What Are the Possibilities For Learning Acupuncture?

There are hundreds of schools, associations or individuals teaching acupuncture around the world. What types of opportunities exist for people who wish to master the technique?

They are able to go to China for three months and join acupuncture courses provided in Beijing and Nanjing for English speaking students and Shanghai for French speaking students. The courses are sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). Whilst they be given a diploma, this does certainly not imply that the diploma received by the students allows them to apply in the United States where they wish to act as it largely depends on the patient country’s legislation. The training courses in China started in 1976 and were an instantaneous success.

The country was just emerging from ten years of the Cultural Revolution. The caliber of the acupuncture diploma courses was somewhat variable and the students did not necessarily come back and start to apply on the return. After a couple of years the standards of education on the courses improved along with the translation skills within the colleges. The information was traditional Chinese acupuncture. The students went back with skills in practicing traditional Chinese acupuncture. An advanced three months course was also set up. The organizers often accepted pretty well the majority of the students who applied.

Later other colleges or universities in Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou, amongst other cities, started to supply acupuncture courses and tailored them to certain requirements of the patient students. Short or long training courses were also provided in lots of hospitals in China and Taiwan. The topics and content were deeply traditional.

In almost every other countries acupuncture training courses have now been developed for and provided by medical doctors. The courses vary long from two weeks of intensive teaching repeated following a certain period or weekend courses stretching over months or even years with the number of weekends varying a lot, from 4 to 40. The information and styles differed greatly between Colleges and Institutions and Societies. Western medical acupuncture training in some countries concentrates on neuro-physiologically based treatment and trigger point treatment can be used where appropriate. They cannot necessarily teach traditional Chinese acupuncture. Some use a combination of Traditional Chinese acupuncture and Western Medical acupuncture.

Sometimes individual independent practitioners who have devoted their whole lives to acupuncture teach everything they know to small sets of students. This technique is reminiscent of the old times in China when historically masters used to show a small grouping of disciples.

So far, there are few acupuncture courses online. These usually supplement practical courses and this work is in its infancy. Distance learning modules will probably increase in the future. The advantage of that system is that the students can learn in the home, at their own pace, and do not need to attend specific places where in fact the courses are shown (sometimes quite not even close to where they live) and receive intensive training in short periods of time. However total online courses wouldn’t be considered safe practice. This somewhat artificial breakdown of acupuncture teaching methods is intended to provide a general idea and might leave out some approaches. If practitioners are medically trained and use acupuncture following an orthodox medical model, the acupuncture training is certainly not for as long or intense as if the student has not even got a medical degree or is not really a qualified allied health professional.