Acupuncture Treatment with Jeffrey Russell–The Sa’am Tradition

Acupuncture treatment is a mainstay of Jeffrey Russell’s practice at Abacus Chinese Medicine. Along with using other East Asian practices, Jeffrey is also a practitioner of the Korean tradition of Sa’am Acupuncture.

Sa’am acupuncture is a technique that comes from the meditations of a Korean Buddhist monk centuries ago. This monk is said to have seen into the deep mysteries of acupuncture. In his tradition, monks traveled to minister to the people they encountered. The life of the traveling monks gave rise to this style of acupuncture becoming known as the Medicine of the Wandering Monks.

In this lineage, traveling monks treat physical ailments, but are regarded chiefly as charged with alleviating the suffering of others they encounter. Addressing physical, mental and emotional distress, Sa’am Acupuncture is an integrative one that merges well into other methods of Asian medicine. It is particularly effective in treating complex illnesses, having a complex diagnostic method that uses a combination of historical methods.

 

“Saam acupuncture is one of the original therapeutic modalities representing traditional Korean medicine. It was originally described in a manuscript that is estimated to be published at some point between 1644 and 1742, in the middle of the Cho Sun dynasty, by a Korean Buddhist monk whose name is unknown… Saam acupuncture, which operates with five shu points as a main aspect of treatment, has the advantage of increasing parasympathetic nerve activity and adjusting the balance of the autonomic nervous system.” *