The following YouTube video is a part of Individual Acupuncture Treatment showing treatment on the shoulder area. The technique is called Spreading Needle Technique and I'm using a type of needles called Ja Teishin. This is done on most patients at the end of the treatment.

When I went back to Japan, I recorded the treatments of my nephews.
They are 4 years old.
The first boy has stuffy nose and the second boy has cough.​​

In root treatment, to slow down fast pulse, Yang meridian is used instead of Yin meridian. If the pattern is Lung deficiency, a point on Small Intestine is chosen, which is Yang meridian of controlling meridian that is Heart.

The pattern of the patient was Kidney deficiency and her pulse was a little fast. After checking with light strokes on some points, I chose left ST37 and gave Yang Ki to the point. I thought the pulse would be slower, but it became faster and pounding. I reset the previous needling by some tonification on her abdomen and tonified right KD7  with Yang Ki. By this needling, the pulse slowed down.

Another patient had Liver deficiency and her pulse was obviously fast. I chose left LI4 and gave Yang Ki to the point. By only this point, her pulse slowed down and all the pulse positions became proper depth. Her abdomen became soft and even as well. Of course, I finished root treatment by this one point. After 10 minutes rest, the pulse was still slow and in good depth.

The difference between 2 cases is the speed of the fast pulse. If the pulse is obviously fast, tonifying Yang meridian point is really effective, but if the pulse may be a little faster than usual, tonfying Yin meridian seems still effective.

Since I use non-insertion needles, Teishin, I can't insert needles into the skin and muscles. So it is important that how deep the needles are pressed on the skin. 

To tonify Yang Ki, the pressure from the needle should be as light as possible. That means the needle barely touches the skin. Of course, the patient should not feel anything except sensation from the fingers searing points. 

However, the pressure from the needle sometimes becomes heavier because I may think it is better for the patient that I have the patient feel something from the needle or simply I'm not careful about the pressure. This is like misunderstanding that if I insert needles deeper, it seems more effective in the insertion needles.

But as a matter of fact, the result of the treatment is much better if the pressure from the needle is as light  as possible. Tightness of the muscles loosens up amazingly, compared to the heavier needle pressure. I really have to be careful!

This needle is used for dispersion purpose. When we use a needle or Teishin, thinner side of the needle is usually used, but in this needle, only thicker side is used. The special character of this needle is that there is a depression at the tip of the thicker side of the needle though it may not be so clear in this photo. This needle is used for spreading needle technique and seems more effective than using thicker side of regular Teishin I use for other treatments.

When I was using regular needles, I used a lot of spreading needle technique in which a needle was tapped or scratched on the skin where had some kinds of reactions such as tightness, roughness, etc. 

For example, if there is tightness in the low back, there is usually tightness in the lower legs so the spreading needle is applied on the lower legs to loosen up the low back. In my impression, it sometimes had opposite effect, that means low back became tighter after spreading needle on the lower legs. I think it was because that technique was applied to an area instead of a point so unnecessary part was also dispersed by tapping, leading to the opposite effect.

Since I started using Teishin (round-tip needle) for all treatment, I didn't use the spreading needle technique. However, when I started using the technique recently, I realized that it seemed effective to loosen up the tightness which was difficult to release only with tonification.

In Spreading Needle technique with Teishin, thicker side of Teishin where I usually hold (handle of the needle) is used for tapping like pediatric acupuncture. Strong tapping which is used with a regular needle seems not necessary. Light tapping seems good enough. 

Last 2 times I talked about how to select a treatment point in the root treatment using 3 check points which were the pulse, abdomen and the muscle on the shoulder. Why is it necessary to check 3 points? Certainly it seems good enough to check 1 point because if the stimulation to the body is good effect, all parts of the body should manifest good reactions. But actually that is not true.

Previously I relied on the pulse so I was thinking that if the pulse got better, that leaded to a good way. Now in my treatment, I check the pulse, abdomen and the muscle on the shoulder, but it happens that the pulse and abdomen get better but the muscle on the shoulder doesn't get better by light strokes, or the pulse seems better but the abdomen and the shoulder muscle seems tighter on a certain point. 

For example, in the case that Sho (pattern) is Kidney Deficiency,  I confirm which can be a treatment point, KD3, KD7 or KD10. When I gives light strokes on KD3, all 3 check pints don't get better like the pulse becomes fast, the abdomen becomes tight and the muscle on the shoulder becomes tight. KD3 can't be used as a treatment point. When I give light strokes on KD7, the pulse seems better, the abdomen becomes softer and the muscle on the shoulder becomes a little bit tighter.  At this point, KD7 seems usable as a treatment point if I choose only the pulse as a check point, but when KD10 is checked with light strokes, all the 3 check points get much better, or the pulse seems better, the abdomen becomes softer and the muscle on the shoulder becomes much softer, KD10 is a better point to treat. Why does this phenomenon appear?

Even if I think that is better, that is not actually better. When KD7 is checked, the pulse seems better but Kidney position might be not deep enough, the abdomen seems softer but maybe not smooth enough, and the shoulder muscle should be softer. That meas, thinking these check points get better is possibly my misunderstanding. 

Therefore, checking on 3 points can avoid such misunderstanding and has more possibility to lead to a better treatment point than relying on 1 checking point. Of course, the master of Meridian Therapy would not need these processes.

In Meridian Therapy I had practiced before, the point selection was basically decided by Sho (Patern). For example, if Sho is Lung Deficiency (Weakness of Lung), Lung 9 and Spleen 3 are chosen as treatment points. If cough is a main symptom, Lung 8 and Spleen 5 are chosen within Lung Deficiency. But it was not sure whether the points would work well or not until the points were actually treated with needles. 

Furthermore, it was not sure whether the selected points were correct or not even after the points were used because sometime the points were correct but the technique was not good, leading to a bad result. 

Also Sho is decided by mostly pulse diagnosis, but the pulse diagnosis is very difficult so it could happen that Sho of the same patient determined by the pulse diagnosis was different between acupuncturists such as one acupuncturist says Spleen Deficiency, another says Lung Deficiency, resulting in totally different point selections.

So what is the best solution to determine the most appropriate Sho and points to treat?

In Meridian Therapy branched out from Toyo Hari, one side of the body is often used as the treatment side when tonifying Yin meridian in the root treatment. The first tonification is the most important part of the root treatment (because sometime only one point is tofinied in the root treatment.) so the selection of the side should be very sensitive. 

Most popular way to decide the treatment side is that if the patient is a female, the treatment side is right side of the body, and if the patient is a male, the treatment side is left side of the body. At the same time, as confirmation, checking both sides of the navel (KD15 area), harder side is chosen as the treatment side. However, even if the gender and side of the navel show right side of the body, sometimes I can't find a good meridian and a point to tonify Yin on the right side of the body. When gender and the harder side of the navel conflict, if I choose the harder side of the navel, it doesn't go well sometimes. So how can I find proper treatment side? I will talk about my idea next time. 

In the Root Treatment, when I tonify Yin Meridian, I make a choice between tonifying Yang Ki (Eki/Defensive Qi) and tonifying Yin Ki (Eiki/Nutritive Qi). In most cases, Yang Ki is tonified but sometimes Yin Ki has to be tonified. How should I differentiate? When I check each meridian by light strokes or pouring Yang Ki, if Yin Ki should be tonified, the pulse pounds in all meridians, but at the time of the most proper meridian, the pulse pounds less. So for example, if the less pounding meridian is Liver, the pulse doesn't pound and gets better when a little heavy "light stroke" or Yin Ki is applied to Liver Meridian. I distinguish how to use Yang Ki and Yin Ki like this. This may change, though.