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Your doctor, chiropractor, physician’s assistant
or even physical therapist may say to you, “I do acupuncture”. What they
really mean is that they do neuromodulation
(referring to the technique’s reputed ability to
modulate, enhance or diminish, the effect of neurotransmitters) or trigger
point needling (needling local points of nerve pain in muscles). Often
these practitioners will call what they do “medical acupuncture”.
These practitioners have between 100-300 hours of
training in acupuncture (often completed at UCLA seminar). They get a
brief overview about acupuncture meridians, learn
a few acupuncture points, and receive instruction about how to insert an
acupuncture needle. While trigger point needling may have some benefit in
pain relief, these practitioners have no training in, nor are they practicing
Oriental medicine. They are using neuromodulation as
an adjunctive therapy to their primary practice.
Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc), whose educational focus is in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, receive approximately 80% of their training exclusively in this field, and undergo an extensive clinical internship in Oriental medicine averaging three years.
COMPARISON
OF LICENSED VS. CERTIFIED ACUPUNCTURISTS
THE FACTS
Certified/Physician Acupuncturist
Certified physician, chiropractor or dentist
[medical] acupuncturists (CAc) with 100 – 300 hours
of training
Training which is often comprised of home study and
video-taped lectures
Minimal clinical experience in acupuncture or no
actual patient treatments before certification
Not required to complete the national certification
examination to prove competency in acupuncture
Not required to regularly complete continuing
education courses
Licensed Acupuncturist
Licensed acupuncturists (LAc)
with an average of 2,700 hours of master’s-level training
Master’s level, on-site training at a nationally
accredited school or college of acupuncture
Hundreds of hours of clinical experience and at
least 250 actual patient treatments before licensure
Required to pass the national certification exam in
acupuncture in order to become licensed (NCCAOM board certification)
Required to do regular continuing education to
maintain national certification
Amount of Training in Acupuncture
1905-2000 hours in Acupuncture
2625-3500 hours in Oriental Medicine
• Licensed Acupuncturist
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
Comprehensively-trained Acupuncturist
• Oriental Medicine Practitioner
• Oriental Medical Acupuncture
Many Acupuncture and Oriental schools exceed 2000
hours. Colleges in
Oriental medicine includes acupuncture, Chinese herbology
and dietary therapy, tui na massage, tai qi and qi gong meditative exercises.
300 hours or less
• Medical Acupuncture
• Neuromodulation
• Meridian Balancing/Therapy
• Chiropractic Acupuncture
• Naturopathic Acupuncture
100 hours or less
• Medical Acupuncture
• Chiropractic Acupuncture
• Detox Tech
by
Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc