Now I am tutoring at UTS

Yesterday I was a tutor for one of the subjects at the University of Technology Sydney, in the Bachelor of Health Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine undergraduate degree.

I had no idea that I would now find myself in this interesting Chinese medicine situation at the start of this year.

I must admit I was the most scared I have ever been. Probably second to this feeling was the acupuncture point location exams I had to take and the time when I fell off a peer and hit a barnacle incrusted pylon, cutting my arm open and almost losing my left nipple…

As the afternoon class drew near I was completely panicked, even sitting at rest and sweating! Here I was about to be speaking in front of my peers, on a complex and diverse subject, integrating Chinese medicine and Western medicine.

I prepared by going over my course notes for the same subject from last year, and checking the curriculum notes. It was just like being back at uni again, and I thought I had left for good!

It soon dawned on me that not only was I going to give information, I was going to have to teach it! I scrambled the Internet and I came up with these choice pieces of wisdom. Let the students know what they are covering, let them know (from my experience) the type of information they are covering and do what the Dalai Lama does: think happy thoughts.

One piece of consolation came to me in the light hearted and friendly, jovial manner that the doctors I experienced in China presented information. I tried to keep that in mind. Afterwards I realised I did have some previous experience with teaching as I am a qualified yoga teacher too. I totally forgot about it in my stress!

I also came across some good tips. Time a task and let students know it, aim high (I said lets get 100%). Hopefully that won’t get too tiresome over 3 months! Another great tip was to appreciate a positive quality in each student, so that you look around the room full of students in a positive light.

From personal experience I like to use the shouty voice. If in doubt or losing confidence, shouty voice always works! Presentations, public, one to one. It is a slightly louder than normal speech voice and provides good cover.

Two other tips I relied on for the two hour time frame were, “They are more scared than you” which is what a seasoned professional kindly let me know, and one final one was to get some feedback, and not at the end of the semester. So I asked around and I discovered people weren’t getting all the information. I will repeat main points twice next week. Also, an interesting comment about the room, someone said we were all too spread out, so I intend to put all the tables in one half of the class for next week.

How did I go? I was worried about the people I already knew in the class giving me a hard time (I had shared some classes with some of the students last year, and now I was a professional, and they were still students). That wasn’t too bad and actually created a friendly environment straight away. Some students were loud, I tried to share that energy across the class, “What does everybody else think of that?”. Some people were a bit rude, to be expected. Immaturity is boisterous and reactionary. I simply walked over to the next student.

At the end I was on an enormous buzz. Relived and amazed! To be on the other side of the equation is quite mind blowing for me. To be able to guide someone in a way that I think is a positive way to learn: engaging, open, sharing, and to have fun, is very fulfilling too.

I hope I can maintain the momentum and focus, and provide a positive teaching environment in the following weeks.

 UTS Tower. One giant acupuncture needle

Around clinic. 1st year and 2nd year

Here we are in clinic taking some pics. The new generation of students coming through and eventually helping the people will be graduating in no time. Good luck  guys and may the force be with you.

Mooncake and Michael in the break room.

 
Front desk styling: Dennis, Shane and Jonathon:

Thanks guys :)

Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine

I have to write an annotated bibliography for one of my last assignments (read giant literature review). I decided to go to the library and check out the journals. To my surprise I discovered a whole new level of the library, one week before I can never use it again! The call numbers for the journals are the same for the books in the category of Chinese medicine. But the journals are on another level, level 5. I had made the presumption that they where all in the same area. Before I had only looked up journals online through the library website. The new level I discovered has a wall of information! And level 5 itself is the top of the library, is a strict quiet zone and is flooded with natural light and space (the other levels being a bit dark). Dash I would have spent some time up there! 

Here's a look at some of the journals...

 More informations:

Hai Piao Xiao

The cuttlefish is one of my favorite animals. Outstandingly it has the ability to change colour in beautiful ways at a moments notice as a form of communication. It is quick and majestic in the water and has numerous other amazing features such as: “w” shaped eyes, 3 hearts to pump green blue blood around, a large brain and a cuttlebone. The cuttlebone is a calcium structure that is filled with gas to change it's buoyancy. Hai Piao Xiao is cuttlebone.

In TCM it’s used to stabilise and bind.

It enters KD, LR and ST and is salty, astringent and slightly warm

Stops bleeding, secures essence and dries dampness

Used for many bleeding patterns, especially from deficiency and it can also be used to stop traumatic bleeding externally. Drying and inhibiting in its characteristics it enters blood level of the Liver channel and restrains bleed, dries vaginal discharge. It enters the Kidney channel and secures essence, and enters Stomach and controls acidity, stops epigastric pain and treat diarrhea and dysentery disorders.

Bensky et al, 2004, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica 3rd Edition, Eastland Press, USA

Really great video of cuttlefish:

Blood Pressure Test

Here I am getting my blood pressure measured in clinic by Zena. Thanks Zena and you'll be glad to know my blood pressure was normal, the rest of me is getting further tests...

Tongue Analysis

Ever looked at your own tongue in regards to health?

This video shows some tongues we had to analyse for a comparative study for a statistics class. We are doing a science based degree at UTS, so they love to throw statistics in there. It's very painful and awful! I've heard they put it in the last year of the course as everybody would drop out if it was in first year..!

Anyway in Chinese medicine looking at the tongue is part of the diagnosis of how you are.

Consider the tongue coat and tongue body. The coat can be thick, moist or dry, peeled and have different textures. All meaning certain things for diagnosis.
The body can have different shapes and colour. The shape can be indented, or not, enlarged or thin, have red raised spots (papillae) or have cracks on the surface.

More later :)

The UTS Chinese Medicine Final Year Internship Clinic

https://sites.google.com/site/utstcmclinic/home

Soon my time practicing in the clinic will be over. The quota of 120 hours worth of treatment will be fulfilled and I will be a visitor instead of a practitioner. I can't wait!

I am looking forward to graduating and treating Sydney!

Pt 3, 2nd Fire Needle Treatment for Back Pain: Treatment

Second treatment with a larger needle for a stronger treatment and good examination of the effect of fire needling on the skin right afterwards.

2nd Fire Needle Treatment for Back Pain

Noam came back! He got a second treatment for back pain, two weeks later, using fire needle. We used a thicker needle this time for a stronger treatment. This is the consultation video. Treatment and explanation videos coming up. Also we did a blood letting treatment on the same day! Stay tuned to understand and find out more about the less widely used blood letting therapy!
Thank you Noam and Weihong Li for letting me video :)

Fire needle: Types of needles

Here we have a selection of fire needles explained and examined

Fire needle treatment for back pain

Here we have an awesome up close video of Noam getting fire needle treatment for back pain. Well done Noam and thanks for letting me video it :)

This video is pretty full on, so not for anybody who doesn't like needles! Catch up on the results soon in another video.

What it is like to get a Chinese medicine consultation at the clinic

Here I am interviewing Brenda ( thanks!) about some of her issues that she wanted help with. Acupuncture treatment coming up soon!

Clinic: Smoked out!

We are in Clinic still. University semester has finished, but we soldier on. That's right clinic runs through the holidays for the final year internship. We have to a certain amount of hours before we can graduate and that means extra time in the clinic. Fortunately we seem to be fully booked and I will be providing you with behind the scenes content from clinic. Including patient consultations and some analysis of TCM. Stay posted, in the meantime, for your viewing pleasure:

Video updates

I took these videos a while ago. Youtube made me a partner which means they get featured and they have advertising on them. Expect more soon!

UTS TCM gets Digital: Official!

Someone told me that the UTS Science page had been updated.

It's got a lot more info about UTS TCM, pics and intern practitioner profiles! I'm on it along with my fellow interns.
Have a look.


http://datasearch2.uts.edu.au/science/intern/tcm/index.cfm

The classic 9 acupuncture needles

We had a lecture on the book: "Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion" By Fum Huang
Was heaps interesting and also great because it was a non-examinable part of the course.
The lovely lecturer Wiehung Li presented and began to expand our minds beyond the curriculum: transference of energy, self preservation energy techniques, acupuncture points used before the systematisation of Chinese medicine during the 1950s China...
It posed a question and basically was a discounting of all the three years of learning we have done. What is it with Chinese medicine and it's baffling idiosyncrasies? Is it rooted in the current Chinese culture? A population doing as much as it can but not sticking its neck out for fear of breaking the political line? You do it anyway but if someone asks you a direct question you respond in a round about way as not to take ownership. Ok Chinese medicine is difficult. Each area of learning has its own structure and thought process. So individual that it usually cannot be overlaid on to another category and still make sense. It's rote learning of one way then another and another. Try getting a direct answer out of all that info and you usually have to duck to save face as your memory climbs some impossible walls...
So now it's: you have learnt this, now think about it like this, which is smirking at your current knowledge but don't worry you will graduate so you can get your insurance if you stick to the curriculum.

The lecturer kindly brought in this framed set of the 9 distinctive acupuncture needles used in the classic book mentioned above. Not all are used today. Some are surgical acupuncture needles and trespass acceptable Western practice. For example there is a technique used in China where an incision is made in the skin above a certain acupuncture point in the back (BL 13) and a piece of chicken gut is placed in that incision as a treatment for Asthma. Are you still a vegetarian if you do that?

UTS TCM

On the streets to meet the peeps
Ooops!

Well I haven’t updated for a while

What can I say? Things have been busy and all sorts of developments have been developing!

I have also been standing out on the street in front of a table handing out flyers for the clinic. This is a full on thing to do but I get to meet prospective patients and people get to ask me all their wildest questions about Chinese Medicine. Quite good preparation for the real world clinic, I like to think , and a great way to get patients!

Orientation Day UTS Chinese medicine Clinic stall and CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The stall all set up
Special ingredients on display


Happy massage pplPower up

CUUUPPPPCAAAAAAAAKESSSSS!

Orientation day is the week before semester starts, so all the first years rock up to find out what’s on offer at uni. It’s a great place to meet people and promote what you’re doing and I decided to take full advantage!

I set up a stall, and organised gold coin donations for massage, gave free Chinese medicine health assessments and answered a million questions on Chinese medicine. Oh, and I booked a few patients for my final year internship clinic hours!

It was a great success and great fun. Thanks mainly to Audrey and Isabella who got stuck right into it! I checked our gold coin donations, over $40 worth, from small change! I couldn’t believe it! Anyway thanks to everybody who rocked up to help or have a look and especially to Nic for the cupcakes or the Gui Zhi Swirl Muffins! They were delicious!

Marketing the UTS Final Year Internship Clinic

Marketing! I have been thinking of all the ways the UTS Clinic can be marketed so that people know that is even there! It feels to me as a valuable opportunity. Here we are under the umbrella of an established institution at UTS and we can use this as a strong foundation to promote our clinic and to treat patients. Really it is a great opportunity.

I have been busy reaching out to many people in many ways and have had some results! Yesterday I received an email from China Books regarding the clinic, thanks Georgina! This means over a thousand other people would have received this email too. Also my efforts to put flyers in Libraries has paid off. I walked into my local one yesterday and it was up there on the notice board-great! I have been standing on the street handing out flyers, I have been making videos and putting them on YouTube. I have used the electronic billboards around Uni. And there are two seminars coming up, both have over 20 people attending and there are gradually more hits to the UTS FYIC website. Today if you google the UTS Clinic you will get a first page reference to what we are doing.

However the proof is in the patients! I am keen to see if the intake is more for this year and I hope to help a lot of people out with their issues.

Frequently Asked Questions about Studying Traditional Chinese Medicine at UTS

FAQs studying TCM at UTS:

Do you have to know/speak Chinese (Mandarin) to study?

No. The UTS TCM course is in English and there are numerous texts in English too.

You are not Chinese, why are you studying this?

Yes and because I appreciate it and I don’t have to be Chinese to understand and practice this!

Are your teachers Chinese (read: Your subject is Chinese, your teachers should be Chinese)?

Some. Some are Chinese and some are Anglo Saxon and some are from other nationalities!

Do you meditate?

Yes, and not just while watching TV.

They do that at UTS, how long???

Yes, 16 years. The course started at UTS in 1994 and was established from an independent college called Acupuncture Colleges (Australia), that had been running for 25 year previously to that.

How did you get interested in TCM?

I personally have had TCM treatments that helped me. Before that I had studied yoga and was teaching yoga and I had established an interest in Eastern philosophies. From all that I found out about the course and decided to go for it!

What is your experience of studying TCM at UTS?

I love it and hate it! It’s the hardest thing I have ever done. However I get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from it and helping people is what motivates me!

Why are you studying at UTS and not…China, Western Sydney etc?

I wanted to study somewhere close to home and that was it at the time of enrolment!

Should I enroll right after HSC?

You have to do what feels right. Balance all the things you want and need and ask yourself: do I want to be poor for 4 years in a row and possibly longer!?

What age range attends, is everybody younger than you?

Any and no! The interesting thing about UTS TCM is the broad range of ages on the course. It includes straight from school leavers who may not even be 18 yet all the way up to fifty year olds. It encompasses so many different situations of people from single mums, family people, working people, people living at home still, non working and so on. There are definitely some western medicine types in my year: a few nurses, one doctor (well not a real doctor, but a dentist…) It’s very diverse.

How do you find the lecturers and the teaching standard in UTS?

It comes down to knowledge and personality on both sides and that is all a very individual reflection. As a whole the lecturers know a lot! They are in a world of TCM and they know all about it! Whether they answer your questions, well some do and some don’t! There are always the books…

What is the course structure?
Roughly it is one third Chinese medicine, one third western medicine and one third practical application.

How confident would students feel in their knowledge of their Chinese herbal medicine aspect?

It’s great to have herbs as part of the course. Some people get herbs straight away, for others it’s a slow process. And others couldn’t care less as they won’t be using them in practice. If someone is studying and they pass and they don’t even care, there is hope! I love herbs and I stick to it. It’s taken me a long time to understand the concepts and ideas though.

What do you think of learning TCM in English as opposed to learning in Chinese? What about studying of the classic texts? Are they available?

It’s fine. Ok. So you are dealing with a translation. These are done to a high standard and the ideas of TCM are well understood really. In the case of classic texts: in all probability the original was reworked and changed over the centuries anyway. I guess it’s cool to say you read the original yourself and then translated it yourself. There is a sense of getting close to the original information. That original information can be difficult to understand anyway though. Either way your developing, comparing and understanding information all the time.

When do you start getting practical experience....are there a good variety of cases students can see at UTS clinic?

At the start and yes. From first semester we observe treatments with the general public. Later we take case histories and do our own diagnosis and talk to the practitioner about how they will treat. In the fourth and final year we do internship clinic where we do needling and herbal prescriptions for the general public ourselves under practitioner observation. The patients that come in are many and varied!