What is Remote Acupuncture Treatment?

In the modern world, the practice of acupuncture has taken on a lot of allopathic-like characteristics. Many acupuncturists see multiple patients per hour, and this is really possible because of the way that TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, has distilled the complete system into a cookbook of “points for this and that”, leaving behind the real depth of the medicine, which is that

it’s an energetic medicine, which cannot be touched but can be felt through sensation and improved vitality and freedom.

The Origins

During Covid, my teacher’s patients asked her if she would do remote treatments, since they were in the NYC area and under very strict lockdown. At first, she (Ann Cecil-Sterman) said that she also hesitated, but once she wrapped her mind around it and offered treatments remotely,

she had patients telling her that they never wanted to come back into the office and PREFERRED to remain remote patients indefinitely!

Skeptical, but also in need of treatment, I scheduled a remote treatment with her. I figured that I had nothing to lose, except maybe the fee for service, and everything to gain. At the time, I was living in an area with no other complement channel practitioners, and I knew from experience that TCM was not going to be helpful for me. 

My Experience

I received my first remote treatment at my office, so I lied down on the table. I noticed qi sensations right away, which for me are usually a deep, heavy feeling along the channel. The advantage I have as a practitioner is that when Ann said what channel she was going to use, I know the channel, its trajectory, and its intention; however, as the treatment went on, my right eye started to water, so I reached up to wipe it. When she saw this, she asked me what was happening, and when I told her, she told me that she had just “needled” the last point on the channel, which is Bladder 1, a point just above the inner canthus of the eye, beside the nose, which could understandably make your eyes water at times. 

I was so blown away by that experience that I continued getting remote treatments and began offering them as well.

So far, I’ve done treatments with practitioners and non-practitioners, those experienced with acupuncture and inexperienced alike, in Australia, Washington, Indiana, South Carolina, and Louisiana, and everyone has said the same thing; they all reported a variety of sensations in the channel I was treating. I’ve continued to have remote treatments with Ann when she was in the NYC area, as well when she was teaching in London. I had a particularly horrible case of Covid, and she was able to help me through that.

What Happens During Remote Treatments

Remote treatments flow just like in-person treatments with an initial conversation about what brings the patient in for treatment and perhaps a look at the tongue but then leaves out pulse taking for obvious reasons. As the patient, you want to be in a comfortable position, so you can stay seated or lie down, and the treatment will be similar to a meditation where you rest comfortably, usually closing your eyes. As we sit, I focus on the intention of the channel and its points, as applicable for you, the patient, just as we would choose acupuncture points if we were treating using needles.

What Does The Research Say

Research on acupuncture continuously tries to quantify it in an effort to justify it. Just this week, a patient told me about a study that was done that was able to “verify” the meridians (another word used for the channels) discussed in the classical texts and that I should look into it to share with my patients. 

I’m no longer a practitioner that feels a need to convince anyone about the efficacy of acupuncture.

I’ve studied, I’ve experienced–both as a patient and a practitioner–and while I am eager to teach any and everyone about Chinese Medicine, I don’t feel a need to westernize it the way many people do. It’s legitimate all on its own.

The quotation that “we cannot solve problems with the same way of thinking that created them” by Albert Einstein is a summary of my experience with acupuncture–again, both as a patient and a practitioner.

Most of our problems have been created by a way of thinking, living, and being that has, in many ways, not been beneficial; therefore, I’m not interested in my practice being an extension of that same paradigm. 

While acupuncture is the use of needles to direct energy in the body using the channel system, there are other methods to accomplish this, as well. Some people use essential oils, stones, manual therapy, cupping, and gua sha to name the ones I’m familiar with; however,

it would seem that many of us forget that energy itself is not tangible.

The beauty of this is that we can do treatments for people even when we’re not in the same place, geographically, or if we’re contagiously ill or in lockdown or not able to travel. Healing is here for us, wherever we are.