Applications of Shape of Qi Listening: Part 1
By Kailey Brennan L.Ac.
Shape of Qi (SOQ) Listening is one of the core theoretical concepts and palpation techniques taught in Engaging Vitality. It was first outlined by Charles “Chip” Chace, one of the main developers of EV, in his article The Shape of Qi: Enhancing the Vocabulary of Contact in Acupuncture in the Australian journal of Chinese medicine The Lantern in January 2008 (a revised version of this essay can be found under the Resources section on the EV website, here).
SOQ Listening is Chip’s rendering of the osteopathic concept of neutral which was developed by William Garner Sutherland, an important figure in the development of osteopathic medicine and cranial osteopathy in the west.
In many ways the practice of Traditional East Asian medicine and the osteopathic tradition have complementary perspectives, one of which is their understanding of what we as practitioners are attempting to do when working with patients, which is seeking to access ways in which we can optimally engage and work with the body’s own capacity for self-regulation, healing, and health maintenance. Practicing in an effective, helpful manner can be seen as trying to create the right conditions so as to gently nudge the body towards this inherent capacity.
In osteopathic jargon, neutral can be understood as a state in which all of the underlying factors, tensions, and “noise” present in the human body has entered into a dynamic state of balance and equilibrium (this definition is borrowed from Franklyn Sills, an important figure in the field of biodynamic craniosacral therapy, an approach to craniosacral therapy that came out of cranial osteopathy). It denotes a physiological and energetic shift from disequilibrium, incoherence, and imbalance to a more settled and coherent one. It can be understood as ground zero for working with and enhancing the self-healing capacities of the body.
Most if not all acupuncturists already have a natural understanding of this dynamic when practicing. Insert an acupuncture needle anywhere in the body and it can feel as if not only the patient has settled down on the table, but as if the whole treatment room has become quieter and more settled.
As acupuncturists and practitioners of East Asian medicine, we orient to the concept of qi in our medicine. Neutral distilled through the lens of East Asian medicine is Shape of Qi - a dynamic and balanced state that can be described as settled, supple, integrated, and open (or SSIO for short). SOQ Listening is a grounded palpatory experience that participants in EV seminars learn how to develop fluency in by tracking within themselves as well as their patients.
At her most recent Module 3 class in Portland, Oregon this past spring, Rayén Antón, a Barcelona-based EV instructor taught that “with this listening technique we’re assessing the general state of the qi at a given moment. SOQ gives us a non-mediated grasp of the state of the qi, a kind of feedback that can be even faster than the pulse (which is itself a mediated form of feedback); this makes it an invaluable companion to signal the early signs of overdose, mistaken path of treatment or wrong speed in our intervention. Since qi is a generalized phenomena, the SOQ can be appreciated anywhere on the body.”
SOQ Listening also offers a consensual vocabulary and framework for those of us practicing East Asian medicine to be able to discuss with one another what it is we are feeling and orienting to when working with qi.
Importantly, developing fluency in SOQ Listening involves creating the right conditions for the patient’s qi to want to communicate with us. This means developing a capacity for attentive presence on the part of the practitioner, as well as the ability to make receptive contact with a patient that is neither too intrusive and enmeshed, nor too furtive, distant, or ephemeral.
Part 2 will explore more of the nuances of SOQ Listening, and Part 3 will discuss some of the practical ways practitioners can continue to develop greater fluency with this concept in their clinical practice.