My name is Mona Lee Yuan and I hold dual licenses in both physical therapy and acupuncture.  I COMPLETELY OPPOSE ANY BILL THAT WILL ALLOW PHYSICAL THERAPISTS TO PERFORM ANY KIND OF NEEDLING TO THE PUBLIC.  As a dual licensed professional, I KNOW the level of training that is necessary to perform ANY kind of needling.  And as a licensed physical therapist, I know the LACK of training a physical therapist has when they are attempting to perform dry needling.  Despite what physical therapists claim, they DO NOT HAVE THE TRAINING NECESSARY TO NEEDLE ANYONE!  This is NOT a matter of turf wars, it is a matter of PUBLIC safety and physical therapists are ignoring their oath of "DO NO HARM".  According to the Virgina State Board of Physical Therapy, physical therapists are ONLY allowed to "perform EMG diagnostic needling under the direction of a  physician, podiatrist, dental surgeon, chiropractor provided the physical therapist had post graduate specialized training. " Yet to perform dry needling, there are NO post graduate specialized training requirements.  

In addition, Physical therapists claim that the DN is different from acupuncture which is false, 99 percent of the motor points they are using coincide with acupuncture points, therefore, they are performing acupuncture with no training.  

I am also a professor and teach acupuncture in a college, every year, I have quite a few students who are licensed physical therapists who are enrolled in the Master's Program of acupuncture and taking the correct route to becoming a licensed professional.  These physical therapists will be qualified to needle patients after they have completed the program and passed their state board  exam.  These physical therapy students confess to me, they never realized the difficulties of needling a patient until now.  I have no issues with physical therapist's performing needling, PROVIDING they have the didactic (Over 300 hours) and clinic training (Over 900 hours under direct supervision of a licensed acupuncturist) that it takes to perform this skill.