五行针灸学习与金行和水行病人建立良好关系
于我而言，与金行病人相处似乎比其他各行病人容易许多，也许是因为金常需要一定的自我空间，而这恰好给了我喘气（调整）的时间。除了评判我们的关系是否往它所满意的方向发展之外，它从不要求我做出任何即时反应。它十分乐意我们之间保持一定距离，在各行之中，它是对沉默感觉最为自在的一行，因为它需要在沉默中思考自己关于解决生活问题的方法。这种对空间和沉默的需求对我这个火来说极具挑战，因为如果我不及时意识到这一点，我会发现自己又在喋喋不休地想要填补这种静默。所有的金行病人都让我认识到，我必须控制住自己分享观点的冲动，否则很容易出现角色的转换，因为我发现自己总是可以从金行人冷静客观的智慧中获益良多。
然而，金行病人并不是来教导我什么，或由我来教导他们什么，他们只是寻求治疗所能提供的对于金行能量的支持。与金在一起，我无须多言，只需把一切静静地交给治疗本身。金一贯需要的沉默是对其自己解决自身问题的一种尊重。有时在火行病人面前我也会尽量让自己沉默，但这与金是完全不同的——我是为了让火不要说得太多以至于忘了自己为什么要来治疗。
最后讲到与水行病人融洽相处我会遇到的问题。对我而言，水行人的需求并不难满足，但也许另外的治疗师会有此感觉。水行病人的心中总是深藏着对某种可靠疗法的需求，渴望这种疗法可以安抚他们的恐慌，这种需求对我而言并不陌生，但是真正能让我感觉自在并毫不轻视地提供帮助的，是土这一行的病人。
我最主要的困难来自于初次治疗便快速识别水行病人。我们都知道水善于伪装和隐藏，与其它四行相比，我需要花费更长的时间来发现它的存在。即使是现在，尽管我可以听出水笑声中那一丝与火不同的不安，但其难以捉摸的特性，总让我心生疑惑，难以定夺。然而，一旦确立诊断，水虽通常外表自信，内心却深藏恐惧，我若能专注于此，便能帮其所需。水这一行，尽管在各行中最具雄心壮志，无论选择何种职业，均能及顶，其隐藏之软肋，却也触目惊心。对其隐藏之恐惧，我决不能视而不见，而应想其所想，给予其所需程度之宽慰。
Learning to build up a good relationship with Metal and Water patients With Metal I em to have a far less difficult relationship than with the other elements, perhaps becau it demands space to be itlf and allows me time to catch my breath, as it were. No immediate reaction is demanded of me, except an acceptance that it wants to be the judge of how our relationship should develop in a way satisfactory to itlf. It is happy with space and is the most comfortable of all the elements with silence, for it needs silence in which to work out its own solutions to life’s problems. This need for space and silence offers a great challenge to my Fire element, if I do not recogni it in time, and find mylf starting to gabble to fill the silence. With all Metal patients I have learnt, too, that I must hold back my own impul to share my thoughts, for this can easily lead to a kind of role reversal since I find that I can often learn from Metal’s detached wisdom.
Metal patients are not, however, there to teach me, nor for me to teach them, but to find the
support for their Metal energies which treatment will offer them. With Metal I need almost say nothing and let the treatment do its work silently. The practice of silence which Metal needs is that which respects its need to solve its own problems. The silence which I have to encourage mylf to offer Fire is different; it is aimed at preventing it from talking so much that it forgets why it is coming for treatment.
Finally I come to the problems I may experience in dealing appropriately with my Water patients. I do not find the demands Water makes upon me difficult to meet, although others may. The need for a reassuring approach to still the panic which lies deep within the heart of all Water people is not something alien to me, but something I feel at ea with and able to offer without feeling in any way diminished, as I may do with Earth.
My main difficulty comes from my inability to recogni the Water element in my patients quickly enough in the first place. We all know how Water likes to disgui itlf and hide, and it has taken me longer to detect its prence than that of the other elements. Even now I have a tendency to e Water’s uneasy laughter as coming from Fire. Its elusive nature will often make me question whethe
r I am really in the prence of Water or not. Once recognid, though, I feel able to offer what I think it needs, provided that I stay focud on the profound fears which lie beneath its often apparently confident surface. This most ambitious of all elements, and the one most likely to get to the top of whatever profession it choos, harbours a terrified underbelly. I must never overlook its need for the hidden fears to be acknowledged by me, and for me to offer them the correct level of reassurance.
