Aims and developments
Why the Acupuncture College was set up
The ICTCM was set up in 1983 to help satisfy the growing demand for safe alternative healthcare. It was the first Acupuncture College in Ireland devoted to the teaching of Chinese medicine, according to the Classical Traditions of TCM, as taught in China. All teaching material in the College is based upon clearly documented classical Chinese medical texts. This means that our students can be assured of being given a theoretically secure base for establishing sound clinical practice of Acupuncture and TCM.
When Tom Shanahan first introduced Acupuncture Training to Ireland in the early 1980s, very few people had heard of Acupuncture, TCM or Chinese Herbal Medicine. Now, many people actively choose Acupuncture medicine or Traditional Chinese medicine either as an adjunct to Western Medical treatment or as a means of treating illnesses which have not responded well to other forms of medicine.
Thus, Acupuncture and TCM are now at the forefront of alternative approaches to health and illness, focusing as they do, not only on treating and curing current illness but also on disease prevention and on health enhancement.
Nowadays, people are very interested in finding out about a medical system that is natural, holistic and, in the hands of a well-trained and fully qualified Acupuncturist or TCM practitioner, safe. The professional Acupuncture and TCM body, The Professional Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine, provides further information about qualified practitioners on its website.
The ICTCM’s Mission Statement
Our mission is to enhance the reputation and spread of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). To this end we provide comprehensive theoretical and practical professional training in Acupuncture. This is taught as part of the classical traditional of TCM and is called TCM Acupuncture. In doing this, we are helping to provide the public with fully trained, fully qualified and fully insured Chinese Medical Acupuncturists in whom they can have complete confidence.
How the College Curriculum Developed
Our Curriculum has developed over the years. We now train students in Acupuncture and other branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine such as Chinese Herbal Medicine, Medical Qigong and Health Promoting Qigong. Traditional Chinese Medicine and each of these main branches of TCM are described in the What We Do section, which explains the relationship between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture and the relationship between Acupuncture and the other TCM specialisms.
In the beginning we taught Acupuncture as this was the type of Chinese Medicine that the public demanded. However, as the number of trained Acupuncture practitioners increased they wanted to develop their Clinical skills in other TCM fields and we were happy to introduce postgraduate courses into our Acupuncture College curriculum.
In the 1990s we developed postgraduate programmes in Chinese Herbal Medicine, and by the mid 2000s courses in Medical Qigong were added. We are now able to offer a range of postgraduate and Continuing Professional Development options to ensure that our graduates and TCM professionals can avail of further training.
We now have three Departments: Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine and Qigong.