Questions about practicing on ourselves and needling technique

[Christine Farrell-Riley]

1) When practicing on ourselves, is it important to use points that go together (ie: are known treatment combinations). or can we just practice random points. Is it unhealthy to do it randomly?

2) How often can we practice on ourselves? Is once a week a good practice or could we do it as much as we wanted without any ill consequence for our own health?

3) To clarify re: needling technique: Is it generally true that when needling a YIN meridian we needle in the direction of the meridian and when needling a YANG meridian we needle perpendicular?

[Allison Bailey]

Hi, Great questions!

1. It is better to treat points that go together for the most part and to try to do something useful with your self treatment. However, it is ok too to try some random points (just to see how they feel). Just don’t leave these points in too long and don’t do too many at one time.

2. It is safe to practice on yourself a few times per week as long as you are not leaving the points in too long and not treating too many points at once.

3. In general this is the “rule” to which there will always be exceptions. But, yes, you can think of treating the Yin meridians with the needle going with the flow of the meridian whereas with the Yang meridians we do not emphasize this and often may needle more perpendicular.

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