Every practitioner of acupuncture is confronted with the same problem: how do I choose points to treat a particular patient at a particular time? For the complex conditions most often seen in Western clinics, rote prescriptions are rarely effective. Through his decades-long experience as a practitioner, Dr. Jean-Marc Kespi has returned to the ancient roots of acupuncture and developed an approach to choosing the best points for a given situation.

Dr. Kespi’s engagement with Chinese medicine led him to understand that traditional symbols, reflected in the names of points and descriptions of physiological processes, act as intermediaries between the formal rules of medicine and their manifestations in the human body. Thus his approach proceeds from symbol to a specific diagnosis and therapeutic action, and onto the insertion of a needle in a precise point on the body. In this manner he shows the practitioner how to see beyond the symptoms and address the whole person, thereby providing more effective treatments. With keen insight into the meanings of individual points, Dr. Kespi typically uses only one to three needles to treat the disequilibrium found at the root level.

In addition to laying out his ideas on the foundations of acupuncture, Dr. Kespi shares his wide experience in this book through over one-hundred case histories, which give the reader the opportunity to see how this approach actually works in the clinic. 

“This is the work of a seasoned practitioner and teacher writing in his mature years, confident in his knowledge and the accuracy of his approach. … [Dr. Kespi] honors his fundamental principle throughout: to respond to the body’s needs without preconception or anticipation, searching rationally and intuitively for the best points at the moment of each treatment session.”

—Joseph Helms, M.D., from the Foreword