my fellow students, that is. 99% of them for the first time ever. In class. Next week. First lesson where they´re needling another living human being. This is a big threshold for most people. There are acupuncturists who still, despite years of clinical practice, are afraid of using needles on their patients.
There are techniques to change your intent so that this works better and easier. Most don´t learn these, however, and have to make do with whatever they can come up with themselves, or what their teachers can help them with. Some of them can still carry a feeling that the needles are hurting or injuring patients, and without getting rid of that, working well with acupuncture and healing people gets difficult.
This is early to start needling others, I think. In the chinese acupuncture doctor trainings it takes much longer before you´re even let near a needle, and other courses in the West vary wildly across the board on it too, some fast, some only after a year or more.
It is early in the course to be doing this: barely three months in. The only needling most of the students have done is being taught twice in class how to needle pads, fruit or objects. Then we are supposed to go home and practice like hell...which most don´t, of course. Maybe it is good to get it done this quickly and get past that threshold, maybe it´s not. Most students are very nervous about it and we put together a little bit of practice for those who wanted to have a try before the class.
Acupuncture. If I´m skilled at it, will it help people greatly? Yes. Will it contain needles? Yes.
