Neurotherapy (LMNT) symbols: how to read the signs written on a treatment card

Overview

On a card in a busy camp, or on a board before a class, a point is often written as a drawn symbol: a circle with a dot, two arrows springing apart, a small face with dots along the jaw. A therapist who cannot read them cannot read a prescription.

There are forty-two symbols, and they look like forty-two things to memorise. In fact they apply three rules again and again. First, an arrow shows the direction of the therapist’s own push or drag, not a flow inside the patient; Up Arrow and Down Arrow are separate points with separate uses. Second, a small ring marks the landmark from which the stroke is measured, the same habit as the ring in Liv° and Mu°.

Third, the side is never decoration. Bell’s Palsy left and right are mirror images, and so are Tennis Elbow left and right; the mirror is the whole instruction. Acid and its mirror, Alkali, are one stroke drawn two ways, the central balance of this therapy in a single sign.

Small marks matter. Writing Liv where Liv° is meant changes the point: Liv is the liver point and Liv° is the right kidney point. Write the ring large and check for it every time.

Key points

• An arrow shows the direction of the therapist’s push, not a flow in the body.
• A ring marks the landmark the stroke is measured from.
• Left and right versions are mirror images and mean different sides.
• Liv and Liv° are different points; never drop the ring.

Go deeper

Read the full guide

This topic is part of: The Shorthand: How Neurotherapy (LMNT) Treatments Are Written and Read