“It’s a miracle! My neck pain is gone.” This is the feedback from one of our patients after having received Dr Tan Balance Method to alleviate her neck pain and the tingling in her shoulder. After first being surprised to have her ankle needled to relieve the tension in her neck – my ankle is fine, thank you – she was then surprised the pain had gone after one treatment.

So what is this Dr Tan Balance Method?

Dr Tan Balance method uses channel theory, which historically also had been used as the diagnostic tool for acupuncture treatment. Dr Tan’s treatment model is comprised of 5 systems that are all based on channel theory.

The channels are linked according to their name and to the Chinese clock. These groups of channels influence each other so if there is pain in one particular channel we can use the others to balance the affected channel.

Dr Tan also uses mirroring and imaging; similar joints on the upper and lower body mirror each other for example elbows and knees, wrists and ankles so we can needle the wrist to treat the ankle. Imaging is when you  for example place the image of the face over the arm or leg and using this image treat symptoms in the face by needling the arm or leg.

This means that the treatment happens away from the place of pain which can make treatment more comfortable for the patient. It does often surprise patients that you needle their arm to treat their leg but when they feel the results they quickly get used to it.

How can it help me?

With this method pain stands for any kind of symptom: pain, weakness, tingling, numbness, itchiness, heat or cold. Although it is often used for muscular and joint pain it can also very effectively deal with internal condition such as digestive and menstrual disorders, respiratory problems and neurological diseases.

It gives more treatment options as there are a number of channels we can use to balance the area affected. We also ask the patient to move the painful body part to see if it eases during treatment and so get immediate feedback.

For quicker and better results patients need to come back for treatment before the pain gets worse again. This may mean having two or three sessions per week. Dr Tan may treat patients daily if symptoms are severe or have been there for a long time.

Below is a teaching  video of how Dr Tan treats shoulder pain.