A guide for acupuncturists who care deeply
There's a big difference between a practitioner who holds the room — and one who's just surviving it.
Most of us don't realise what it's costing us to be the latter. I didn't, for years.
Limited launch offer · Regular $97 · Instant download
"A patient started crying mid-treatment last week and I literally had no idea what to say. I just kept adjusting needles and hoping she'd stop. I felt terrible. I went home and couldn't stop thinking about it."
— AN ACUPUNCTURIST, ON REDDIT, LAST WEEK
There's a reason you freeze when a patient starts to cry.
There's a reason you nod and murmur "mm-hmm" while internally panicking — watching the clock, praying the disclosure ends before your next patient arrives.
There's a reason you drive home still carrying the weight of someone else's grief. Why your mood at 7pm is dictated entirely by whoever was on your table at 3pm.
It's not because you're bad at this.
It's not because you need more clinical hours. It's not because you're too sensitive. And it's definitely not because you should have just "held space better."
It's because no one ever taught you what to actually say.
You trained for four years. You learned meridians, points, pulse diagnosis, needle technique. You did not sign up to be a therapist. But here you are — with someone's trauma on your table, needles in, 30 minutes on the clock — and you're completely winging it.
That ends here. 🪄
This guide is for you if any of these feel true…
01. A patient has cried on your table and you felt a wave of panic — so you redirected to physical symptoms, or stayed silent, and drove home wondering if either was the right call.
02. You absorb your patients' emotional material all day with no ritual, no practice, and no idea how to put it down — and it's starting to quietly cost you your love for this work.
03. You worry so much about accidentally crossing into therapy territory that you pull back right when a patient needs you to stay — leaving them feeling like you changed the subject on them.
04. Someone disclosed something serious once. You had no idea if what you said helped or made it worse. You still think about that session sometimes.
05. You want to be the kind of practitioner your patients feel truly safe with — not just treated by. You know that gap is there. You just haven't known how to close it.
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED
The Practitioner's
Response Playbook
Not theory. Not a philosophy lecture. Not another book written for therapists who have 50-minute sessions.
Actual language. Actual sentences. Things you can say in the moment, with a patient on your table, that are therapeutically grounded, within your scope, and crafter straight from an Acupuncturist with years of training and experience in the actual treatment room.
Because you already have the heart for this work. You just need the words to match it.
Launch pricing · Regular $97
Don’t just take it from me…here’s what my clients have to say
Here's what I want you to understand about why this is so hard
This isn't a you problem. This is a gap problem. And it's bigger than anyone's talking about.
01
Acupuncture is designed to induce parasympathetic states. Emotional disclosure in parasympathetic states is neurologically predictable. This was always going to happen in your practice — every single week.
02
The way you respond in the first 30 seconds of a disclosure determines whether a patient feels seen and safe — or regrets opening up. That first response is everything. And right now, you're improvising it.
03
Acupuncturists receive emotional disclosures at rates comparable to primary care physicians. They receive a fraction of the communication training. The gap is enormous. And nobody is filling it.
04
Secondary compassion fatigue are rampant in this profession. Most practitioners don't recognize the signs until burnout is already here. Carrying patients home with you isn't dedication — it's a leak you haven't fixed yet.
Most of us are unconsciously using one of three patterns — over-absorbing, over-redirecting, or freezing. None of them serve the patient. None of them protect us.
Eight modules.
One complete shift.
~100 pages. Built for the real conversations happening in your treatment room right now.
Foundation
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The polyvagal science behind why acupuncture makes disclosure predictable — and why none of this is your fault, or your responsibility to prevent. Understanding the neuroscience here will change everything about how you show up.
Includes a self-assessment to identify exactly where you get stuck, so you know precisely what to focus on.
01
The Freeze
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Why skilled, caring practitioners freeze in emotionally charged moments — and how to interrupt the pattern before it happens again. This module normalises the experience without excusing it.
This one alone will change your very next session.
02
The Heart of the Playbook
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Trauma. Grief. Relationship violence. Mental health crises. Active distress. The question "do you think I should leave him?" — your clinical cheat sheet, organised by scenario, with multiple response options for different patients.
You'll finish this module with a vocabulary that's genuinely yours — not scripts, but a fluency that means you'll never be caught without the right words again.
03
The Boundary
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The single sentence that reorients any session that's drifted into therapy territory. How to be fully present without accidentally taking on a role that isn't yours — and how to make that feel like care, not cold.
04
The Close
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A three-part closing sequence for sessions where significant emotion was present. Your patient drives home feeling integrated, not cracked open. You close the door feeling complete — not like you left something unfinished in that room.
05
The Reset
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Not "do your boundary work." Specific, practical rituals for separating yourself from your patients' emotional material between appointments and at the end of the day — so it stops compounding across sessions and across years.
06
Crisis & Referral
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12 specific presentations that warrant a referral conversation. Exact language to navigate it with care — including what to do if a patient expresses suicidality. Knowing this in advance is the difference between panic and presence.
07
The Long Game
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For the practitioner who wants to still be here in 20 years — and to still care. Structural practice decisions, intake redesign, supervision, and the mindset shift that separates practitioners who thrive from those who quietly stop feeling anything.
You'll finish with a Personal Practice Plan that keeps these skills alive long after this guide ends.
08
Plus 5 bonus guides for the
specific moments no one prepares you for
Each one is short, targeted, and built around a very real situation you will encounter in your practice. Consider them your quick-reference shelf. 🪄
⏱️
The 5-Minute Session Reset Protocol
A fast ritual to clear the emotional residue of a heavy session before your next patient arrives. Critical on back-to-back days — and for your long-term sanity.
💭
The Referral Script That Doesn't Feel Like a Rejection
Word-for-word language for suggesting therapy in a way that deepens the relationship rather than rupturing it.
📋
The Intake Question Reframe
How to update your intake process so you're setting expectations and reducing the chance of being blindsided mid-treatment — without making it feel cold or clinical.
🌿
Grounding Scripts for Patients in Active Distress
Exact language to gently bring a patient back into their body during an emotional release — and close in a way that leaves them feeling whole, not torn open.
🚩
Recognizing Signs - They Need More Than You Can Offer
A quick-reference guide to the specific disclosures and presentations that signal it's time to bring in additional support. Print it. Keep it close.
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED
Everything you need.
One PDF.
A complete PDF guide — downloadable instantly, yours to keep, yours to return to every time a new kind of session walks through your door.
There are many more words I could write to convince you. But if you're still here, I think you already know. 🪄
REGULAR $97
$37
Launch offer · One-time payment · Instant access
✔️ The complete Practitioner's Response Playbook (~100 pages, 8 modules)
✔️ Bonus: The 5-Minute Session Reset Protocol
✔️ Bonus: The Referral Script That Doesn't Feel Like a Rejection
✔️ Bonus: Red Flag Recognition — 12 Signs Your Patient Needs More
✔️ Bonus: The Intake Question Reframe
✔️ Bonus: Grounding Scripts for Patients in Active Distress
Digital PDF. Instant download. No subscription, no ongoing cost. Just the tools you needed years ago — available right now.
Questions you might be sitting with
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Yes — and that's exactly the point. This guide was not designed for therapists. It was designed for practitioners like you, who work in a body-based modality and encounter emotional complexity without the formal counselling framework to navigate it. Everything in here keeps you firmly within your scope, with tools that fit your specific clinical role.
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Many experienced practitioners find this most valuable because it gives language and structure to things they've been doing intuitively — and helps them see the gaps they've quietly been working around. Intentional skill is always more sustainable than instinctive skill. If you've been getting by, this guide helps you do more than get by.
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The guide was written for acupuncturists, with examples drawn from that world. But the principles apply to any body-based holistic practice — massage, osteopathy, naturopathy, kinesiology, and beyond. If you sit with patients and patients open up, this guide is for you.
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Immediately. Module 3 — the word-for-word response scripts — can be read and applied before your next patient. The full guide takes most practitioners 3–4 hours to work through. You have it for life, so you can return to specific modules whenever a new kind of situation walks through your clinic door.
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Then this guide probably isn't for you right now — and that's okay. I only want this in the hands of practitioners who are ready to close the gap between the care they have and the words to match it. If that's you, you already know. 🪄
Your patients are already opening up.
Be ready for them.
You already have the heart for this work. You went to school, built your practice, and show up every day because you genuinely care. You just need the words to match the depth of care you already have. Let me show you.
© 2025 · Alyx Hough Acupuncture · All rights reserved
Nothing on this page constitutes medical, legal, or therapeutic advice. Results may vary. Digital product — instant download.
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