Continuing education
Are you finding that some patients simply don't respond to your treatments, despite your technical expertise? This course explores a powerful insight that experienced TCM practitioners discover throughout their career: integrating psychological approaches with acupuncture can unlock healing potential when underlying trauma influences physical symptoms. By mastering the integration of Compassionate Inquiry® with Unified Acupuncture Theory, you'll develop the unique ability to identify and treat the psychological roots of physical illness – a skill that fewer than 5% of European TCM practitioners possess.
Learning directly from Jonathan Shubs, author of groundbreaking works on channel systems, and Mary Lennon, a certified Compassionate Inquiry® educator personally trained by Dr. Gabor Maté, puts you at the forefront of trauma-informed TCM practice. This isn't simply another technique to add to your toolkit – it's a compassionate helping hand that will transform your clinical results with your most challenging cases and set your practice apart in an increasingly competitive field.
What are we dealing with?
Compassionate Inquiry® is a psychotherapeutic approach created by Dr. Gabor Maté over several decades while working with both patients and retreat participants. This approach gently uncovers and releases the layers of childhood trauma, constriction and suppressed emotion embedded in the body, that are at the root of mental and physical illness and addiction.
The Facilitated Short Course, developed by Sat Dharam Kaur ND, brings this profound methodology to healthcare professionals through a structured learning experience. With over 20 hours of video content, 15 hours of facilitated sessions, and practical resources including the Compassionate Inquiry Map, this course equips practitioners to recognize mental-emotional patterns, understand triggers, bring awareness to body sensations, and help patients overcome limiting core beliefs.
When clients perceive the therapeutic relationship as a safe container, compassion and curiosity allow them to acknowledge and examine the traumatic events that happened to them as children, recognize the beliefs they internalized, and feel the emotions they suppressed. This contributes to the healing process.
Using Compassionate Inquiry®, both the individual and therapist unveil the level of consciousness, mental climate, hidden assumptions, implicit memories and body states that form the real message that words both express and conceal.
When we can release ourselves from the hold of these stories, a new way of being emerges, leading to spontaneity, choice, expansion and freedom.
Unified Acupuncture Theory is an integrative acupuncture approach developed by Jonathan Shubs after studying with many different acupuncture teachers, including Dr. Richard Tan, Susan Johnson, Daniel Deriaz, and others. It finds the underlying thread that is found in all the various systems and helps navigate between them. These systems include Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Dr. Tan’s balance method, Master Tung style acupuncture, I Ching acupuncture, Saam 4 needle five element acupuncture, and Manaka style acupuncture.
By studying the underlying architecture of these systems, three main aspects arise: The family of points (Luo, Shu antiques, Shu transporting, Xi, etc), Channel Interactions and Holography, and Five Elements. Understanding these systems will create a new and complete picture of the how acupuncture works. And you can be assured it will change your treatment plan into a fully logical and comprehensive approach that is based on all imaginable aspects of Yin and Yang.
How do Compassionate Inquiry® and TCM help each other?
Compassionate Inquiry® and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) complement each other beautifully, creating a synergistic approach to healing that addresses both psychological and physical aspects of health. By combining Compassionate Inquiry® with acupuncture, clients experience a more comprehensive healing process, addressing the interconnected layers of emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.
While acupuncture addresses the body’s physical and energetic imbalances, Compassionate Inquiry® complements this by addressing emotional and psychological imbalances.
Here is how:
From Compassionate Inquiry® to TCM:
From TCM to Compassionate Inquiry®:
Full Course overview (9-day)
“Liberating the Authentic Self” is a hybrid course with a 5-week online component and a 4-day in-person seminar.
5-day Facilitated Short Course from Compassionate Inquiry®
The course will start with the Facilitated Short Course from Compassionate Inquiry led by Mary Lennon.
The short course contains over 30 hours of video, narrated PowerPoints, and PDFs, and consists of the following sections:
The five weeks of the short course will be held before the four-day in person seminar. After completing this part of the course, you will obtain a certificate from the Compassionate Inquiry® organization.
4-day in-person seminar
The 4-day in-person seminar will be taught by Jonathan Shubs and Mary Lennon. The mornings will concentrate on integrating the CI approach and practicing in dyads and triads (groups of 2 or 3 people).
The afternoons will focus on studying and applying acupuncture techniques that are integrated with the CI sessions.
The acupuncture topics covered include:
A total of 27 patterns will be examined
The final day of the in-person seminar will integrate the CI work with acupuncture and create complete treatments.
After completing this part of the course, you will obtain a certificate from International Lectures.
Highlights of the course
Advantages for participants
About the teachers
Jonathan Shubs
A graduate of Shao Yang Institute, Jonathan has been in private practice in Lausanne (CH) since 2006. To refine his skills and explore further methods, he studied extensively with Dr. Richard Tan and received the Balance Method Gold level practitioner status in 2014. In 2012, he published his first article in the Journal of Chinese Medicine titled "Foundations of Meridian Theory." This article was the foundation of his Unified Acupuncture Theory, which he has developed into a complete system for understanding the channels and their interactions.
He has also completed the year-long training in Compassionate Inquiry®, a trauma-informed, body-based form of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Gabor Maté.
He is a lecturer of acupuncture at the Chiway Academy in Winterthur and the EPSN in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also teaches his Unified Acupuncture Theory system worldwide. He is the author of “Sun’s Season of Channels – an introduction to Chinese medical thought and channel systems” and “Sun’s Dance of the Channels – Understanding Channel Interactions and Holography” – Both published by Singing Dragon, UK.
Mary Lennon
Mary is a Licensed Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Acupuncture. She holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology and has worked in the aviation industry for over 20 years in the capacity of Commercial Airline Pilot, Flight Operations Coordinator, Aircraft Flight Instructor and Flight Simulator Instructor on Jet Aircraft.
She is a Certified Compassionate Inquiry® (CI) Practitioner, a CI Mentor, a CI Short Course Educator and a CI Circle Leader. Within the CI Organization, Mary occupies the dual role of Mentorship Program Coordinator and Skills Building Lab Coordinator.
Passionate about growth, learning and the development of self and others, Mary through her incredibly diverse and unique background, brings an array of skills and a wealth of experience to those with whom she works. Her approach, centered on a calm presence and self-assuredness, offers a positive experience embedded in trust and safety.
Jonathan Shubs
Mary Lennon