Special Treatments for the elderly

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

Are you asking about qigong or acupressure? Your statement "using points on the feet and not on the hands" makes me wonder if you are talking about acupressure. Your clarity in that can help me to help you.

Generally, though, I wouldn&#39t worry too much with your level of qi gong. If you can describe exactly what you are planning on doing and what is your intent for the treatments and the basis for choosing a particular treatment, I may be able to guide your further. I would clarify, however, that you may have the feet vs. hands aspect backwards - generally you could consider working higher in the body rather than lower (i.e. building the dantian, and not on strong grounding - possibly what you - or your teacher? - meant by feet?).... Using points such as LV 3 can be too descending for the elderly and cause dizziness, etc. - points on the hand (depending on which ones you are talking about) would actually be better (HT 7 for insomnia and relaxation for example).

You may want some more training before you begin to work on people.... Medical qi gong is a very serious discipline that is often taught out of context of the required medical underpinnings. That is, you should first be fully trained in Chinese Medicine, then develop yourself through meditation, tai chi, etc., then be trained in aspects particular to qi gong, then possibly work on others. As it doesn&#39t involve needles there are many who feel they can circumvent the medical training - this is not correct.

For a more basic approach that is better laid out and both suitable and effective for beginners, I would highly recommend Tong Ren Therapy:

Tong Ren Therapy Introduction

How To Learn Tong Ren Therapy

It is explained in various articles on this site, but generally tong ren is a different approach to medical qi gong that doesn&#39t rely on the qi development of the individual - using the "collective unconscious" as defined by Carl Jung vs. internal qi as in medial qi gong. There are other differences, many are laid out in Tong Ren Therapy: Beyond Acupuncture.

Incidentally there are classes all over the world including online at tong ren station and via our website every Tue at 6pm est.

Comment by Archived User

I am talking about Medical Qigong. I use a variety of different techniques and sometimes use pressure on points. Thank you for clarifying the point for me.