About the Course

This is an intensive and experiential program to train acupuncturists in the science and art of Classical Five Element Acupuncture (CFEA), also known as Worsley Acupuncture.

This medicine is a powerful system that allows each of us to draw on our ability to heal and harmonize body, mind and spirit. When we align with our truest self, health naturally follows. This medicine creates clear access to the healing abilities we already have in us and, in doing so, the symptoms begin to fall away. The power of the medicine lies in its simplicity: it is based in the cycles of nature and the natural order of life, for example, if the sun rises in the east today, it will rise in the east tomorrow. Spring follows winter, summer follows spring; morning arrives after the night and the evening comes after the day has passed. These natural rhythms exist within us as well, and we can apply them medically to correct imbalances in the body, the mind and our relationship to the spirit. In the course, we learn to re-connect with the simplicity and immense power of nature and apply it to our patient care practice. The medicine is simply another extension of the natural laws. The perspective is great: align the body and mind with the natural world, and harmony follows. It sounds very simple, but the effects far surpass the management of symptoms. You can heal your patients' symptoms and go much further yet. You can help heal their lives.

Description of the Course

This course is an intensive, post graduate program for acupuncturists who have already completed their training for licensure. We meet once every other month for 14 months, with four 5-day immersive meetings in Ripon, Quebec and three 2-day intensives via zoom. Much of the program will be hands-on and interactive.

To fully and deeply understand classical five element acupuncture, we need to become instruments of our senses, re-learning how to see, smell, hear, touch and emotionally feel first ourselves in relation to nature, then our patients. The actual information in this course can be found just about anywhere in the world right now, via the internet, but how to use and apply the information is the key to your success as a practitioner. In this program, we will learn and discuss all the information thoroughly and in depth, but most importantly, we will learn HOW to use it, WHEN to use it, and as importantly, HOW MUCH is needed for each individual patient. If you fully embrace all that this course has to offer, you'll find it is as much for personal growth as it is for professional development.

What is taught (didactic information)

- Concepts of Qi, the Tao, the Elements and Officials and their Correspondences

-Pulse reading specific to CFEA

- Sheng and Ké Cycles, the Law of Mother and Child

- Chinese biological clock

- The Law of Least Action and the Law of Cure, and how to apply them

- Causative Factor

- Diagnostic Skills: Odor, Color, Sound, Emotion

- Energetic Blocks: Possession, Aggressive Energy, Husband Wife imbalance, Umbilical Pulse, Akabane imbalance, Spirit Level Block, Exit/Entry Block, Junction block

- Point Categories

- Rapport

- Complex Transfers, Four Needle Technique as applied to CFEA

- Spiritual Connotation of the Points

- Treatment Planning

- Patient and Practice Management

- Meditation Techniques for Practitioners and Patients

- Ongoing mentorship and feedback

Experiential learning

The beauty and power of classical five element medicine lies in our ability as practitioners to know how and when to use techniques and points. This is not a formulaic medicine, but a dynamic medicine that is applied differently for each patient, syndrome, symptom and state of being. At the same time, it is not an esoteric medicine. There is a framework and a solution for every patient. There is an answer for every time you are stumped or feel you can't get past a certain point with your patients. If you follow the medicine, you will have success, because the medicine is a complete system that really does work. It produces deep, long-lasting and profound changes in your patients while nourishing you, the practitioner, so that your love of the work deepens every day, month and year.

In the course, we will be working with each other and with real patients. We plan to see 30 in-class patients in total.

Experiential aspects

- Rapport skills

- Pulse feedback

-Point location labs and feedback

-Clinical skills practice

-Working with moxibustion

-Managing patients (including challenging cases)

- Many exercises in using color, odor, sound and emotion as diagnostic and feedback tools

-You will be lead through meditations to get in touch with the five emotions of joy, sympathy, grief, fear and anger, as well as meditations to deeply familiarize yourself with the five elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.

Additional

Outside of class work is also intensive. It involves reading and essay writing, exploration of nature and related write-ups, patient care reports, pulse readings, and preparation for an oral presentation. The program is designed to span 14 months in order to give participants time to attend class sessions and complete each assignment while still working, taking care of family, and living a normal life.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, registrants will be able to understand and apply, in a practical way, the theoretical basis of Classical Five Element Acupuncture (CFEA), including energy assessment, pulse assessment, the location of the acupuncture points as specified in the CFEA, how to apply the law of least action and the law of cure, patient relationship skills and practice management, as well as clinical skills, including the use of moxibustion, needle technique, correction of energy imbalances, energy blockages, umbilical pulse and physical, mental and spiritual imbalance. Upon completion of all course requirements, participants will be welcomed into a community of Certified Classical Five Element Acupuncturists and will cross the threshold into a new way of looking at healing.

Most practitioners who have gone through this type of classical five element acupuncture training state that they matured immensely during the program, and have enjoyed more fulfilling relationships with their patients, friends, family members, and have even said they had a deeper relationship with themselves.

Participants completing this course will receive ongoing mentorship from Mary, forever. All you need to do is stay in touch, and Mary will be there. The goal is to create an interlinking web of practitioners who can all help each other give humanity the care we have to offer.

Course Schedule

Four in-person immersive meetings in Ripon, Quebec:

April 13-17, 2023 (5 days)

June 8-12, 2023 (5 days)

August 10-14, 2023 (5 days)

June 8-12, 2024 (5 days)

Three online meetings:

October 6-7, 2023 (2 days)

December 8-9, 2023 (2 days)

February 10-11, 2024 (2 days)

For all meetings, there will be a morning and afternoon break, and lunch from 12:00-13:30. Class meets from 8:00 - 17:30 eastern time.

Cost of the Course

Price is listed in Canadian dollars. Please use a currency converter if needed.

-Early registration (before February 16, 2023) is $13,049.66 ($11,350 + $567.50 GST + $1132.16 QST)

-Regular registration (February 16 - March 9, 2023) is $15,007.11 ($13,052.50 + $652.63 $ GST + $1301.97 QST). —

-Late registration (after the March 9, 2023 deadline): $16,964.56 ($14,755.00 + $737.75 GST + $1,471.81 QST).

✓ No on-site registration. Register via the Ordre des acupuncteurs du Québec.

✓ 7 checks postdated one week before the date of each meeting, i.e. April 6, 2023, June 1, 2023, August 3, 2023, September 29, 2023, December 1, 2023, February 2, 2024, May 31, 2024

Instructors

The course is taught by experienced teachers and practitioners Mary McCullough and Brigitte Soucy.

About Mary

Mary graduated with a masters degree in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine in 2008. She became a Certified Classical Five Element Practitioner (CFEA) in 2014, and and earned her Doctorate degree in acupuncture and Chinese medicine in 2021. As Senior Faculty at the Institute of Classical Five Element Acupuncture, Mary taught all aspects of the medicine alongside Professor Neil Gumenick for seven years.

Mary is a level two yoga and meditation teacher, certified through IKYTA and Yoga Alliance (RYT 500 hours). From both practicing and teaching these disciplines, she has gained mastery in attaining balance of body and mind, and spirit. The centered calm of a large perspective is one very valuable tool in truly seeing each patient and each student.

Mary's beginnings were in western medicine; she has a bachelor's degree in Biology and was classically trained in research methodology. She worked as a technologist and manager in sleep disorders medicine for 23 years. Her first professional job at age 17 was working in hospitals as a certified phlebotomist. All of her work in clinical settings over the last 30+ years have shown her both the complexity and simplicity of illness, healing, and how we, as humans, learn and grow.

About Brigitte

My journey:

Passionate about oriental medicine, I have a great curiosity for my profession and this enthusiasm has only grown over the years. I graduated in 2007 from Collège Rosemont, Mtl, Canada, and I have enriched my practice with multiple training courses, for the pleasure of learning, to refine my understanding and to make my treatments more effective. While appreciating the intellectual understanding of traditional Chinese medicine, as well as many other approaches, acupuncture for me is an intuitive practice.

Throughout my career, though compassionate to physical suffering, I have always wished for greater relief from emotional suffering. I felt that I was missing a precious knowledge of this medicine over 2000 years old, the spirit!

In 2017-2018 I had the pleasure of studying Classical Five Element Acupuncture at the Classical Five Element Acupuncture Institute in Santa Monica, CA with my teachers Neil Gumenick, Mary Z. McCullough and Dr. Eliot Ivanhoe. What a revelation! It is as if I have finally connected with the soul of acupuncture! Since then, I have deepened this ancient art which brings me greater satisfaction in terms of the overall healing of the person, both physical and emotional. In fact, this powerful medicine simply allows the reconnection of our deep being, and thus allows us to live a more harmonious life in our full potential.

To find more information about online courses Mary has taught, go to netofknowledge.com and search "mccullough". There is one course, Rapport in the Burgeoning Realm of Distance Healing, that course is FREE! You can get an idea of her teaching style and presence.

Enjoy, and take good care,

Mary