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Who we are.
What is Acupuncture?
What Does Acupuncture Treat?
What Does an Acupuncturist Do?
What Do You Experience?
How Does Acupuncture Work?
Does Acupuncture Work?
The Different Styles of Acupuncture
The History of Acupuncture
Our Scope of Practice
Our Code of Conduct
Links & Resources
Contact Us
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Scope of Practice
If you are interested in our full scope of practice as defined in our bylaws, here it is;
As a member of the Association of Registered Acupuncturists of Prince Edward Island, an 'Acupuncturist' will be defined as someone who offers health care services based on
- the specific anatomical and physiologic understandings of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- the specific assessment approaches of Traditional Chinese Medicine and
- the specific therapeutic techniques of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
When combined, these three pillars enable the practitioner to assess a patient and offer appropriate therapy to achieve the following goal;
the promotion, maintenance and restoration of health and the prevention of illness.
Each of these three pillars is further detailed below.
- The specific anatomical and physiologic understandings of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
These understandings include but are not limited to such conceptual frameworks as;
- Yin and Yang
- The Five Phases (Wu Xing)
- Eight Principles Pattern Discrimination (Ba Gang Bian Zheng)
- Qi, Blood and Body Fluids Pattern Discrimination (Qi, Xue, Jin Ye Bian Zheng)
- Viscera and Bowels Pattern Discrimination (Zang Fu Bian Zheng)
- The Twelve Main Meridians, the 8 Extraordinary Vessels, the Divergent Channels,
The Sinew Vessels
- Disease Evil Cause Pattern Discrimination (Bing Yin Bian Zheng)
- Externally Contracted Febrile Disease Six Channel Pattern Discrimination
(Liu Fen Bian Zheng)
- Externally Contracted Febrile Disease Four Aspects Pattern Discrimination
(Wei, Qi, Ying, Xue Bian Zheng)
- Three Burners Pattern Discrimination (San Jiao Bian Zheng)
- The Seven Emotions
- The specific assessment approaches of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Assessment is made based on the four traditional examinations;
- inspection (including information from traditional tongue examination)
- listening (including information from auditory and olfactory senses)
- palpation (including information from traditional pulse assessment, traditional abdominal
- palpatory assessment and meridian palpation)
- inquiry
Data gathered through these assessment approaches is filtered and interpreted through the conceptual frameworks listed in (A) above
- The specific therapeutic techniques of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Therapies that fall within the scope of practice of members of the Association of Registered Acupuncturists of Prince Edward Island include,
- the insertion of sterile needles through the skin at specific points with or without the addition of electrical or heat stimulus (what is known as 'acupuncture' in the narrow sense of the term)
- moxibustion or the burning of processed mugwort (artemisia vulgaris) on or above specific points
- Chinese herbal medicine
- cupping (including stationary cups and sliding cups)
- gua sha (dermal friction)
- bloodletting
- plum blossom needles
- polarity agents including magnets, ion pumping cords, diode devices and bimetals
- acupressure or the application of pressure to specific points
- tuina and amma (traditional Chinese massage), shiatsu (traditional Japanese massage), traditional Thai massage and anpuku (traditional Japanese abdominal massage)
- dietary counselling based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- lifestyle counselling based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine
- breathing techniques
- meditation techniques based in Traditional Chinese Medicine (e.g. Qi Gong)
- movement exercises based in Traditional Chinese Medicine (e.g. Tai Chi Chuan)
- press balls
- intradermals
- press tacks
The 'specific points' mentioned above can include established acupuncture points located on the major meridians of the body, established 'extra' acupuncture points, points located on established microsystems such as the French, Chinese and German ear systems, the Korean hand and foot systems, the Chinese wrist and ankle systems, and the Chinese and Japanese scalp systems,
so called 'ah shi' points or any reactive point identified on the body surface through palpation.
The term 'Traditional Chinese Medicine' wherever it is used above is not used in the narrow sense in which it can be used to refer to the specific TCM style of Acupuncture practiced in the present day People's Republic of China. It is used in a broad sense to encompass all substyles which have spawned from the great body of Chinese Medicine. Members of the Association of Registered Acupuncturists of Prince Edward Island may practice within any of a number of distinct classical styles of acupuncture including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese styles. These styles differ in the relative weight they assign to the different theoretical, assessment and therapeutic approaches listed above.
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