Did you know that YOU played a major role in helping to create the AcuGraph Certification Program? Really all of the content was created because you asked for it. Well, kind of… Let me explain.
Recording Your Questions
I’ve been working with AcuGraph practitioners for more than 10 years. Over time, I’ve been keeping notes of your questions to get an idea of how we could improve our teaching process, and what topics we should create additional training about. So, when it came time to create brand new AcuGraph Training, Dr. Larsen asked me to pour over those notes to make sure we addressed all those questions. Man, 10 years of note-taking really came in handy!
We pulled out the log with the long list of practitioner questions and began analyzing what was needed to make our AcuGraph training BETTER.
- What do the practitioners need?
- What are we lacking in our current training?
- How do we help AcuGraph owners who bought AcuGraph, were excited to get started, and for some reason did not feel confident moving forward?
I actually took the time to do personal interviews with a number of practitioners to get their perspective on how we could improve our training. As you read further, you just might see some of your own personal AcuGraph training requests highlighted in this blog post.
It All Started With Three Goals...
Goal #1
- Make a list of ALL the common practitioner questions so we can make sure we cover them in the training.
I gathered 16 pages of FAQ’s during my research! Below are some of the common questions.
- How do I archive a patient?
- How do I un-archive a patient?
- Can I graph a baby?
- How do I find an AcuGraph user in (…name a location…)?
- What if my patient is an amputee?
- Can I graph someone with a pacemaker?
- Can we graph patients who are pregnant?
- How often should I graph?
- What if the graph doesn’t match my TCM diagnosis?
- How do I create a template?
- What and how do I print?
- How do I send my patients home with points to self-treat with acupressure or laser?
I won’t go into the details of all these questions—but rest assured, you WILL find answers to all of them in the AcuGraph Certification Program course.
Once you’ve taken the training and know the answers, I’d love it if you would help me out answering questions to new practitioners over in the AcuGraph User Group. I love it when the student becomes the teacher. We really work as a community over in the group!
Speaking of which, thank you to all of you who are so great at helping new practitioners to feel welcome! It means a lot to us (and to them!)
Goal #2
- Make a list of all the features within AcuGraph that many of our practitioners were not using, and develop specific training on how practitioners could begin implementing them for a better clinical experience.
Our team worked together to design the content, layout, and organization of the course. Dr. Larsen and I co-teach the content. While Dr. Larsen focused on the nuts and bolts of AcuGraph, my teaching focused on helping you develop and implement the treatment plan and use AcuGraph day-to-day in your practice. There will be portions of that training which you have never seen before—because I’ve never taught them!
I’ll teach you how to…
- Create and save your own custom treatment plans.
- Add SPECIAL treatment notes specific to your treatment plan.
- Example: Perhaps you treated the points with laser, or moxa, or electroacupuncture. You can create templates of your favorite treatment strategies and add them into your treatment plan notes with a click of a button.
- How to look up herbs based on AcuGraph recommendations AND on TCM patterns. I also teach you how to find contraindications of herbal formulas.
- How to create custom Home Care recommendations which you can pre-program into your AcuGraph ahead of time so you can recommend things like products you sell, essential oils, referrals you use often, etc. Once you know how to create a custom Home Care recommendation your possibilities are unlimited!
Goal #3
- Interview practitioners who bought AcuGraph, and then put it on a shelf and didn’t use it. It was my job to figure out what was missing in their journey so we could fix it and help these practitioners to succeed.
After personally talking to several AcuGraph users who bought AcuGraph and then put it on a shelf, I found some common problems that needed to be solved.
- “I wish that I was comfortable with my AcuGraph. I’m embarrassed that it sits on a shelf. I lost all of the emails on how to get started. I’m overwhelmed with finding the original training. And now—I just don’t even know where to begin.”
- “I love the concept of AcuGraph, but I got stuck when I didn’t know how to talk to the patients about the graph. Of course I didn’t want to sound dumb when I was talking to my patients!”
- “I got nervous when the graph analysis didn’t match my TCM diagnosis—so I stopped using it.”
Here’s a quote that perhaps explains what was happening with these practitioners:
“When you aren’t good at something, you hate doing it.”
I know what that feels like. Did you read the blog post I wrote about me hating teaching and wanting to quit college? I wanted to quit because I wasn’t good at it. I’m so glad I didn’t quit.
I’d like to report that many of those AcuGraph users who “quit for a time” are back and thriving. Once they took the AcuGraph Certification Program training they felt 100% confident using AcuGraph in practice again.
Yay! Mission accomplished!
The (Awesome) End Result
Here’s what we are hearing…
Practitioners who finish the certification program are:
- Easily able to maneuver their way through the software.
- Able to graph with ease.
- Comfortable creating a treatment plan.
- Confident introducing AcuGraph to their patients.
If you haven’t taken the AcuGraph Certification Program (ACP) training yet, go and do it. Don’t wait. Based on feedback from everyone who has finished—you won’t be disappointed.
Access the AcuGraph Training on our Learning Portal
Whether you’re a new AcuGraph user, a long-timer, or just potentially interested in purchasing the system, we put this training together for YOU. If you’re a new user, the training will give you the perfect foundation for success with AcuGraph. Plus, you’ll get your ACP certification (AcuGraph Certified Practitioner) so that your patients and colleagues will know that you’re the real thing and you’re competently positioned to use AcuGraph effectively. You’ll just need to log on to our learning portal via the link below and click “My Courses” in the upper right corner. As long as you’re logged in and you’ve purchased AcuGraph, you’ll find your training there!
Log into the learning portal and start your training here!>>>
If you’re a long time AcuGraph User, we can’t recommend enough that you go through the training and get certified! There is so much valuable information in there–and everyone we’ve heard from said that they learned something new (even if they’ve been using the software for 10+ years!) By the way, if you’re short on time, you also have the option of taking the tests and “testing out” of the training. You can get certified that way, too! We’d just recommend going through and revisiting any content that isn’t super familiar to you when you’re taking the tests.
Log into the learning portal and get your ACP certification here!>>
Finally, if you’re interested in the AcuGraph system and want to earn your ACP certification, we’d highly recommend scheduling a consultation with the creator of AcuGraph, Dr. Adrian Larsen. He can answer all your specific questions about the software and set you up for success as an AcuGraph User. Make sure to set your time zone before booking an appointment!
Schedule a consultation with Dr. Larsen here!>>
I can’t wait to hear your feedback, and to send you YOUR OWN ACP Certificate very soon!
-Dr. Kimberly
