Rob Aspell

01/09/2024

Back teaching again in Feb 2025!

Haven’t properly taught for a few years now, as have put a lot of time and effort into and other medical advisory roles. But looking forward to being back with and the college, and working with a small group of student again 🙏🏻

Tui Na Diploma 2025…

• Intro to Tui Na
• Postures, Exercises, & Virtues of Tui Na
• Tui Na Techniques and Manipulations
• The Stages of Treatment
• Sinew Channel Theory
• Tui Na Diagnostics & Examinations
• The 4 Stages of Physical Trauma
• Cupping Therapy
• External Herbal Medicine (medicated liniments) - how to make and how to apply
• 5 Supervised Clinical Practice Days
• Daily discussions and Q&A of Chinese Medicine

Going to be a fun course! 🙌🏻 Liverpool, UK - Feb ‘25.

www.xiantiancollege.com/tui-na

11/02/2024

Fight Night… team duties - Always grateful to be a small part of any fighter’s journey, whether it be for their recovery, to wrap their hands before a fight, or just to be there for encouragement and support.

Proud to do what we do, and who we do it with 🙏🏻

28/01/2024

Concordia Clinic Liverpool

31/05/2023

The Art of Medicine…

Not often I write things on here anymore - thought I’d say something about different schools, different styles, different personalities.

With the teachings of Chinese medicine being so vast, and it having a massive ‘art’ or ‘expression’ element to it, every practitioner and teacher has a slightly, or vastly, different take on how to practice.

During my study, I was very fortunate to have an apprenticeship position whilst working through my degree at university. It was a bit full on, juggling a full time degree, a new family, and apprenticing at a clinic whilst also trying to earn!

However, the time spent with my mentor massively shaped my approach to medicine (and by the way, she once paid me in sweets, for a 10 hour shift! But the knowledge and experience was priceless).

If you know me well, I run through life with intensity. I’m extreme and far from any virtues, and I live life in the fast lane.

But when I switch modes to medicine, I am absolutely the opposite. My teacher and mentor for 9 years, had an incredible and elegant approach to medicine. That was her character… and funnily enough, outside of medicine she lived life with extremes and intensity. I believe she was truly a genius in medicine, though you have the ‘madness’ in front of genius 🙂

My mentor’s approach was subtle. Some practitioners will go in strong, making wild changes quickly and abruptly. Using fancy gestures and outstanding methods… wanting to show great changes quickly. But my mentor’s approach was to gently encourage and subtly create change within the body. She kept things simple, and logical. Grounded and settled. Nothing would faze and nothing would cause a stir in her mind as she consulted and as she treated. This stillness in itself no doubt affected her patients positively.

Her prescriptions would tell a story. I would learn by seeing patterns and hearing stories about hundreds of prescriptions I observed. The prescriptions worked like a family or team put together to expel, to clear, to support, and to look after the body as it changes in order to find balance. If she was purging illness, she would do so gently so the body could adapt to any change, whether it be positive or negative. Open minded yet focused to a point.

A saying that those of you who have been to my classes will have heard me say…

“treatment and change should be delicate, like that of a feather”.

This isn’t a ‘classical’ statement or anything like that, or not to my knowledge. This was just my mentor’s description of how she believed medicine should be. And it probably wasn’t how she said it, as her English was terrible! But it’s what I heard.

When we create change, the main aim is to create permanence in that positive change. To delicately and subtly change the body and the mind. So that it remains, and sits comfortable in its new position. To feel comfortable with balance.

Big changes create big ripples… big actions create big reactions… I know this from life outside of medicine 😬 but in medicine, my approach has been forged to be gentle, subtle, to encourage and to support.

I am drawn to the elegance and grace required to bring balance to the body and mind. My nature becomes very calm when I switch to medicine, and I feel this serves me well and also my patients. From my years of observing and learning from my mentor, I too am unfazed by whatever a patient presents. I remain clear, with focus and open mindedness. This is the Yin to my Yang!

This is simply my approach, of course brought out by my mentor. It is what feels to me, having also worked closely with other practitioners of other methods, to be a method that serves well. But perhaps others’ approaches will be different, or they may be similar 🙂

Just thought I’d share as it came to mind whilst sitting here, with my brother messaging me about feathers! 🤌🏻

25/03/2023

08/02/2022

Dermatology in Chinese Medicine

Finally got around to publishing this book!

Strangely enough, it actually started out as being written as a gift for a friend, which then became something that people were asking for! So now it’s available…

Available at [email protected]

… I know people have been patiently waiting for the Gynae/Obstetrics book - it’s been 90% complete for the last three years… one day, maybe!

31/01/2022

Proud to say that another group of Tui Na students have graduated with the Xian Tian College of Chinese Medicine!

It’s been a great pleasure to see each of the students learning the practice of Tui Na, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how their clinical practice develops over the future… well done all! 🙌🏻

26/09/2021

Helpful to have a book published on Tui Na, simply to remind me how and what to teach!! It’s been a while…

It feels like a life time since I last taught, so I’m really looking forward to finally teaching Tui Na again to a small group of students!

It’ll be good to get back into sharing my understanding of Tui Na, and Chinese medicine in general - I’m also looking forward to learning from the students by their questions and experiences.

I’ve always said, my patients and my students have been my greatest teachers! It’s amazing how much you learn from teaching others… the puzzle of trying to communicate and explain concepts in a way that not one, but many will understand - The thoughtful process that goes into teaching massively helps your understanding of your practice!

COVID has made many of us step back, slow down and reevaluate, but now we are ready to go!!

23/08/2021

The ‘Sixth Virtue’ of Tui Na

Most of you who practice Tui Na will have heard about the ‘5 Virtues’ of Tui Na - if not, I think I have posted about them previously and it’s also in my book. But I feel I should talk about an ‘unofficial’ sixth virtue: Shen (神), which I see very few practitioners applying! I usually just see boredom, no spark, distraction, lack of engagement.

When I say Shen in this context, I’m talking about the engagement of the the mind and focus, and also to the vitality and ‘life’ that should be applied to practicing Tui Na.

Obviously we know the Shen to be a combination of five aspects of mind - here I am referring to all five when I say that we should be applying Shen whilst practicing Tui Na:

Firstly, it’s the Hun that gives us the drive and that ‘army general’ like mindset to take control of the patient and to guide the flow of Qi. It’s the Hun that allows us to take hold of the tissues with unwavering assertiveness in order to manipulate and align. Without this, the patient feels uncomfortable, they feel you lack confidence, and will not relax to give you their body.

The Po is what engages our senses and provides feedback to the Shen. The Shen translates this and makes subconscious and conscious adaptations to our technique and treatment spontaneously. Without this, we are performing technique mindlessly and not in accordance to the patient’s state.

The Shen also provides access to our previous experiences and gives clarity on how to treat such conditions. It gives vitality and ‘life’ to the treatment by applying mindfulness. Without this, treatment and techniques are empty and ineffective.

The Zhi enables continuity and consistency to our techniques. It provides foundation and stability to keep the mind from wondering. The Zhi provides root and discipline to remain engaged for the duration.

Finally, it’s the Yi that brings this all together and apply all five aspects of Shen by giving focus and intent to our treatment. It is also the part of the Shen that helps us utilise what we have understood intellectually about our medicine.

So there you go, the unofficial ‘sixth virtue’ of Tui Na - SHEN! The difference it makes is massive.

22/08/2021

Principles of Treatment

When nourishing and engendering Blood, it is important to gently move and invigorate Blood. Without moving Blood whilst building, it is easy to cause stagnation…

When moving Blood, we must gently tonify and support the Qi. The Qi supports and activates the movement of Blood. Without tonifying the Qi when moving Blood, the Blood can move recklessly and escape the vessels…

When tonifying and supporting the Qi, we must nourish the Blood to help anchor the Qi and provide foundation. Without nourishing the Blood whilst strongly tonifying the Qi, the Qi can scatter or rise too much…

We know that Qi and Blood are closely related, so they should be treated as such in practice. Simply tonifying the Blood in cases of ‘Blood deficiency’ is not enough. Simply tonifying the Qi in ‘Qi deficiency’ is not enough. It is important to remember the simplest of relationships - there’s always Yin within Yang and Yang within Yin.

This is the reason we use poly-pharmacy in herbal medicine; This is the reason we use point combinations in acupuncture prescriptions. The body functions through relationships and related mechanisms, so should also be treated in the same way. This is the basis of Chinese Medicine.

26/07/2020

Smoking… people are smoking less and less now, and even if you don’t smoke or you don’t know people that smoke, understanding certain concepts help you to understand the body as a whole anyway - I hope this helps!

This is an answer I gave in one of our Chinese medicine FB groups that I thought may be interesting for people about smoking…

Smoking obviously does not come under the heading of diet (unless you’re really addicted to smoking!!), but I thought it would be worthwhile explaining what it does to the body. This of course is relating to the smoking of to***co.

To***co itself is thought to have little to no medicinal benefits in regards to Chinese herbal medicine, certainly nothing potent enough for it to be used as a medicinal in the majority of Chinese medicine (though I believe some medical systems do indeed find it useful).

The effects of smoking also depend on how good (or bad I suppose) the person is at smoking. If inhaled only to the mouth and down to the throat, it will simply create Heat within the throat tissues and the voice larynx, creating an accumulation of toxic Heat within the location that will gradually carry over into the Blood. This is a major issue with ci**rs, which is why ci**rs commonly lead to mouth and throat cancers as opposed to Lung cancers. This Heat can also descend to the Stomach, causing inflammation of the gastric lining and resulting in chronic stomach Heat or in worse cases Stomach cancer.

If the smoke is inhaled properly down into the Lungs, the first thing it does is weaken the Lung Qi. One of the main functions of the Lungs is to receive the air and extract Qi that is pure enough to transform into Zong Qi. The more polluted the air, the harder the Lungs are required to work. So naturally they will weaken if working harder on a continual basis.

The smoke inhaled by the Lungs will also dry the Lungs and exhaust the Lung Qi. This is because the smoke is hot, but also because To***co is pungent and very drying in property. The chemicals within the smoke also create Toxic Heat within the Lungs, which will carry through into the Blood and therefore begin to damage the Heart and Shen (which adds to the addiction and cravings due to the Po/Shen relationship), and also damages the smell and taste due to the again the Po and Shen. Having a lack of taste and smell also makes medicine less effective for obvious reasons.

The toxic Heat in the Blood will also transfer to the Liver (as the Liver is the organ to filter the Blood) – This leads to Blood Heat in the Liver, and most commonly Liver Yin deficiency but can also lead to Liver Fire.

Most detrimentally, in my opinion, is that the Toxic Heat will also descend to meet the Kidneys, as a part of the mechanism where the Zong Qi descends to meet the Yuan Qi, which then begins to ‘burn’ and dry up the Jing. This will also consume the Yin fluids of the Kidneys. The Kidney Yin is further consumed as it will have to work harder to ascend fluids up to the Lungs that are drying out from the inhalation of smoke and to***co.

The detriment to the Kidneys and Lungs has a very damaging effect of the healing process within the body, due to the effect on producing and governing of the Wei Qi. The body simply cannot rejuvenate sufficiently due to the impact on the Jing, the Blood, and the Wei Qi. This is why, chronic smokers appear to age quicker, have much slower healing responses, joint problem (as they do not regenerate from wear and tear), and also bone problems due to the consumption of Yin and Jing.