Can I study Medical Qigong at the ICTCM in Dublin?


Professor Xia our Medical Qigong Master with students studying Medical Qigong at the ICTCM in Dublin.

When people contact us at the Irish College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Dublin they often ask, “Can I study Medical Qigong at your College”? The answer is Yes, provided you are already a fully trained fully qualified practitioner of Acupuncture TCM. Because the College is a Chinese Medical college, the type of Qigong we teach is specifically tailored for use in the TCM Clinic. We run a number of intensive programmes in Medical Qigong at post-graduate level.

Some people, when they join us on the Licentiate in TCM Acupuncture Training course, already know that they really want to study Medical Qigong. At least one of our current Teachers was not specifically interested in Acupuncture Medicine per se but studied with us in order to be able to gain the necessary Chinese medical knowledge to become a TCM practitioner and then learn Medical Qigong. He is now in full time TCM practice using Acupuncture, Medical Qigong and Chinese Herbal Medicine according to the needs and requirements of each individual client.

Many Acupuncture TCM students only become interested in Qigong and Medical Qigong as they progress in their Acupuncture training and hear from the College Director, Professor Tom Shanahan, about the wonderful effects of Medical Qigong. He tells students about his experiences in China studying this specialist branch of TCM treatment at one of the top Chinese Medical Universities in China with a leading Qigong Master.

A number of TCM practitioners have recently qualified with us in Medical Qigong at Certificate level and Diploma level and you can read about this on the PRTCM website.

If you are not yet a qualified practitioner of Acupuncture TCM but are keen to be qualified to study Medical Qigong in the future, there are still a few places left on this year’s Licentiate in TCM. We will soon be closing applications for this Acupuncture training programme.

It is often possible to begin some aspects of Qigong training, as an additional option, even during the First year of the Acupuncture Course (staff availability permitting).

If you are already a fully trained TCM Aupuncturist and wish to know about our next Medical Qigong start date please contact us.

If you are interested in our short one or two day introduction to Qigong for Health and Wellbeing, which we will be running in the Spring (if not earlier) please contact us – send us your name and email address, and your reasons for wishing to study Qigong and we will inform you when the next workshops in Qigong are being run.

As one of the main Qigong and Medical Qigong teachers at the College it is always a pleasure for me to inform people about the transformative benefits that can arise from practising Qigong and using Medical Qigong with clients.

 

 

 

Acupuncture Department staff profile of Titta Laattala


How did a Finnish woman end up being a teacher and Clinical Supervisor at the ICTCM in Dublin?

Titta Laattala graduating in 2009

I have always been drawn to teaching – my younger sister knows this well. When I first went to Primary School, after coming home in the afternoon I would sit her down and try to teach her everything I’d learned that day.  She may not have appreciated this much – I do hope that my current TCM students are able to make better use of my efforts of imparting knowledge!

Originally, I started out in General Linguistics at Helsinki University. Language and grammar were my first love. I had hoped to arrive at some kind of deeper, more profound understanding of human cognition, perhaps even human nature, through the languages that we use as the interface with the world and with each other. But as I progressed with my studies, I begun to realise how theoretical and book-bound a career as a linguist would be, and that seemed daunting. So I took a break and went traveling, left for an adventure.

I had always been into theatre and literature and there were a great many Irish authors and playwrights that I was fascinated by, James Joyce of course, Oscar Wilde, John Millington Synge, and others. That is what brought me to Ireland and to Dublin. I wanted to know more about this place that had produced such incredible writing.

What attracted you to the Acupuncture TCM profession in the first place?

While in Dublin I had acupuncture treatment with Professor Tom Shanahan. I had never even heard of acupuncture before, but it worked so well that I really wanted to understand what it was, and not just understand at a theoretical level but I wanted to be able to do it myself. He pointed me to this great little book called ‘The Web that has no Weaver’ by Ted Kaptchuk. I read it and it gave me the first little glimpse into the medical system that is TCM and soon after I enrolled into the Acupuncture Training Lic.TCM course at the ICTCM.

As I learned TCM I could see that, compared to General Linguistics, it had one huge advantage. When I studied linguistics, my very accomplished professor said to us students:

“Listen, don’t think you will ever make a difference by being a linguist. If you want to bring about a political change, if you want to bring about a social or individual change, you need to do it elsewhere, you will not do it through linguistics. This is a theoretical endeavour, this has no practical relevance”.

Well, Acupuncture TCM is hugely relevant. It can make a difference. It can make a difference at an individual level, and through the individual it can change the family, the neighbourhood, perhaps even the society. TCM is not just an elegant, pretty theory – it works, and it can be applied directly to help people. And there is no better feeling in the world than to be able to help somebody, especially when other things they’ve tried have failed.

Also the medical tradition that is TCM is so old and vast, that you never really run out of things to learn. Your patients prompt the search for a better understanding and you go back to the medical theory to be able to better help them. Then you go back to your patient and back to practice and apply what you found in your research. It never becomes stagnant, or boring.

Editorial Note: Titta is one of the Acupuncture TCM Teachers and one of the Acupuncture Clinical Supervisors working with third year students in the Teaching Clinic.

What’s it like being a Clinical Supervisor?

Clinical Supervisor Titta Laattala with two of the 2020 graduates

Being a Clinical Supervisor in the ICTCM’s Teaching Clinic is incredibly demanding but also incredibly rewarding. You have to keep track of everything, be on top of multiple things all at once, and be able to diagnose and devise a treatment strategy and points selection on the spot, all the while overseeing the running of a busy student clinic. However, it is doubly rewarding in a way. Not only do you get to see patients getting better, but you also get to see students transitioning from a TCM student to a TCM practitioner, learning how to put the theory into use. It can be very exciting and the Clinical Supervisor himself or herself also learns a lot from each clinic.

 

Do you run a clinic of your own?

I run three clinics in London, in three different locations although one of them is now closed until the Autumn due to the Covid-19 lockdown.  I also work with vulnerable women through a charity in London’s Kings Cross. Practising in different clinics is interesting because different sorts of people with different kinds of problems find their way to you depending on the location and type of clinic you’re in.

Editorial Note: Titta is a fully qualified and insured Acupuncture TCM practitioner and also has a Diploma in Chinese Herbal Medicine. She is also qualified as a Medical Qigong practitioner.

What do you do for enjoyment?

I am a passionate swimmer. There is no such thing as a bad day that a few lengths of butterfly-stroke could not wash away! This year because of the lockdown, I set up a little pool in the back garden where I could swim with the use of a “tether”. That means being tied to a pole with a bungee and swimming stationary. I’ve also been traveling out of London to lakes and the sea because the pools have not been open, and that is actually great. Less chlorine, more fresh air and much better scenery.

 

 

 

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Longevity – Famous TCM Doctor dies at the age of 104


Professor Dr Deng Tietao of Guangzhou University of TCM in 2011

Professor Dr Deng Tietao of Guangzhou University of TCM in 2011

Dr Deng Tietao was a great friend and supporter of the Irish College of TCM. He died, earlier this month, at the age of 104, although as explained in his Wikipedia entry, this would be calculated a little differently in China. In the West, he would have been said to be nearly 103 at the time of his death.

We first met him in 2000 when he was already 85 years old. He came to teach us during one of the specialist Medical Qigong Courses that was being run exclusively for staff and graduates of the ICTCM.

Professor Deng was a kind, refined and enlightened man who understood the importance of being healthy on all levels – body, mind and spirit. He was a much published author of books on many aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine and his seminal book on Chinese Medical Diagnostics has been published in English. When only in his 50s, his students published a book (in Chinese) as a sign of respect for his excellence as a medical practitioner and teacher, which outlined his regimen for a healthy life and longevity.  This included his daily practice of one of the most famous traditional Qigong forms, called Baduanjin.

A very early illustration of the traditional Qigong form called Baduanjin

A very early illustration of the traditional Qigong form called Baduanjin

During the subsequent years we met him a number of times when he gave guest lectures to groups from our college and met the Director of the College Tom Shanahan to discuss the most important attributes of a Traditional Chinese Medical Practitioner. Both agreed that it was kindness to one’s patients.

The last time we met was in 2011 after he had been awarded the very highest award by the Chinese Government in 2009. He was named a “Master of National Medicine” of China, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the China Society for Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology, and won the Guangdong Science and Technology Award (First Class).

Dr Deng, in his home in Guangzhou, with the President of the ICTCM, Tom Shanahan and the Registrar, Mary Plunkett

Dr Deng, in his home in Guangzhou, with the President of the ICTCM, Tom Shanahan and the Registrar, Mary Plunkett

During our last meeting in 2011 he brushed a unique calligraphy for the Irish College of Traditional Chinese Medicine showing that he gave his great support to our efforts to spread high-quality, authentic Acupuncture and TCM across Europe and the world.  Further information can be found in our 2011 ICTCM news item.

News of his death was announced by the Guangzhou Daily on 10th January 2019. Their article gives an interesting extract from an interview with Dr Deng, who will be much missed by his friends, family and students.

ICTCM.ie gets a new look


Our Website

An Acupuncturist using Pulse diagnosis in the TCM clinic

Pulse Diagnosis in the Clinic

The ICTCM was one of the first independent colleges in Ireland to get a website.  So many years ago!

Now we are in the process, yet again, of updating the look of our site to make it more user-friendly for those using mobile devices.

We want it to be easy for you to find out about the courses we offer.

These include:

  • Profession Acupuncture Training and
  • Postgraduate programmes.

Qigong in Macao and Ireland



During our recent visit to Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macao we were delighted to meet old friends in the TCM and Qigong field, and to make new ones.

At a conference on Health and Longevity the Irish College of TCM’s Director Tom Shanahan received a special award for presenting an outstanding academic paper.

Senior college staff have been training in Medical Qigong with their Chinese Qigong Master Professor Song Xinhong since 2000 and are happy to announce that another Qigong weekend workshop will be running in the college in June.
Book your place now to get the early bird offer.

Professor Song Xinhong was one of the event organisers for this very successful international conference.

Irish College of TCM visits China again



The Irish College of TCM (ICTCM) first visited Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine in 1999. We have returned to our sister University in Guangzhou, with whom we have had a formal Affiliation since 2002, almost every year since then.

Many ICTCM graduates have attended month-long specialist post-graduate courses. The photo above is from the first Medical Qigong visit in 2000 and the photo below shows the 2002 group.

Later this month ICTCM staff will be meeting University officials in Guangzhou to discuss possible advances in the cooperation between the two TCM teaching institutes.