What You Need to Succeed: Essential Skills in Managing Pain

With AOM Modalities

At the Acupuncture Society of Virginia Conference

Fairfax Marriott at Fair Oaks, 11787 Lee Jackson Memorial Highway, Fairfax, VA 22031

Sat-Sun, April 13-14, 2019. Register through the Acupuncture Society of Virginia

(Next offering: TBA. Please let us know of your interest in a live or distance-learning class.)
E-Book $20 - Add to Cart

Billed once per year until cancelled

Understanding Chronic Pain: Essential Knowledge

  • Acupuncture and the opioid epidemic: opportunities, risks, challenges and roles for acupuncturists
  • Understanding pain as a subjective perception of past, current or potential tissue damage
  • Neural sensitization: a common mechanism in chronic pain
  • Neuromusculoskeletal anatomy: surface (palpatory), sub-surface, kinesiology, kinematic chains and the jing-jin ("myofascial meridians"); tissue histology
  • Communication and education
    • Managing and transforming maladaptive hopes, expectations, fears, assumptions, beliefs, habits, behaviors
    • Paradigm shift: from passive pain relief to pro-active functional restoration
    • Pain psychology and behaviors: a five-element perspective
    • Explaining acupuncture mechanisms and effects to patients and other medical professionals

Essential Skills for Working in Integrative Pain Management

  • Communication with other providers: roles and the licensure hierarchy
  • Medical documentation & report-writing for coordination of care and referral-building
  • Patient/condition selection: knowing the strengths and limits of your knowledge, skills, and abilities

Essential History and Physical Exam Skills in Pain Management

Neck and shoulder pain as an example

  • Ruling out urgent conditions
  • Active range-of-motion
  • Passive range-of-motion and joint play testing
  • Manual strength testing

AOM Treatment by Tissue and Pattern Identification

Neck and shoulder pain as example