Getting Started

Thank you to Kim for inviting me to post on the "Kiiko Student Formu" and write about my experience with Kiiko Matsumoto style of acupuncture.
Since this is a new forum and many of you are just beginning to learn Kiiko Matsumoto style of acupuncture, it seems appropriate to start with the idea or question of “where do I start?”

Here are my two suggestions – these are the two things that helped me the most when I first started to study with Kiiko Matsumoto.

Number one:

Make a lot of copies of page 16 of Kiiko Matsumoto's Clinical Strategies, Volume 1.

What’s on page 16...the entire “map” of the abdominal diagnosis.

Why a lot of copies...because I recommend that you have a copy of this page with you every time you see a patient. Put a fresh copy in your patient’s file and each time you see them, try to palpate as many of the areas listed as your appointment time allows and mark the areas you palpated on the copy. Even if you don’t have time, or at this point are not sure how to clear these areas, palpate and mark as many as you can.

I recommend this to every person I’ve talked to who inquires about this style of acupuncture because, I believe, the key to a good diagnosis comes from remembering the “map” and practicing palpating the patient each and every time. Using the abdominal diagram from the book allows for a quick way to record your findings – just circle or highlight the areas that have pressure pain or tightness. Then when you review the case at home, you can look up the different treatment strategies that you can apply next time you see the patient, or, thanks to this forum, discuss the case with your fellow students.

That brings me to suggestion number two.

When you start to practice this style of acupuncture, you have to shift your thinking from focusing on the symptom to focusing on identifying “types”. If you studied TCM before, you may be used to coming up with your diagnosis based on a list of symptoms and detailed questions about them. You may ask your patient a series of questions like: “Is your pain better or worse with heat or cold?”, “Is it better or worse at night?", etc. These questions help you determine the diagnosis and which points to use. The symptoms are the key to putting together a treatment plan.

But in Kiiko Matsumoto style, the symptoms themselves are not as relevant as the patient’s constitution. What “type” of patient are they, NOT what symptoms do they present with? For example: are they a “liver type” or a “cardiac type” or “adrenal type” etc. Determining the “type” allows you to identify the weakest-link in the body and allows you to treat the problem at the very root. The abdominal palpation, not the conversation with the patient, will be the key to determining the “type” of patient they are.

The points you choose will also be for the “type” not the symptoms. For example, if you determine that your patient is a “liver type” presentation, you will use the same points and get great results in resolving anything from a headache to low back pain, to IBS to allergies. Why? Because if the patient presents as a “liver type” they will most likely have the same areas of pressure pain on the abdomen and other reflex points regardless of their symptomatic presentation.

By learning to think in this new way about each case and identifying the different “types”, you will quickly gain the confidence to approach the most complex patient cases – even if their list of symptoms is so long it would take you a whole hour to discuss them if you were approaching it from a TCM perspective.

So next time you have a question about a patient you’re seeing, jot down the abdominal findings and post them on this forum – if you describe the abdomen and what you’re trying to release along with the symptoms you’re trying to treat, someone here will enthusiastically help you out.

Happy studying.