about. Skin level concerns, but more about the nervous system and the musculature of the face.

And this is where submuscular needling facial motor points some scalp acupuncture and in some cases LED therapy, if we’re using a LED light that has near infrared. Settings, which can go down to the muscle level. So how do we kind of layer all of this? When might you use one set of tools versus another?

When I do cosmetic acupuncture on a patient, depending on what their concerns are and how how kind of deep the. Concern is that they’re deep wrinkles. Deep sagging. That will determine what I, how I start to think about what it is I’m going to do. So I’ll give you an example. If someone came to me and they had.

Minor signs of aging on their face, but really deep wrinkles on their forehead. One of the, so I, I’m always going to do my cosmetic acupuncture. And that might involve some mandatory points that I use for lifting the face body points to help, to nourish all of the channels that feed into the face.

And then I always, and every cosmetic acupuncture treatment with facial cupping and facial guha. Now, I might add in some. LED therapy if they have acne or if there were superficial skin concerns. But what I could do either and, and that would happen while the needles are in. But what I could do additionally, either during this treatment or as a standalone treatment, is some microneedling to address.

Just the forehead area, if that is where their concerns are. However, if they don’t want to have microneedling, then I could. Weave into their treatment. Some submuscular needling of the frontals motor points on the frontals. And these will help to bring this will help to balance the muscle function and help to relax the forehead so that it’s, it’s doesn’t, so these lines.

Aren’t embedded in their forehead any longer. And of course the cupping and guha can help with that as well. So that’s one example of cosmetic. Now let’s talk about a potential patient who has Bell’s Palsy. So of course, on Bell’s Palsy, typically it is one side of the face and I would certainly treat any underlying conditions with body points and then locally.

I would incorporate acupuncture points. I would incorporate possibly some submuscular needling of different areas that have been affected. And I could also do some motor points for the muscles that have been affected, and then I would put an LED light over them on the near infrared setting in order to help to nourish the muscles.

To help to bring them back into normal functioning. When all of this was done, I would take the light off, I would take the needles out, and then I would do my cupping and GU shop. So these are more deeper level treatments as opposed to microneedling, which is more of a skin level, superficial level treatment.

So kind of to summarize the submuscular needling is used. Let’s see if I can grab a picture. But Submuscular needling is used when we are. Wanting to deeply nourish and affect particular muscle. And so that might be the frontals, it can be the digastric muscle, it can be the we, we can do some submuscular.

Needling on the corrugator muscle, which brings the eyebrows together. We can also do some submuscular needling around the temporalis. And so these are all, I’m trying to find my my chapter in my book on Submuscular needling. And. Here we go. So let me find a good picture for you guys. So by putting needles underneath the muscle, here we go.

So you can see here in this image here. Down here I’m doing submuscular needling, get that submuscular needling of the frontals. And then below that I’m doing submuscular needling of the Steris, which is right here. So working with the motor points in the face, which affect. Each one of the individual muscles or, and or submuscular needling is going to help not only with neuromuscular things, but also can help with cosmetic concerns.

And all of this has to be framed with you have to be thinking about safety. You have to be thinking about whether or not the patient has had any neurotoxins like Botox or fillers facial fillers, and. So in my classes I teach how to talk to your patient about these and how long they have to wait before you can treat them, and what areas to avoid if they’ve had any facial surgeries.

So, to close I just would like to summarize by saying. When you’re thinking about treating the face, you can layer treatments, but more isn’t always better. Knowing how and when to layer is very important. Using the right tool at the right time and really speaking clearly to your patients about expected outcomes is important as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about treating the face, you can go to my website, facial acupuncture classes.com. I have recorded webinars and live classes that cover all of these topics and, myw, my classes are also listed on my website, all my live classes, and you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok and LinkedIn under my name, Michelle Gellis.

So thank you again to the American Acupuncture Council, and I hope to see you soon.

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So what is Submuscular needling of the face and why would we use it?

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, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture educator and author, and today I would like to thank the. American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about submuscular needling of the face. So I last year I published a book, hardcover book on treating the Face, and it is a comprehensive 500 page book and one of the chapters of the book.

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Is all about submuscular needling. So some of the images that, or most of the images we’ll be working with today come from my book. So go ahead and go to the first slide please. So what is Submuscular needling of the face and why would we use it? Submuscular needling. Involves taking acupuncture needles and placing them underneath, or in some instances through different muscles on the face and the head, and even around the underneath the chin area.

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In order to help the face to function better, and in some instances we can use this same technique to help with wrinkles on the face and sagging and. Essentially what we’re doing is we’re taking needles and putting them in areas that are prone to muscular disharmony and can, this can be very beneficial for things like Bell’s Palsy.

And if someone has had a stroke or forehead, wrinkles sagging under the neck. So muscles like the corrugator and the frontals can help the forehead area. The processis, also the temporalis can help with migraines. Tinnitus other neuromuscular conditions of the face, the masseter can help with things like TMJ.

The auricular muscles can help also with tinnitus and helping to lift the face, and one that’s not listed. The anterior digastric can help with sagging under the chin area. So here’s a couple of images from my book of muscles on the face. And as you can see, there are quite a few. Some of them are superficial, some of them are deep.

And these are the images of the muscles on the side of the face and head. And so first we’re gonna talk a little bit. About muscles involved in raising the eyebrows and the eyelids bringing the eyebrows together from a cosmetic standpoint, these three muscles can cause wrinkles and deep furrows between the eyebrows from a neuro and a wrinkle across the bridge of the nose.

From a neuromuscular standpoint, these. Muscles can be involved with like for example, if someone has Bell’s palsy and the upper part of their face is drooping, and what we would do is insert needles. Doesn’t really matter when you’re doing submuscular needling, which direction you go, but you would take a half inch needle and insert them.

Underneath the muscles. So this right here these muscles right here are the corrugator muscles. And this will help to, and the corrugator inserts right into the braceis here and. This helps to bring chi and blood to this area. And also if there’s any fossil adhesions, it can help to break those up.

And by doing that, it helps to nourish the muscle, to bring the muscle into better functioning. This, these can be combined with facial motor points, which is another lecture, another chapter in the book. And to help so that there’s more symmetry in the face and also less drooping and fewer wrinkles, and this is what it looks like when you would do that.

And I have a little video. I need to move this over so I can click on it.

So as you can see in the video, I took a very thin gauge. I used cen needles. They’re like half inch. I think those are 0.1 fours. And I went right underneath the corrugator muscle. And you can just use one from the top if you choose. But in that example I was using too, so the frontals is another muscle.

So there’s two heads to the frontalis, and that is another muscle that we can do submuscular needling with. So we would put several needles underneath the frontalis muscle and it would look something like this. This can help with droopy eyelids. And also with forehead wrinkles. I’m going to skip the videos.

This is just a brief summary of what Submuscular Needling is. If you want more information, you can either visit. My book, which you can get@facialacupunctureclasses.com, or you can watch one of my recorded webinars at the same website, facial acupuncture classes.com. This is the braceis muscle which you would needle from the top down if you were doing submuscular needling.

It’s like a triangle. This is the temporalis muscle and using a series of needles all around the temporalis can really help to relax this temporalis muscle, which can become very tight. And as you can see, the auricular muscles are also attached to it. And these can, you can use submuscular needling under these and the temporalis.

A lot of the facial and neck muscles are connected to it, either directly or indirectly through the occipital frontals or through the coming back here through the trapezius and. By treating this muscle you can help to affect a lot of conditions on the face, and this is what it looks like when it’s needled.

The masseter is the big strong muscle that if you clench your jaw, you can feel it. And needling underneath that can really help patients that have TMJ and it looks like this, and the auricular muscles. I use these in all of my cosmetic treatments. Needling, underneath those auricular muscles is something that can help to lift the face area.

And I have helped, I have found it has helped my patients who have ear pain and tinnitus and so that is my. Presentation about Submuscular needling. Again, it was very brief, but I wanted to give you guys an overview If you are. I’m interested in learning more. You can visit my website, facial acupuncture classes.com, and I am also available on social media at my name, Michelle Gilles, or at Facial Acupuncture.

Classes. Once again, I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about Submuscular needling of the faith.

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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, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and today I will be doing a presentation on my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points, some of which will surprise you, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity. So I got the idea for today’s.

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Presentation when I was doing a book signing at the Pacific Symposium two weekends ago I gave out these little cards and on one side were my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points. And on the other side were all of my upcoming classes and. Sold a lot. Sold and signed a lot of books, and inspired me for today’s presentation.

So let’s get started.

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The first I. Acupuncture point that I use every time when I am treating one of my cosmetic acupuncture patients is large intestine four joining of the valleys, and this is a command point for the face, and it also allows the body to release any impurities that. Might exist because it is a large intestine point, so it helps to clear the face, farm acne oily skin, any kind of congestion.

And it also. Helps with all of the muscles in the face as well. Release tension and so it’s a really great point. It is one of my mandatory points when treating the face. And these are in no particular order, small intestine. Six. And that point is nourishing the old and it helps to the spirit of the point.

So I’m a classically trained Worly five element acupuncturist, so I’m always very interested in the spirit of the point. And the spirit of this point is it helps to nourish us in the face of old pain and empowers us to assimilate life’s lessons. From past traumas and on a more physical level, it helps.

If you think about where the small Intestine channel runs, it helps with sagging neck and chin area, right? ’cause the small intestine channel runs up the neck and the, through the side of the neck and then up. The side of the face, and I chose this image, so a lot of the images are from my book, but this particular image I chose because I find that a lot of people play small intestine six almost in the San Jiao channel, and I’m always reminding.

My students that small intestine six should really be right along the small intestine channel. My next favorite facial acupuncture point is gall gallbladder 18. And the way you find gallbladder 18 is you start right at the gallbladder channel and you follow it right. Straight back along the head until you come in line with due 20.

And that is where the point is. The name of the point is receiving spirit and. It is on the gall epi erotica, right on the occipital frontals, and it helps to, the nerve actually goes right along the channel. It helps to benefit the eyes, the forehead, and it has a direct action on the supraorbital nerve, and as I mentioned, the gall up erotica.

My next favorite facial acupuncture point is stomach four, receive nourishment, and this treats the mouth area so it can help with the lip lines, and it also helps to relax the DAO or the depressor anguli Aus, which could pull the corners of the mouth down. Small intestine 18, which is referred to sometimes as cheekbone, helps to treat the mouth area because the way that I needle it is I needle it straight up, as you can see in this picture, so it helps to treat the mouth area, lip lines, nasal labial, folds.

It also. Relaxes. So nasal labial folds go from the nose to the lips, so nasal labial. It relaxes the DAO also, and it helps to lift up the cheek area.

Helps to lift the eyebrows. And the way that I needle this is I go in line with the pupil. I go right underneath the eyebrow and I needle it straight up yin tongue. I I chose this picture this. Last picture. This was one of my students. This is from my book, as is the one before it. But this one I found online this morning.

I liked it because it showed not only the muscle, but so it shows the braceis muscle, which Yong is right. In the center of this ProsperUS muscle, but it also shows some of the wrinkles that people can get. That yin tongue helps to treat the bunny line that goes horizontally. And then these two lines here, which can come from frowning.

And Yong is right in the center. And the way I like to needle it is actually. Against the flow, not with the flow of energy. So I needle it up or I’ll needle it straight in if I’m using it as a motor point. And this helps to move the energy up as opposed to down. It helps to relax the mind and calm the mind and the spirit.

Leg three miles, which is stomach 36, helps to infuse the spirit of, the point is it helps to infuse the gifts of the earth within all of the meridians. It is a point on the sea of nourishment and it helps to tonify the Q and the blood of the entire body, and it fortifies the spleen, which holds everything up, and it also calms the spirit.

So if you are calm and your face is calm and relaxed, then you won’t have all of those contracted muscles in your face, which give you a lot of the expression lines and wrinkles that we get. Chen Men is another one of my mandatory points. I love this for cosmetic acupuncture. It helps to relax the face and it calms your patient.

Gallbladder 41. This image is a little blurry, but it was, an image that I thought was important because it really shows where gallbladder 41 is. A lot of people will put it on the wrong side of this, or even both of these tendons because they’ll follow the gallbladder channel. Then instead of hopping over this tendon, they stay on this side and the energy is really right up in this crevice right here.

So the name of the point is Foot Above Tears. It allows your patient to have an emotional release if they’re frustrated or angry, and it very strongly grounds your patient. So in my protocol, this. This is the first point that we put in the body. And it helps to spread stagnant liver chi in the, or chi rather in the liver, in the gallbladder channel.

So it helps again with anger and frustration and everything that’s going on below the neck is going to show up above the neck. So all that emotional stuff, frustration that we’re feeling is going to show up. Right here. So we wanna release that and it can also help to a lesser degree with some of the dark spots and other signs of liver cheese stagnation.

So those are my 10. Favorite acupuncture points on the face, and I want to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to present to you today. If you would like more information on my classes, you can go to facial acupuncture classes.com. And if you’re watching this on your computer, there is a QR code take you right to the website and you can also get information about my book there as well.

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