Q: Is it
possible to study part-time at LCTA?
A: The short answer to this is yes.
For those with no qualifications
in TCM
We run a 3-year, full-time BSc Acupuncture course, which
can be studied either at weekends or during the week. Whether
you choose to study at weekends or during the week, the
course is still considered to be full-time, your attendance
(during term time) will be around 3 weekends in 4 for the
weekend course, and around two days every week for the weekday
course during term-time. If this is too intensive, you can
slow down the course and study it over 4 or even 5 years,
as a part-time option.
The course in Oriental Herbal Medicine is a 4year, full-time
course.
The course in Tui Na massage is a 2-year full-time course.
For the undergraduate
full-times courses, we recommend that you leave somewhere
between 10 and 12 hours a week free for home study. People
vary in their ability, and the time that they have available
to study, but these figures are rough guide
For those with
existing qualifications in TCM
For those already
qualified in TCM the course in Oriental Herbal Medicine
is a 2-year, part-time, postgraduate course, for which we
are currently seeking validation as a Masters degree from
the University of East London.
The course in
Tui Na massage can be studied in 1 year by those with an
existing TCM qualification. This course leads to a Licentiate
Diploma in Tui Na (LicTuiNa).
For those with
existing healthcare qualifications
The
course in Nutrition - starting September 2005 - is accessible
to healthcare practitioners, on 1 day per week, over 1 year.
We are currently seeking validation for this course from
the University of East London as a Masters degree (MSc)
Q: Can I get any financial
help with the course fees?
A: Local Authority Help
Local authorities are empowered to give discretionary grants
to students who are following any of our three-year full-time
courses. However, such grants are very rare and cannot be
counted on You should ask your own authority for more information.
Career Development Loans
This scheme applies to any student intending to practise
professionally in the European Economic Area. Under the
scheme you can get a loan of up to £8,000 towards your course
expenses, and the government pays the interest on the loan
for the period of your studies. You can get more information
and an application form from the College.
Local Charities
In many areas there are local charities that may be able
to help you with your course expenses. You should be able
to find out more in your local library.
Q: What
previous qualifications are needed?
A: The majority of our students are between 25 and
45, although we have qualified students well outside that
age range. Although our entry requirements are Grade C or
above in GCSE English and 240 points at 'A' level or their
equivalent, mature applicants without these educational qualifications
are strongly encouraged to apply and are considered on the
basis of their work and life experience.
Applicants may already have significant
commitments to work or family. All applicants will need
to be able to show that they have the resources and support
to sustain them through the course.
Overseas students must take responsibility
for visas, work permits and other arrangements before entry
to our courses.
Students for
whom English is not their first language will need to satisfy
the College that they are capable of undertaking degree-level
study in English.
To join the one-year,
part-time Licentiate Diploma course in Tui Na, a previous
qualification in TCM is needed.
Similarly, to
join the two-year part-time Masters course in Oriental herbal
Medicine, a previous qualification in tcm is needed.
To join the two-year
part-time Masters course in Nutrition, a previous healthcare
realted degree qualification is needed.
We have a commitment
to selecting our students on an equal opportunities basis:
students are selected for their suitability as individuals,
not for their membership of any particular group.
To find out more or to apply contact
the College.
Q: How
early in the course will I start clinical experience?
A: For students on our Acupuncture
course, clinical experience begins as observation of experienced
practitioners in a classroom setting, alongside a range of
one-to-one clinical consultations. Clinical assistance in
the Teaching Clinic
is incorporated from the first semester of the course right
up until the final year. On top of this, a large proportion
of the final year consists of practice experience in the Teaching
Clinic, where student practitioners treat patients under the
supervision of our senior clinical supervisors. As students
progress through the course they take increasing clinical
responsibility, and throughout the final year they work in
the Teaching Clinic and independently with their own patient
case-load.
For students on the Herbal
Medicine course, diagnostic techniques used in herbal
medicine are illustrated through participation in case studies,
role play and other experiential exercises. There are opportunities
throughout the course to observe, assist and work with patients
in a clinical setting. Students work with a number of senior
clinicians so as to gain a range of perspectives and approaches
to treatment with a variety of patients and conditions.
In addition there is plenty of opportunity to discuss patients
in a group setting to gain the benefit of interaction with
fellow students.
For students on the Tui
Na course, on top of the extensive practical and clinical
components of the core subjects (that include assistance
in the clinic from an early stage), a large proportion of
all the tui na modules consist of clinical experience where
you will treat patients under the supervision of the College's
senior clinicians. Clinical sessions include reflective
feedback discussions with the clinical supervisor to review
difficult and interesting cases, to highlight practitioner
development and patient management issues and to address
students' queries. Clinical practice is supervised by several
different senior clinicians, each with their own individual
approach to qi. In this way, students gain confidence with
the rich variety and breadth of practice styles and may
begin to form some preferences of their own.
Q: Who
teaches the courses?
A: In order to integrate the many strands of Oriental
medicine in teaching, we work with teachers from all over
the world. Our teaching team is unique, special and dynamic.
The staff biographies
show a group of teachers with enormously varied qualifications
and experience, many of whom have been with us since very
early on in our history. Our lecturers. knowledge and enthusiasm
for their subject goes a long way towards producing the approachable,
stimulating atmosphere that students immediately notice between
students and staff. Our graduates tell us that this opportunity
to access teachers' combined wisdom and skills is invaluable
to them in developing their own expertise and individual approach
to practice.
Most of our teachers and clinical
supervisors have more than fifteen years' experience as
practitioners and are well known in their field; the majority
have trained in several disciplines in complementary medicine
as well as having an understanding of orthodox medicine.
Most of our lecturers have trained in the Orient as well
as the UK. In addition, almost all have qualifications in
teaching and also maintain a medical practice. In short,
our staff practise and teach "integrated medicine",
synthesising the best of west and east into a coherent and
workable holistic system.
Q:
I want to retrain for a career in Oriental medicine, but
I still need to earn a living. Is this possible?
A: Yes. Many of our students work and study at the
same time, and with our wide range of study options, your
decisions about whether to study part-time, or full-time,
during the week or on weekdays are never set in stone.
- We have a wide variety of study options for the same courses.
You can usually choose whether to study over three, four
or five years, and whether you want to study during weekdays
or at weekends. The course modules are exactly the same,
regardless of which format you choose. Many of our professional
courses have an intake in both September and March
- Courses normally operate over 'school' terms, so holidays
are at Christmas, Easter and in the summer. Timetables are
issued on enrolment but can normally be given earlier on
request
- Study consists of lectures and seminars, clinical and
practical experience, and home study. There is quite a high
proportion of home study in all our courses.
- The College day runs from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm, with a further
half an hour at the end of the day for tutorial sessions.
Clinical sessions, however, are often run outside these
hours.
Q: I've heard about TCM
and 5 elements. I want to be sure I'm making the best choice
by studying at LCTA. What do you teach?
A: The basis of the system of medicine taught at
LCTA centres round the traditional Chinese understanding
of Yin-Yang and Five Element philosophies. From this base,
the two systems develop in practice into many intertwined
branches of knowledge. Traditional Chinese medicine integrates
a number of strands, including amongst others the well-known
'TCM' and 'Five Elements'. For more details of the breadth
of what is covered see the core
syllabus. An understanding of the different Chinese
medicine strands has arrived in the west piecemeal over
the last few decades. As a result it may have been difficult
to get a complete and coherent view of the whole until now.
At LCTA students learn the application of all the main,
commonly-used methods integrated into one coherent system,
as the traditional Chinese system has been for millennia.
As a result, like using a tool box, the practitioner is
skilled in the full range of diagnostic and treatment tools
that are used in Chinese medicine. Each patient and each
condition calls for a different combination of these tools,
and the ability to use each one as it is appropriate. One
of the wonderful aspects of traditional Chinese medicine
is that it addresses both acute and long-term chronic conditions,
emotional and physical problems, the immediate problem and
the underlying constitution. Our graduates benefit from
having the skills to work across this whole range.
Q: I've
never been a therapist before. Do you teach counselling skills?
A: For our Acupuncture,
Herbal
Medicine and Tui
Na courses, there is a set of Core
Subjects which are compulsory to all students who have
not previously studied TCM. The Core Subjects include Practitioner
Development and Patient Management, which break down as follows:
- A study of the therapeutic relationship, how it is developed,
evaluated and used. This includes looking at and developing
the skills of reflective practice, and examining the issues
of patient management
- Development of skill in patient.practitioner
rapport, using the Five Elements and other tools
- Determining a student's limits of
competence, and studying the legal, financial and business
considerations of practice
- Working with the issues surrounding
setting up in practice, leading to each student formulating
a plan for their professional development in practice
- Reviewing ethical, boundary and other
professional issues in practice, including keeping to
a professional code of conduct
- Considering how to establish and maintain
practitioner health in practice
- Exploring the issue of continuing
professional development
Q: Will
I be able to earn a living when I qualify?
A: Potential students often ask this question - for
obvious reasons! On the course we are committed to training
professional practitioners who can earn their living with
the skills they learn. We want you to be competent and confident
enough to be able to set up in practice as soon as you leave.
Towards the end of the course, you will focus on the plan
for your future practice. We work with you to develop this
and you will cover peripheral skills such as book-keeping,
promotion, setting up your premises etc. The very final part
of the acupuncture course (Interim Licence) is an opportunity
for you to put this plan into practice, by treating independently
and bringing your patient notes back into College for supervision.
At this point you will already be well on your way to realising
your dream.
In the west at the moment, Oriental
medicine has never been more popular. For the first time,
in many countries in the English-speaking world, the expenditure
on complementary medicine exceeds expenditure on conventional
medicine. Now is a wonderful time to be involved in the
field of Oriental medicine: it has never been so popular
in the West and to be a practitioner at this point is like
riding the crest of a wave.
Q:
Is the acupuncture course a BSc ?
A: The short answer is 'yes'. The University of Portsmouth
validates the BSc(honours) Acupuncture course. All students
joining the course are entitled to a BSc honours degree
on graduation. We have also validated a top-up course for
those of you who have already graduated to upgrade your
qualfication to a degree.
Our BSc(hons) Acupuncture course
is accredited by the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board
(BAAB) for intakes up to and including those in the academic
year 2008-9. Graduates from the course can obtain automatic
membership of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC), upon
which they are entitled to use the designatory letters MBAcC
after their name. For information on the professional accreditation
of our Oriental Herbal Medicine and Tui Na massage courses,
please click here: Oriental
Herbal Medicine Tui
Na massage |
