FAST Foundations Part 4 of 4
The Multidimensional, Whole-Person TCM4.0+ Approach to the Pain that Won’t Quit (and Practice Management)
4 CEU* Live Course
This final course covers my TCM4.0+ clinical approach: bringing science’s full bio-psycho-social picture of chronic pain into your clinic, so you can heal the stubborn pain cases. Pain that is more than the soft tissue injury we covered in parts 1-3. PLUS – we’ll go over practice management to bring all of these approaches into your clinic and grow it.
Aug 29th, 2026
9–1:30pm PST
Steve Liu, L.Ac.
This final course teaches acupuncturists how to integrate this complete treatment approach into their clinics.
The FAST approach with photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy reactivates the innate healing mechanism, assists the body in quickly progressing through the three healing phases (inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling), and resolves chronic soft tissue pain. Parts 1-3 goes over this in detail (and are available for instant access).
This is the biological treatment. But it doesn’t always cover the full picture of patient chronic pain.
In this expanded course, Steve introduces TCM4.0+: the whole-person clinical approach that brings the full bio-psycho-social picture of pain into your practice – so even the complex chronic cases, the ones woven into sleep, habits, mood, and a sensitized nervous system, and more… can finally heal.
More Than Soft Tissue:
The Chronic Pain Cases That Need TCM4.0+
FAST resolves the majority of the pain cases that walk into an acupuncture clinic. But a portion of chronic pain patients carry something more: pain woven into broken sleep, self-medication habits, psychological strain, social isolation, a nervous system alarm stuck in the ON position long after the tissue has healed, and other psycho-social factors.
These are the patients who arrive with folders of unremarkable scans, years of failed treatments, and a doctor’s suggestion that the pain might be in their head. They are also the patients no one else in your community can help.
Modern pain science now confirms what Chinese medicine has always practiced: pain must be read through the whole person. Biology, psychology, and social life each write part of every chronic pain story – and treating only one lets the pain keep its grip.
TCM4.0+ turns that understanding into a clinical system you can run in your own practice:
Fully Heal the Physical Source
FAST Protocol for complete healing of the source of soft tissue chronic pain
Retrain the Nervous System
Calm the stuck pain alarm through neuroplastic healing, with light as documented neurostimulation
Prescribe the Lifestyle Factors
Sleep, movement, connection, the dopamine reset – written as real prescriptions and tracked
The Chronic Pain Cases That Need TCM4.0+
The TCM4.0+ approach translates three landmark bodies of pain research into practical clinic protocols:
Tell Me Where it Hurts
Dr. Rachel Zoffness (UCSF/Stanford)
Biology, psychology, and social life co-author chronic pain, and each needs a seat in the treatment plan. You’ll implement her pain recipe intake and the pain neuroeducation script that transforms patient engagement.
Dopamine Nation
Dr. Anna Lembke (Stanford)
Chronic pain patients get trapped on the pain side of the brain’s pleasure-pain balance and self-soothe with wine, screens, food, and pills – each round resetting their baseline lower. You’ll learn the dopamine screen and the 30-day reset protocol.
The Brain's Way of Healing
Dr. Norman Doidge
Chronic pain becomes learned pain, and the brain that learned it can unlearn it – through movement, attention, and light. You’ll apply the four stages of neuroplastic healing, with your laser as documented Stage 1 neurostimulation.
What You Will Learn
In this focused 4 CEU training, you will learn how to:
See, diagnose, treat, and communicate with your patient the multi-dimensional, whole-person TCM 4.0+ approach and the underlying research and mechanisms.
Run a bio-psycho-social intake: the added questions that reveal each patient’s full pain picture.
Screen for the self-medication patterns that keep chronic pain locked in, and prescribe the dopamine reset
Apply the four stages of neuroplastic healing in your treatment room, with PBM as documented neurostimulation
Prescribe home care and lifestyle medicine – sleep, movement, and connection as “medicine between sessions” with a practical framework
Match protocol emphasis to the patient in front of you: the tissue-dominant case, the self-medicator, the catastrophizer, and the centrally sensitized
Market treatment success ethically to local practitioners – including MDs and pain psychologists – to generate steady referrals
Recordings available afterward, but live attendance is required for qualify for CEUs.
Part of a 4 Part FAST Foundations Series of Workshops
Each provides 4 CEU, and are available as a bundle. The bundle also includes access to my comprehensive Laser/PBM Acupuncture Primer!
Part 1: The Approach
Learn a proven integrative framework for resolving chronic soft tissue pain by reactivating the body’s natural healing phases.
Part 2: The Upper Body
Apply the integrative chronic pain protocol to the most common upper body injuries, from head and neck to shoulders, elbows, and wrists.
Part 3: The Lower Body
Extend the integrative treatment approach to chronic lower body injuries including hips, knees, ankles, and feet.
Part 4: Pain that Won’t Quit
The TCM4.0+ whole-person protocol for the stubborn pain cases integrating the bio-pyscho-social bigger picture of pain.
Steve offers unique perspective and practice protocols to the Traditional Healing arts profession of Acupuncture.
By merging his scientific training and accomplishments in laser engineering with his longstanding successful Chinese Medicine Practice, he has managed to bridge both worlds to create a holistic, powerful, expedient “FAST” and complete method of balancing and healing the body.
He is also most generous with his time and knowledge. I cannot recommend more to any practitioners that they up their game and knowledge base to study and embrace his techniques in daily practice. Once you know, you cannot go back.
– M.A. (L.Ac. & D.C.)
Purcahse this 1 Course
Register for just $197
Get access to the live seminar, the recordings, supporting materials, and be eligible for the 4 CEU from NCCAOM* and CA by attending the live seminar.
ASLAT members save 20%
Become a member or log in to get your discount!
Bundle all 4 Courses and SAVE!
Bundle all 4 courses for just $750 (Save $38)
Get access to all 4 live seminars, the recordings, supporting materials, and be eligible for the 16 CEU from NCCAOM* and CA by attending the live seminars.
BONUS: You’ll also get my comprehensive Laser Acupuncture Primer!
ASLAT members save 20%
Become a member or log in to get your discount!
CERTIFICATION BUNDLE
Bundle all 4 courses with the FAST IT! Certification Workshop for 32 Total CEUs
Access to all 4 seminars, the recordings, supporting materials, and be eligible for the 16 CEUs from NCCAOM* and CA.
PLUS: Attend the live, hands-on FAST IT! Certification Workshop in Tucson, on Sept 18-20, 2026 for 16 CEUs
BONUS: Also get access to my comprehensive Laser Acupuncture Primer!
Get access to a live, hands-on workshop with Steve Liu to get clinical, hands-on training, mentorship, and a weekend of camaraderie with your fellow FAST’ers!
You’ll leave a certified FAST practitioner with real world experience. You’ll also get additional benefits like inclusion in our upcoming FAST certified directory of practitioners and receive turnkey marketing solutions for your practice.
Steve is keeping this to only 6 participants to give each participant his full attention.
ASLAT members save 20%
Become a member or log in to get your discount!
*Course Participant Attestation:
I understand that the information in this course presented by the Provider and/or Instructor(s) is for educational purposes only and should only be applied with appropriate clinical judgment and used by a trained and licensed practitioner. Governmental laws and regulations vary from region to region and the contents of this course vary in permissible usage. The participant is required to check their local, state, and federal laws and regulations regarding the practice requirements and scope of practice issues and the use of the information of this course including, but not limited to, theory, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. I acknowledge that NCCAOM does not endorse any specific treatment regimens of any kind. Furthermore, if I use any modalities or treatments taught in this course, I agree to waive, release, indemnify, discharge, and covenant not to sue NCCAOM from and against any liability, claims, demands, or causes of action whatsoever, arising out of any injury, loss, or damage that a person may sustain related to the use of the information in this course. I understand that this Release is governed by the laws of District of Columbia, U.S.A. and shall survive the termination or expiration of this course.
Meet Steve Liu, L.Ac., BSEE
Founder of HanLin Center for Integrative Medicine and the co-creator of the FAST method
Steve Liu is a licensed acupuncturist from Tucson, Arizona. He was an electrical and laser engineer in Silicon Valley. He has combined photobiomodulation (formerly called low-level laser/LED) therapy with acupuncture to treat acute and chronic pain condition since 2000.
Steve is a member of the North American Association for photobiomoduLation Therapy since 2001 and became its president from 2008 to 2010. He was the President Emeritus of Arizona Society of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture. He also Serves as a board member of the International Society for Medical Laser Applications.
He founded American Society for Laser Acupuncture Therapy and serves as its president since 2006.
Besides practicing acupuncture, laser acupuncture, photobiomodulation therapy, Functional Medicine, and Chinese herbal medicine, Steve also coaches patients on whole-food, plant-based lifestyle. Steve is a vegan marathon runner, and he wishes to run his 100th marathon on his 100th birthday.
He has uniquely developed treatment protocols that integrate Chinese Medicine, Laser Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine to successfully treat chronic soft tissue pain, peripheral neuropathy, age-related macular degeneration, slow progression of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
I have been using Steve Liu’s integrative method in my practice with excellent clinical results. Highly recommend him as a teacher, instructor, and clinician.
– K.V.B. (L.Ac.)
I have practiced acupuncture, Chinese Medicine & manual therapy for 29 years. Over the years, I’ve taken countless CEU courses & this is one of the best I’ve experienced & put into practice.
– M.M. (L.Ac.)