ZSA Advanced 02 · Stroke & Brain Injury · Los Angeles · 7 – 9 January 2028
The Stroke Patient You Weren't Sure About After Basics. Three Days to Change That.
Dr Ru Shan Shy and Dr Sheng Chun Chang take Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture into stroke and brain injury: how treatment changes from the first weeks to years later, Dao Yin with the needles in, and real patients every day: watch your teachers treat, then take part.
From USD $3,140
The results are amazing. You see a very dramatic improvement after our teachers treated them.
Last ran in Melbourne, October 2025. · The same two teachers as Basics · Live patient demonstrations every day
You Know the Map. Stroke Is Where It Gets Hard.
Basics gives you the whole system: the zones, the needling, the Dao Yin. Then a stroke patient sits down in front of you and the questions get specific. Three weeks after the stroke, or three years? Weakness or spasticity? Speech, swallowing, balance, mood? Graduates tell us they leave Basics with enough to start, and still unsure with stroke patients.
Every Stage Needs a Different Plan
A patient in the first weeks still has their strength. A patient years on has built movement habits that have to be undone, and that asks more of both of you.
Dao Yin Is Where the Progress Is Made
Copying a movement you've seen is easy. Knowing what it's meant to do, and catching the compensation before it sets in, is the skill that moves a patient forward.
The Problem Is in the Brain, Not the Limb
The arm hasn't forgotten how to move; the brain has lost track of how to control it. Treating it that way, and explaining it that way to your patient, changes how hard they work with you.
“I was repeating what I'd seen without understanding what I was meant to do. This course filled that gap profoundly.” Dr Agnès Bolley, Acupuncturist (Adelaide, Australia)
Six Areas of Stroke and Brain Injury, Taught for Your Next Patient
Basics teaches the whole system. This course takes it into one clinical area: recovery after stroke or brain injury, from the first weeks to years later. You see each principle applied to a real patient, then practise it yourself with Dr Shy and Dr Chang correcting your hands.
Match the Treatment to the Stage
- Types and causes of stroke, and acute management
- What changes between the acute, subacute and chronic phases, and why long-standing patients ask more of you
Treat the Brain, Not Just the Limb
- Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture with Dao Yin, for brain plasticity and neurological recovery
- Why the problem sits in the brain, and what that means for how you treat
Guide Dao Yin With the Needles In
- Help the patient find the limb again, correct their posture and stop compensation
- Get the patient to keep up the training
Plan for Weakness and Spasticity
- Limb dysfunction in the acute and the chronic phase
- The hemiplegic patient stops being the case you dread on your list
Start Where Families Feel It Most
- Speech and swallowing after stroke
- Cognitive and emotional disorders after stroke
Balance, Sensory Loss and Brain Injury
- Balance and sensory disorders
- Traumatic brain injury and recovery after brain-tumour surgery, through real case studies
The next time a stroke patient sits down in front of you, you'll know where they are in their recovery, what to treat first, and what to ask of them between sessions.
Your Teachers From Basics, Taking It Further
Dr Ru Shan Shy holds a Bachelor of Medicine from China Medical University and received advanced academic training in Neuroscience at National Yang Ming University, Taiwan. A direct disciple of Professor Ming Qing Zhu and co-director of ZSA Taiwan, she combines hospital-level neurological clinical experience with ZSA teaching since 2008 — bringing rigorous academic training to serious neurological presentations including stroke rehabilitation, brain injury, tremors and complex pain.
Dr Sheng Chun Chang holds degrees in Pharmacy, Neuroscience and Chinese Medicine, is co-director of ZSA Taiwan, and is a former paediatric and gynaecological physician at Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital. Also a direct disciple of Professor Zhu, his rare combination of disciplines lets him translate fluidly between the biomedical mechanisms of Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture and its classical theoretical foundations.
Together they have trained more than 2,000 Acupuncturists across Asia, America, Australia and Europe through 50+ intensive sessions.
- Dr Ru Shan Shy — BMed (China Medical University); advanced academic training in Neuroscience (National Yang Ming University, Taiwan)
- Dr Sheng Chun Chang — degrees in Pharmacy, Neuroscience & Chinese Medicine; former paediatric and gynaecological physician, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital
- Both direct disciples of Professor Ming Qing Zhu & co-directors of ZSA Taiwan
- More than 2,000 Acupuncturists trained across four continents over 50+ intensive sessions
For Acupuncturists Who Already Use Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture
This is an Advanced course. It builds on the zone map, needling and Dao Yin you learned in Basics, and applies them to the patients who most often bring Acupuncturists to Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture.
Before you come: Basics of Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture. Guided Clinical Training is separate and can be taken any time after Basics.
Three Days, on the Format of October 2025
The outline the course followed in Melbourne in October 2025. Los Angeles follows the same three-day format.
Introduction to Stroke & Treatment Principles
- Introduction to stroke: classification and the common clinical symptoms of each phase
- Real patient demonstration by Dr Shy and Dr Chang
- Treatment principles for stroke: Zhu's Scalp Acupuncture and Dao Yin
- Principles for the acute, subacute and chronic phases
- Common zones and frequently used acupoints, with group hands-on practice
- Real patient demonstrations with attendee participation (2 patients)
- Q&A and debrief
Limb, Speech, Swallowing & Cognition
- Treatment principles for limb dysfunction: acute and chronic phases
- Real patient demonstration by Dr Shy and Dr Chang
- Treatment principles for speech and swallowing disorders
- Treatment principles for cognitive and emotional disorders
- Group hands-on practice
- Real patient demonstrations with attendee participation (2 patients)
- Q&A and debrief
Balance, Sensory Disorders, Brain Injury & Case Studies
- Treatment principles for balance and sensory disorders
- Real patient demonstration by Dr Shy and Dr Chang
- Treatment principles after brain-tumour surgery and traumatic brain injury
- Case studies: rehabilitation after brain tumour and brain injury
- Group hands-on practice
- Certificate presentation and group photo
- Real patient demonstrations with attendee participation (2 patients)
- Q&A and debrief
Language: Chinese with English translation · 3 days, 9am – 5pm · Before you come: Basics
Three Days on One Clinical Area
| ✓ | 3-day course | Treatment principles, live demonstrations and supervised practice, as last run |
| ✓ | CEUs / PDAs | Approval for Los Angeles to be confirmed |
| ✓ | Two master instructors | Dr Ru Shan Shy and Dr Sheng Chun Chang, direct disciples of Professor Zhu |
| ✓ | Live patient demonstrations every day | Real patients, with attendees taking part |
| ✓ | Group hands-on practice | Every day, under the teachers' guidance |
| ✓ | Head models for zone location | Supervised group practice of the zones this course uses |
| ✓ | Certificate of completion | Presented on the final day |
The course is presented in Chinese with English translation.
What Acupuncturists Said After Three Days on Stroke
One of Five Advanced Courses
Everyone starts with Basics. After it, you choose from five Advanced courses, each taking the system deeper into one clinical area; this is the one for stroke and brain injury. Alongside them sits Guided Clinical Training: a one-day, one-on-one clinical internship you can take any time after Basics.
Guided Clinical Training has run four times since April 2025. Stroke & Brain Injury last ran in Melbourne in October 2025.
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Three days on stroke and brain injury with Dr Shy and Dr Chang, 7 – 9 January 2028.
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