I am finishing up at ACTCM and have found the more I learn, the less I know. There are tons of different pulse experts and ways to read the pulse. We are taught the most simple ways (bowstring, slippery, etc.) and I have personally found these to be very limiting.

The best advice is to feel lots of pulses and ask a lot of questions. My best supervisors tell me to find out the patient's complaints first and then to feel their pulse. Because then you will learn what a lung qi deficiency pulse feels like after your patient tells you they have COPD - for example. I still know nothing but I can take a patient's pulse and on a good day I can ask them things and they will say "you can tell that from my pulse?"

I highly recommend taking pulse classes outside of school, specifically classes from Bob Levine and from Brian LaForgia who teaches Shen-Hammer. You can also buy that book, I hear it's an easy read. Bob Levine has his own system which combines Aryuvedic and Tibetan pulse reading and is amazingly accurate, also focusing more on emotional aspects. Brian LaForgia's class is great I hear because he walks you through each pulse and talks to you about what you are feeling. IE: he will feel a pulse in one position and say - "can you feel this" and describe it and sit and wait till you feel it.

One supervisor told me to get back to the basics. Is it strong or weak? Is it wide or thin? Does it press against your fingers? Is it fast or slow? She would have me write my pulses - "wide and deep" or "strong and thin" - getting back to the basics and not depending on the wording we're taught in school.

The other good advice I have gotten, and use quite frequently, are to really take your time and feel all 3 levels. Qi, Blood and Organ levels in all three positions. Now when I write my pulses I will write - thin on qi level or 1st level, etc. and go through each level and each position and try to discern what is there.

There is a LOT more than the basics we are taught (thin, bowstring/wiry, tight, slippery, etc.) And each pulse stands for many different things. A slippery pulse does not only mean phlegm or dampness, it can (and often does) mean the person just ate or if a person is pregnant they will have a slippery pulse.

And with more practice you will be able to tell when someone drinks coffee - they have a distinct "coffee pulse" and you will come to know that anyone on HIV meds has a very strong, bowstring pulse which does not indicate excess, it's due to their meds. I also recently had a patient who had a very strong BS pulse and it turned out to be because he was on Cymbalta - so it's also important to check on their Western meds.

Hope this helps!