Ear to the Ground (news & ideas that integrate auricular)

The lead authors of the CIAM training series, Neuromodulation for EMDR — a collaboration between West Side Therapy Services in Los Angeles, Create Balance Psychotherapy & Counselling in Melbourne, and CIAM in New Glasgow for advancement in the mental health field — received approval from the journal, Frontiers in Neurology, for their abstract on the topic, “Neuro-auricular Modulation to Resolve EMDR Challenges Related to Defense Mechanisms, Targeting and Processing: 
The ear as an adjunct...

Beyond the current standard of care approach for managing Type 2 diabetes (incl. healthy eating, regular exercise, weight loss, diabetes medication, insulin therapy, and blood sugar monitoring),[1] research into neuro-functional treatments is proving promise for treatment. An ever deeper understand of neuroscience is highlighting opportunities in diabetes care — being advanced by both the biomedical device industry,[2] as well as renewed interest in the neurological- and meridian-based acuthe...

Can you change your state of wellbeing through positive thinking? Sure. But, positive thinking alone cannot overcome a negative autonomic state. In other words, you cannot simply think yourself into a better state, you need to feel it — even unconsciously — from signals deep within your brainstem. Individuals who are in a dysfunctional state of fight-or-flight, or shutdown — no matter their rational understanding of their own safety — have a very difficult time moving towards healing.[1-4] So...

Financial support for the Neuro-auricular training Oct 28-30 Imagine the opportunity to attend a 3-day training valued at $1057 for only $190, while also receiving 9 CEUs. The Chicago College of Oriental Medicine (CCOOM.org) would like to offer you this opportunity! For the first time in CCOM history, students and faculty have the chance at scholarship awards totaling $9400 from the Canadian Institute of Auricular Medicine (CIAM). To achieve the award, CCOM must present a concerted commitment...

Pain can be challenging to treat, it is often a highly multivariate problem involving several stages of neural processing in multiple areas of involvement;[1] it inextricably involves both psychological and physiological aspects of being;[2] and, the feeling of pain is subjective, with high variability between individuals.[3,4] For Pain Management Programs (PMPs), the auricular microsystem can help clinicians quickly access specific relevant neural pathways to regulate processing. In fact, l...

The measurement of electrodermal activity (EDA), a change in the balance between positive and negative ions across the dermal bioelectrical field, is a means of unique and dynamic assessment insight for clinicians and therapists in diverse fields of healthcare practice, including physical therapy, mental health, and acupuncture, just to name a few. In fact, EDA is understood as an objective measure of pathophysiological and pathopsychological disturbances.[1-15] Using EDA assessment on the au...

Chronic inflammatory diseases have been recognized as the most significant cause of death in the world today, with more than 50% of all deaths being attributable to inflammation-related diseases such as ischemic heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and autoimmune and neurodegenerative conditions[1] The Importance of Considering all Contributing Factors An article in the Journal of Nature Medicine, Chronic Inflamma...

As the vital partner for physical therapists, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association inspires excellence and innovation to promote health. Because of the importance of neuro-auricular modulation in pain medicine, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association has sponsored a presentation on the subject by the Canadian Institute of Auricular Medicine (CIAM). Neck and spine pain have a high prevalence around the world. A systematic review estimated the annual and lifetime prevalence rates to be 37.2%[...

Portal to the wandering nerve: Did you know that you can directly access neural pathways of the body via reflex zones on the outer ear to help clients/patients move toward healing with greater ease? Neuroscientists are using the microsystem of the outer ear to transcutaneously access the major nerve branches of the body, and research into neuro-auricular modulation has grown in depth and breadth in the past two decades.[1-8] More specifically, the therapeutic use of transcutaneous auricular v...

Emergency Response and the Auricular Link to Neuropsychiatry and Complex Trauma Treatment: Emergency physicians, with even just brief training in auricular protocols, are able to use neuro-auricular modulation for acute pain treatment in cases where opioid analgesia was not otherwise an acceptable option. The National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization recognize these auricular approaches — often applied via acupuncture, yet also able to be applied via laser (photobiomodul...

Beyond NADA Protocol/AcuDetox The challenge for nursing and mental health practitioners interested in the 5-point AcuDetox protocol often relates to the use of needles (which is regulated by many states and often limited to application by physicians or acupuncturists). Neuro-auricular modulation goes beyond acupuncture using tools within various scopes of practice. For example with a clinical-grade point-finder, a medical low-grade therapeutic laser, or through manual stimulation using ...

On the importance of research, the Group Lyonnais d'Etudes Médicales (GLEM) featured Dr. David Alimi, Prof. Yves Matillon, and Prof. Gregory Ninot, at the 10th International Symposium on Auriculotherapy. If you missed these important presentations, here is a 1-minute overview presented by CIAM (see video). This review — within a 3-part interview on research with Goudse Academie director, Marcel Meijer, MHCT — offers a discussion of research challenges and opportunities for the field of comp...