Q1 Overview

Q1: Sowing

The Liver Quarter  ·  Early Spring  ·  March – June 2026

The quarter that opened the year. Three months on the Ying-Wei framework as the clinical correlate for reproductive immunology, the Extraordinary Vessels as constitutional architecture, and the stress-cycle interface at the formula level. The foundation everything else in the curriculum rests on.

Coming soon as a recordings bundle for late enrollment.

Regulation before optimization.

Q1 is the Liver quarter. Spring. The moment when yang begins to rise, when the seeds we planted in winter start to move underground, when growth pushes up through frozen ground because that is its nature.

In fertility medicine, this is the work of clearing the path before we ask the body to build. Cycle regulation before ovulation enhancement. Stress-cycle resilience before hormone protocols. Immune balance before implantation support. Wei qi before Ying — and then Ying nourished enough to receive what comes.

The principle is simple and gets forgotten constantly: a system that cannot regulate itself cannot be optimized. The Liver work of spring is the work of restoring regulation.

A system that cannot regulate itself cannot be optimized.

Q1 establishes the framework that the entire Year of the Fire Horse rests on.

The quarter at a glance

Core Track: 12 CEU  ·  Complete Track: 16 CEU (adds the quarterly Herbal module)

Q1 Bundle (late enrollment): 6 CEU for the three Core Lectures. Grand Rounds recordings are viewer-only with no CEU credit awarded.

Inside the Liver quarter.

Q1 moves from naming the framework (Month 1), through the constitutional vessels and cyclical intelligence (Month 2), to the stress-cycle interface and the formula-level integration (Month 3) — closing with the spring herbal capstone.

MONTH 1  ·  LIVER QI, BLOOD & THE REN MAI

Core Lecture: Sunday, March 22  ·  Grand Rounds: Monday, March 30

4 CEU  ·  The roots of reproductive regulation

Core Lecture. The Liver as the governor of smooth flow and the steward of Blood. Ying-Wei framework introduced as the clinical correlate for reproductive immunology — the endometrial immune environment as a Wei-Ying problem at the tissue level. The Lung-Liver axis as the bridge between PMS, skin, and immune presentation and the reproductive pattern beneath. The Ren Mai as the yin foundation for reproduction, distinguished from simple Kidney yin deficiency. Liver-Spleen disharmony and where it matters in fertility presentations.

Grand Rounds. Pattern Before Protocol. PCOS phenotyping — and the cases where stress-mediated anovulation looks like PCOS on labs but is not. How static lab values miss functional disruption. Reading the patient's cycle as a diagnostic window into constitutional health. The cost of defaulting to protocol when the pattern has not yet been seen.

MONTH 2  ·  EXTRAORDINARY VESSELS & CYCLICAL INTELLIGENCE

Core Lecture: Sunday, April 27  ·  Grand Rounds: Monday, April 28

4 CEU  ·  The Chong and Ren in reproductive medicine

Core Lecture. The Chong Mai as constitutional vessel — beyond 'sea of blood' to its role holding essence and regulating the blood production that supports reproduction. The Ren Mai as the yin and blood foundation for endometrial development and implantation. Folliculogenesis mapped onto the Chong-Ren dynamic. Trauma and adverse life history as factors that disrupt the Extraordinary Vessels at a constitutional level — and the trauma-informed reproductive history that the standard intake usually misses. Cyclical intelligence as the practitioner's diagnostic lens, not the patient's tracking habit.

Grand Rounds. When the Cycle Looks Normal. Unexplained infertility, early or undiagnosed endometriosis, and the cases where 'normal' HSG, AMH, or cycle length coexist with significant fertility challenges. What to watch for, palpate, and ask. How to communicate with a patient who has been told everything looks fine.

MONTH 3  ·  THE STRESS-CYCLE INTERFACE

Core Lecture: Sunday, May 18  ·  Grand Rounds: Monday, May 19

4 CEU  ·  ANS tone, HPA-HPO crosstalk & herbal integration

Core Lecture. HPA-HPO axis crosstalk as one of the most clinically underappreciated mechanisms in fertility medicine. Elevated cortisol and GnRH pulsatility. ANS tone as a treatment target — how to assess it, what it tells you about a patient's reproductive resilience. Wen Jing Tang as the Q1 anchor formula: cold in the Chong and Ren, blood stasis, blood deficiency, and deficient heat addressed simultaneously. Acupuncture's mechanism in stress-related fertility disruption, framed in neuroendocrine terms.

Grand Rounds. Integration & Clinical Application. Q1's full arc applied at the formula level: TCM pattern → Extraordinary Vessel involvement → formula selection → modifications. Wen Jing Tang in patients it fits and patients it does not. The bridge forward into Q2 — where the Spleen dimension will add complexity to the cases already in front of you.

Liver-coursing, Wei-balancing, Ying-nourishing — the architecture for everything that follows.

HERBAL CEU  ·  SPRING STRATEGIES FOR FERTILITY

Sunday, June 7  ·  9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific

4 CEU  ·  Complete Track only

Herbal medicine for the immune-reproductive interface. Gui Zhi Tang as the foundational Ying-Wei harmonizing formula — not primarily a cold or wind formula, but the architecture of nourishment and defense in two herbs. The Xiao Yao San and Gui Zhi Tang families as the herbal spine of the Liver quarter. Wen Jing Tang in depth. Decidualization as a Ying-Wei immune process and its herbal implications for recurrent implantation failure. Th1-stimulating adaptogens (Ashwagandha, Rhodiola) and when they actively worsen the endometrial immune environment. The spring herbal principle: lighter formulas, sour flavors that contain what the season wants to disperse.

Who Q1 is for.

Q1 is now available as late enrollment — the foundational quarter for any practitioner joining the Yinstitute curriculum after the live cohort began. Everything in Q2 through Q4 rests on the Ying-Wei framework introduced in Q1. You can take it asynchronously and arrive in Q2 with the architecture already in place, or take it after Q2 to fill in the foundation behind the work you have already started.

This is for you if:

• You joined the curriculum at Q2 or later and want the foundational framework the rest of the year builds on.
• You want a clinically integrated lens on Liver-pattern fertility presentations — beyond Xiao Yao San and qi stagnation.
• You work with patients carrying immune-mediated infertility, recurrent loss, or unexplained presentations and want the reproductive immunology framework spelled out.
• You want recorded access to the Liver-quarter material with CEU credit for the three Core Lectures.

This may not be the fit if:

• You need CEU credit for Grand Rounds. CEU credit for the Q1 Bundle is issued through our CEU partner Yosan University and is awarded for the three Core Lectures only — Grand Rounds recordings are included as viewer-only with no CEU credit.
• You want Q1 only and are not planning to continue with the curriculum. Q1 is built as the foundation for the rest of the year; it stands alone clinically but lands fully when followed by Q2, Q3, and Q4.
• You are looking for protocol-based learning. The Yinstitute teaches pattern reasoning and clinical method, not point recipes.

Purchase the Q1 Bundle.

Q1 is going to be available soon as a recordings bundle for practitioners who joined the curriculum at Q2 or later and want the foundational framework. CEU credit is issued through Yo San University — our CEU partner — and is awarded for the three Core Lectures only.

COMING SOON

Q1 Bundle

Recordings only  ·  March – June 2026

All three Core Lecture recordings with full asynchronous CEU credit.

Access to all three Grand Rounds recordings. No CEU credit awarded.

The Liver-quarter foundation — Ying-Wei framework, Extraordinary Vessels, stress-cycle interface, and the herbal architecture for the immune-reproductive interface. Take it asynchronously to arrive at Q2 with the framework already in place.

Looking for the live quarter? Q2: Holding the Center is currently open for enrollment.

The Q1 through-line.

Q1 does not only teach Liver content. It establishes the way the year teaches — slow, seasonal, framework-driven, biomedically literate without being biomedically reductive. The quarter moves from naming the framework (Month 1), to deepening it through the Extraordinary Vessels and cyclical intelligence (Month 2), to integrating it at the formula level through the stress-cycle interface (Month 3) — and closes with the spring herbal work that makes the framework clinical.

By the end of Q1, you carry the Ying-Wei framework as a working clinical lens, the Extraordinary Vessels as constitutional architecture, and a herbal strategy for the immune-reproductive interface that holds up under the pressure of real cases. The Spleen quarter that follows extends the framework into substrate; the Heart quarter into circulation and shen; the Kidney quarter into root and jing. The architecture is laid in Q1.

— Yin Learning for Yang Times —

CEU credit issued through Yo San University, our CEU partner. Yo San University is not affiliated with the development, content, or instruction of the Yinstitute curriculum.

CA Acupuncture Board (No. 0128)  ·  NCCAOM (No. 169556)  ·  ABORM (No. YO18)