philipsuger: August 8, 2020, 1:03am
I have just started to integrate Sa’am into my practice so I am not very familiar with the method. I have done a few
treatments on myself with limited results, but I had my first success with it today in clinic.
An obese woman who primarily came for left knee pain was telling me that she has been depressed and anxious.
She felt like she didn’t want to get out bed in the morning, feeling overwhelmed with everything going on. She had
seen other acupuncturists with middling results, so I decided hey lets try some Sa’am. Her knee pain was lateral on
the ST channel but the SP channel was also very tender, she had a complete knee replacement on it already (partial
replacement on the other knee).
I decided to supplement the LI on the right and eagerly looked at the face to see if I could see one of those fabled
reactions. Her eyes fluttered and it seemed like her entire body sunk down into the chair. There it was a positive
reaction!
I did add some local needles around the affected knee but nothing with such a spirit calming action, so it must have
been the Sa’am! After the treatment she said she really felt something from the acupuncture, unlike anything she
had before.
Anyways interesting to see a channel not usually touted for its spirit calming nature to help with depression.
Daniel: August 8, 2020, 2:06am
In my opinion, the whole notion of ‘spirit calming points’ has always seemed odd. The ‘spirit’ is ‘calmed’ when the
patient is seen and the treatment is meaningfully focused on precisely what the patient needs.
KristinWisgirda: August 8, 2020, 2:29pm
Thanks for sharing the good news that are you having success with Saam @philipsuger. Lightening the burden of
double damp brings such relief.
Starting out with Saam I remember the urge to add points because I didn’t have confidence in the system yet and 4
points didn’t seem like “enough”. This definitely slowed my progress in learning the system. Adding points diluted
or distorted the effect of the Saam treatment. Keeping to just Saam improved results but also deepened my
understanding of the system which helped me help more patients.
1 Like29/01/2024, 12:21LI+ for depression – I did the thing! – Sa’am Clinical Insights – Qiological Community
https://forum.qiological.com/t/li-for-depression-i-did-the-thing/1207/print2/3
KristinWisgirda: August 8, 2020, 8:08pm
I second Daniel’s opinion. Shen, with a capital S, can’t be diseased. Rather it is the environment that Shen is
supposed to be housed in that has the pathology in spirit disorders. Either the environment doesn’t provide an
adequate structure to house the shen or the environment contains factors that obstruct the expression of the shen.
Spend time on this forum and you will see all 12 channel treatments have been used effectively for anxiety
including GB+, SJ+, H+. BTW, Toby says that he tends to supplement yin channels for anxiety but not always.
For depression, I can think of scenarios where at least 8 of the 12 could be considered.
michaelmax: August 9, 2020, 2:04am
HI @philipsuger
I too have trouble with the idea of “calm the spirit” and that a certain point will magically effect any psycho-
emotive issue.
As @Daniel and @KristinWisgirda point out. the thing to do is find out WHY they are depressed, or anxious, or
whatever… and then go after that.
Which of course gets tricky as people don’t usually like to talk about the reason they are anxious or depressed.
Daniel: August 9, 2020, 4:01am
or they may just not really know or have the insights we can provide . . . .our ‘job’ is to assess their relationship to
hot, cold, wet, dry, hypo, hyper, up, down, in, out, light, dark, quiet, noisy, etc etc . . . rectify that and in my
experience, the rest will follow – and based on what follows, what responds to treatment, we can then often offer
them insights they’d possibly even never really considered.
michaelmax: August 9, 2020, 1:34pm
Daniel:
and based on what follows, what responds to treatment, we can then often offer them insights they’d possibly
even never really considered.
Or better yet… they offer themselves those insights!29/01/2024, 12:21LI+ for depression – I did the thing! – Sa’am Clinical Insights – Qiological Community
https://forum.qiological.com/t/li-for-depression-i-did-the-thing/1207/print3/3
Adina_Kletzel: August 9, 2020, 8:37pm
KristinWisgirda:
Adding points diluted or distorted the effect of the Saam treatment.
So you have found that adding points negatively affect the Saam treatment? Do you have an example of this?
Do you find that you never need to add any points at all?
What about some of the ren mai points – CV 4, CV 6, CV 12… DO you ever add those?
KristinWisgirda: August 9, 2020, 11:20pm
Adina_Kletzel:
So you have found that adding points negatively affect the Saam treatment?
Toby teaches that the 4 point combos are giving the body a clear push in one direction. It makes sense to me that
adding other influences whether it be needles or any other kind of treatment is going to dampen or distort that push.
It is impossible to give an example because it is impossible to do one treatment after another, one with extra points
and one without, and compare the effects.
If I am unclear about what to do with Saam, I use another system. Not often but I had a case just last week.
Adina_Kletzel:
What about some of the ren mai points – CV 4, CV 6, CV 12… DO you ever add those?
This subject is out of the scope of this forum as we can only discuss intro level information here. You will have to
wait for more advanced classes.