One of the most common responses I get from people when they learn I am in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) school is "aren't you done yet?"

This actually started happening when I had only gone to school for one semester (out of the 12). I can only assume that this seemingly common misconception is somewhat due to the inherent muddiness around Chinese medicine in general. After all, the saying "Ancient Chinese Secret" in our culture means some murky process that may work but you have no idea why. I have also seen there is a poor understanding about the level of training required to become a licensed acupuncturist, much less a competent medical herbalist. It's a driving reason why I decided to add a blog to my website and actually start it before I am even done with school.There is a lot of misunderstanding around eastern Asian medicine, and I want to do my part to help clear it up.

My recent externship in China revealed that in that culture, TCM practitioners (who are all trained at a doctoral level) specialize in Acupuncture or Herbal medicine or moxibustion...or even Tui Na (TCM version of bodywork). In the US, we learn it all, with most people emphasizing the Acupuncture. 

This is misleading, because the body of study is divided between herbal medicine and acupuncture.  Some students really don't like herbal pharmacology; some, like me, absolutely love it. This is also why I emphasize that I am studying to be an Oriental Medicine practitioner versus "I am studying to be an acupuncturist", as I plan to use herbal medicine and other modalities like cupping just as much as acupuncture in my practice. 

The training in TCM is rigorous. I have had to learn a lot of Mandarin. At our school we all speak some (as one professor calls it) “Chenglish”, where we intersperse English and Chinese medical terms together. We have to learn the 360 basic acupuncture points, their Chinese names, English names, precise anatomical location, and function. There are extra points, and layers upon layers of ways and theories of how to use the points- the theoretical part of the training pretty much runs the entire four years of school to train us to have many tricks up our sleeves for almost every situation.

Then the herbs- our pharmacopeia contains somewhere around 400 natural products. Again, we have to learn all the names in English, Latin and Chinese; then there is the precise function of each herb’s properties. the parts to use, when they are harvested, and different ways they are prepared to do certain things (wine fried, salt fried, cooked with honey, calcined, etc). We are tested on identification by look and smell of things that look a lot alike at times!   That alone takes a year to learn, then we go through another 16 months of training learning formulas! I am currently at the end of my formula training, just six weeks left, but because I love herbs so much I am currently enrolled in 14 month extra herbal externship program with my favorite herbal medicine mentor, Dr. Chris Cannon. She just completed writing a new formula textbook and I feel grateful to be in her program.

Our clinical training is also intensive. Its a total of 1050 clinical hours. We spend our first year observing and documenting treatments. We  then go through five weeks of testing and the State of Hawaii then gives us an intern license, where we work in a teaching clinic under a licensed acupuncturist/doctor. That is when our “big three” clock starts- 350 patients, 100 herbal formulas prescribed, and 810 hours. We also have to complete an externship either here in the States or in China. After this semester, I will have completed all but my hours- and will be a “jailbird” as its known in school, where you have to be in clinic but not necessarily treating patients. I will still treat patients, because who wants to stop at 350?? :)

Furthermore, we are all trained in a lot of western medicine subjects, because we need to be proficient in human anatomy and physiology, orthopedics, and disease pathophysiology, as we work with patients who are on western medications and we must understand lab results. We learn how to give Western medical exams along with our Chinese exams. Perhaps most importantly, we need to recognize when a situation warrants that the patient seek western medical care, or when to send them to the ER.  This has happened several times with our patients in our school teaching clinic, who have come in complaining of bothersome symptoms-including one turned out to be a malignant mass. The ability to work cross-platform will only increase as more insurance plans start paying for TCM treatments.

So what does it take? At least 4-6 years of your life full time depending on the school, with either an AA or BS degree to start with. Oriental Medicine training is graduate level, and you initially graduate with a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine. You can then sit for your national board exams (Acupuncture, Foundational Theory, Western Biomedicine) to get state licensure, and at this time, the Herbal Medicine board exam is optional but is expected to be required soon in Hawaii. I plan on taking it anyway because of my total love of herbal medicine.

I personally plan on going on after I get my State license (and can open a full-service practice) and completing an extension program to complete the Doctor of Oriental Medicine program. My goal is to reach my full potential as a practitioner to best serve my patients. 

Its a long road, but I am 3/4 there! There will still be plenty of people out there who think it just takes me a few months to learn where to poke needles. That’s ok. You can help me teach them differently. I feel a great passion to help people find alternative solutions to their health care that is effective, gentle, affordable and with no addiction risks and far fewer side effects.