UnifiedAcupunctureTheory
About
Many traditions, one map of the channels.
Unified Acupuncture Theory is a way of understanding how acupuncture works. It brings the Balance Method, the I Ching, five-element theory, Saam, Japanese and TCM acupuncture into one framework, so that you can use different traditions as one coherent whole, instead of choosing between theories that seem to contradict each other.
It grew out of clinical work, to answer a simple question: why does a treatment work? When you understand that, you can choose what to do, rather than follow a recipe.
Jonathan Shubs
The person behind the approach
My path into acupuncture began when I was twelve, with a question I have never put down: is there a better way to help people live a healthy and full life? At fourteen I began to study philosophy, and that led me to ancient Chinese philosophy and to acupuncture.
I opened my clinic in Lausanne in 2006. I hold the Swiss federal diploma in naturopathy, specialising in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and I studied for many years with Daniel Deriaz and with Dr Richard Tan.
I have been a certified Compassionate Inquiry® practitioner since 2023, and that work now runs alongside the needles, most of all in Tracing Your Deep Song.
I have taught in Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Switzerland and Australia.
I am an honorary member of the Polish Association of Professional Acupuncturists (PSAZ) (2020), for my contribution to teaching acupuncture in Poland.
For patients: Acupuncture Lausanne →
How I teach
Clear goals, practical ones, and ideas that build on each other step by step. I take a complex theory apart until each piece makes sense, then put it back together in the clinic, with demonstrations and supervised practice.
Students often tell me that things they had learned for years suddenly fall into place.
I also mentor practitioners and diploma candidates, one to one: Mentoring.
Two books and three journal articles on channel theory.
In conversation
Anthony Monteith asked me where UAT comes from, how it brings different traditions into one map of the channels, and how I teach it. Recorded in March 2021.
Earlier, in January 2020, Sohial Farzam of NeedlePro Australia and I talked about how Unified Acupuncture Theory approaches emotional conditions.
