L’Académie pour la Méthode de Yin Tuina de l’Infinité
Dr. Chris Ells, L.Ac., D.A.O.M.
“I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.”
~ Mark Twain
“When I got into music I went all the way into music; I didn’t have no time after that for nothing else.”
~ Miles Davis
L’Académie Yin Tuina
The Academy is a new name for the Chinese medical bodywork workshops and teaching that I offer. A product of my experience in leading numerous classes and workshops throughout Western and Central Europe, South America, and the United States since 2003, the focus of the Academy’s curriculum applies to any modality that is applied with the human hand or any medical tool that is applied to a patient, be it an acupuncture needle, a breathing tube, or a scalpel. In a phrase, the Academy focuses on the healing quality of touch. It encourages us to explore and expand the implementation of this oldest yet highly effective technology (the seemingly long-forgotten human hand) throughout the world’s health care systems.
“I was able to use it to remind myself how to listen and fit in with other musicians. My new-found listening skill was one most other musicians neglected. It wasn’t that they couldn’t listen as well as I could; they just didn’t. I noticed that most musicians seemed to reserve their ears for themselves rather than open up their ears to the rest of the band. I found that when I listened to the other musicians more than I listened to myself, I played better. I realize that listening is a choice. The same is true in conversation. When I listen to other people more than to myself, I know how to respond and support them in a better way. It also helps me know when to remain quiet.”
~ Victor Wooten, The Music Lesson
The Academy Yin Tuina provides workshops for us to meet and share the healing modality of tuina and how the healing power of touch can be extrapolated to any healing modality. While mainstream Western Civilization proceeds to de-emphasize and de-value the strength of impact human touch offers in promoting the healing of physical and emotional injury and sickness, human cultures ever living in accord with natural patterns of life have not yet discarded the simple recognition that the human hand is the primary tool for any modality of healing that is administered by another; that touch promotes and encourages the patient’s innate capacity for self-reparation, healing.
The yin in so-called yin tuina reminds us of the ingredients of support and listening – of the apparently receptive elements involved in administering medical treatment.
“Water gives life to the ten thousand things, yet does not strive. It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.”
~Lao Tzu
The Basis Of All Administered Modalities
Any device or implement used to “administer treatment” to another is an extension of the hand. The hand can be viewed as an extension of the heart. This is clearly seen in nature: if you touch an animal with a stick, the animal automatically considers the stick to be you, just exactly as much you as if it were your actual hand. If you want to start to understand how obvious that is to nature (despite its apparent utter lack of obviousness to the human thinking/abstracting intellect), then just imagine for a moment that in the dog’s mind, that stick is your hand. Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan describes this as your energy going through the stick, leash, or whatever the device is that you are holding. For example, when a dog is on leash, it doesn’t think of the leash as being anything other than you (we sometimes see dog walkers whose dog holds their own leash in their mouth – even when the human is holding the end of the leash; humans can find this to be cute, however it is perfectly clear to the dog that he is taking you for a walk, and is in the dominant position because he is now holding/containing you and leading). Whether using a device or just the vastly dynamic living hand, it’s all touch. From a practical perspective, in the context of medicine, the implications of so-called yin tuina therefore span from the most intricately and finely-tuned, deeply supportive body work, to drawing blood, to performing brain surgery (or any kind of surgery for that matter; ever notice how brain surgery sounds way more significant than surgery?), to increasing the healing rate in broken bones, to listening to your patient when they speak, to starting an i.v., to shaking your patients’ hand when you greet them, to skillfully inserting acupuncture needles, to performing medical qi gong, and possibly a few more.
“Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play.”
~ Miles Davis
Académie Workshops: Class Outline
“Q: What is the difference between theory and practice? A: In theory, there is no difference.”
~ Yogi Berra (slightly paraphrased by Eberhard Mandela)
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- No prior experience required.
- Suitable for all levels, including beginner.
- No belief required.
- This is a discovering fishing class, not a selling fish class.
The primary focus of the class will be yin tuina. Some time will be devoted to demonstration and description, while still leaving us plenty of hands-on practice time for everyone. Scope of discussion will include but not be limited to: Asian Medical Theory, Western Medical Theory, tai chi theory, yin tuina theory, and tuina theory, but only as references for useful consideration, and not as some strange symbols of ultimate dogmatic authority.
“As he watched the eyeless face with the jaw moving rapidly up and down, Winston had a curious feeling that this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man’s brain that was speaking, it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck.”
~ George Orwell, 1984
The workshops all have similar formats. In addition to actual yin tuina time, the more widely-known, “technique-oriented” or so-called yang approach to tuina will be demonstrated, as well, including the inherent relationship between these two apparently different conceptual approaches and a suggestion and demonstration of what might lie beyond—or closer than—the concepts themselves. Additionally, a few simple qi gong exercises will be practiced together to sweeten the vibe.
Class size will be limited to ten to ensure a smaller, cozier group setting.
Please wear comfortable clothing. This is not oil massage; no amount of disrobing is required beyond removal of shoes and jewelry.
Topics Covered In Academy Yin Tuina Workshops
- Listening Energy: “Ting jing”, or “listening energy”, is the basis of this approach to medical treatment. If you’re not listening to what’s going on, then how will you be able to respond accordingly? Learn how to diagnose with every move.
“The same is true in conversation. When I listen to other people more than to myself, I know how to respond and support them in a better way. It also helps me know when to remain quiet.”
~ Victor Wooten, from The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music - “De Qi” and Point Location: Obtaining “de qi” without an acupuncture needle. Navigating amidst the so-called “physical body” and its apparently inseparable living counterpart: “qi”. Learning to take both aspects into account and interact respectfully, thereby naturally building mutual rapport between patient and practitioner prior to insertion of sharp metal object (in cases where acupuncture or surgery is administered)…and possibly not even needing the acupuncture needle.
“YOU know what’s right! Don’t listen to them! They don’t know what’s right. You do! YOU know what’s right!!!!!”
~ Bill Hicks - Pattern Identification: Disease and illness as living phenomena vs. disease and illness on the written page (whether on the page or on your memory’s recording of it). Detecting patterns of reduced flow: the basic tenet of Asian medical theory. These classes will explore the art of combining dead, abstract book theory with the phenomenon of the human life form lying on your treatment table. Bring your theory to life….if you can.
“Listening with my whole body became a huge benefit at my gigs. The few times I’ve tried to explain this concept to someone, it proved to be too much of a struggle. Most people can’t understand. They approach it as a hypothetical concept, not as a reality. I will have to bring my musician friends into the woods and let them figure it out themselves, I guess.”
~ Victor Wooten, from The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music - Alignment: Living Tai Chi. Rapport and cooperation naturally flow as by-products of alignment. Breathing, posture, relaxed composure, and gravity (often overlooked, despite it’s constancy! Gravity gravity gravity!!! Feel it, Use it, Work with it) will be explored as means to remain in alignment amidst the chaos and unpredictability of the healing environment and process. As part of our work as medical artists, ongoing refinement of alignment to the task at hand is of the essence. Simple tai chi principles will be continuously explored both in demonstrations and in hands-on practice.
“No matter how much we, as a rhythm section may have been struggling to stretch but keep the groove happening. You know, and if it was kind of falling apart – as it did from time to time – Miles…with his playing… [extends the fingers of right hand pointing forward and slides the “blade” hand slowly forward along an invisible groove] would center it – kinda tie it all together – so he sensed what the link was….and he’d get the thing grooving so hard that it was like…being in the Garden of Eden or something [laughs] you know, it was, it was about the best thing you could feel at that moment.”
~ Herbie Hancock on playing with Miles Davis - Dynamics: “Healing” is a continuous process in all life forms. Body-mind healing is a type of transformation. It’s all alive and changeable. Healing is change. The concept of dynamics addresses this ever present element of changeability, and the adaptation of the practitioner in real time to the changes undergoing in the patient. The dynamic range or spectrum of various discernable elements will be addressed, along with the art of determining these changes – the art of supporting an actively changing body-mind organism via listening to the dynamics with your whole being.
“It’s not the notes you play; it’s the notes you don’t play.”
~ Miles Davis - Traditional Tui Na techniques & applications: In these workshops, we also explore how to apply technique along with listening-support – how to listen to the patient’s body and mind – their overall qi – and work with that in order to mature your application of various tuina (or any stylized body work techniques) in a way that embraces non-verbal, two-way communication. We will explore how to continue learning beyond the more commonplace, unrefined, fire hose approach of throwing a barrage of techniques at a patient’s body. In other words, we will learn how to utilize stylized technique to locate the candle, and to assess what it will take to extinguish the candle. In this way, we will learn how to grow beyond the rudimentary understanding of putting out small candles with fire hoses. Refinement. Art. Expansion of your wheelhouse. Interactive non-verbal dialogue grows out of two-dimensional, rote techniques…if, that is, you care to listen.
“When I’m out there and there’s just a piano, it’s like my body knows just exactly what to do – it’s like my left hand knows just how to play. And if I tell it what to play, I’m stopping it. [laughs] And not only am I stopping it, but I’m stopping it from playing something better than I can think of. This is like being oversaturated with input, and it actually comes through your entire body, and people actually ask me why I make the noises I make [laughs].”
~ Keith Jarrett - Integration: All of the above-mentioned topics are simply continuous aspects of medical treatment. Always organically present, these intensive workshops will focus on individual aspects and will include drills and exercises for exploring each aspect while not losing the forest for the trees. In practice, they all meld into one aliveness.
- Hands-on Practice in small group environment: Approximately half of the workshop time will be spent in hands-on practice. Attendees will experience both the practitioner and the patient roles. In Santa Cruz, class size is limited to four students, leaving plenty of opportunity for individualized attention. When hiring me to lead a workshop in your hometown, it is recommended to keep the class size relatively small. This is truly a rare opportunity.
Dr. Chris Ells, L.Ac. With over twenty-eight years of extensive tai chi and meditation training and extensive “yang” tuina training and practice, Chris has been practicing yin tuina for more than twenty-five years with thousands upon thousands of hours of practice time. A licensed acupuncturist since 2002, he has led numerous yin tuina “workshops” throughout Western Europe since 2004. He has provided classroom training in yin tuina as well as hands-on and audience-oriented clinical training through Five Branches University from 2008 through 2017, and in his private practices in Santa Cruz, California, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, during his more than twelve years of past involvement with the Parkinson’s Treatment Team of Santa Cruz and the Parkinson’s Recovery Project. In the end, none of these credentials really means anything beyond experience, so let’s just say that yin tuina is a real passion here.
Something is being left out of Modern Health Care.
Thank you