Our students come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. Some are recent college graduates, others have decades of experience in practicing medicine, i.e. nurses, MDs or NDs, massage therapists, and others come from varied professional backgrounds and are interested in changing careers. One common theme is that many students have had personally transforming experiences with acupuncture, bodywork, and herbalism.
Why AIMC?
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Any questions, please contact ourAdmissions Department,admissionsinfo@aimc.edu.
AIMC Berkeley’s collaborative and supportive community is made up of a diverse student population from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds including Western medicine, bodywork, theology, retail, corporate management, the arts, and more. Our school is BIPOC & LGBTQ+ friendly, supports green medicine with our Climate Club, and focuses on sustainability using natural, earth-based medicines for healing such as those found in our on-campus Botanical garden. Ranging in age from 25 to 65, our students come from around the country and the world. Their unique experiences inform our community and shape our college. We boast an active student body and student council, a variety of student-led groups, student initiatives, peer-tutoring, and more. Our students support each other, feed each other, take care of each other’s kids, share notes and arrange study groups, and hang out on weekends together. We don’t just go to school together, we’re a community!
With over 1,000 hours of clinical experience, AIMC Berkeley exceeds most other acupuncture schools in the country in providing you with the opportunities to learn and practice the medicine. Your clinic internship begins in the second trimester with a theater observation class and continues throughout the whole program, with opportunities to work in our acupuncture and integrative medicine clinic, herbal dispensary, and with a variety of patient populations at our off-site internship locations. AIMC maintains a commitment to providing services for underserved people through our low prices, Community Clinic shifts, and relationships with organizations like the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic. This comprehensive clinic experience throughout the whole program reinforces your learning from your classes with real-world experience.
Our goal as educators of the art and science of acupuncture & East Asian medicine is to produce successful practitioners that can network and collaborate with other types of providers, function effectively as primary health care providers, and become the future leaders of our profession. We are committed to a continuous process of assessment and improvement to provide the most complete education available for 21st-century Acupuncture and Eastern Medicine practitioners.
We teach a contemporary, integrative approach to traditional medicine, and have first-rate off-site off-site internships at various hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities. Some of our partnerships include UC Berkeley’s Center for High Performance Student-Athletes, the West Berkeley Clinic for Lifelong Medical Care, and the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic where students can help underserved women with cancer. Integrative Medicine is the foundation of our program.
AIMC Berkeley is the only school founded by Japanese acupuncturists & alumni of Meiji College in Japan, which makes our school uniquely rooted in traditional Japanese medicine. This medicine is known for its gentleness, its usefulness in treating sensitive patients, including seniors and children, and its high quality, easy-to-use Kampo herbal remedies. Students have the opportunity to take Japanese Medicine elective courses at AIMC Berkeley to learn Japanese modalities and theories including abdominal diagnosis; moxibustion heat therapy; contact needling; and the use of intradermal needles for gentle facial rejuvenation acupuncture. Opportunities for deeper study of Japanese techniques with master practitioners are available as part of AIMC Berkeley’s continuing educations courses in the U.S. and abroad. Students in our Doctoral track can also receive a deeper study of and training in Japanese Herbal Medicine.
Our highly qualified faculty members are recruited for their depth of knowledge, the diversity of their skills, and their unique personal qualities. Our instructors are skilled practitioners who maintain successful practices and believe in the importance of disseminating their knowledge and sustaining the rich tradition of our medicine. Our didactic faculty are committed to guiding students through the exciting and challenging world of East Asian medicine and teaching them to transform theoretical education into practical application. Our clinical supervisors are committed to instructing interns in diagnosis, methodology, prognosis, proper record-taking, and clinical judgment. All are dedicated professionals who generously share their knowledge to develop and refine our students’ abilities. Learn more about our faculty…
There are a multitude of services available to students, including academic advising, tutoring, counseling, disability services, scholarship & financial aid support, and much more. AIMC also hosts a number of events outside of the classroom such as Lunch & Learn events, workshops, social gatherings, and town halls. These services and events are facilitated by staff who are dedicated to serving and supporting our students during their time at AIMC. Please visit our Current Students page to learn about the various student services available and how to access them.
AIMC leads annual trips for students & alumni to China, Japan, and France, offering students the opportunity to learn from the best teachers in the world & to explore these medicines where they were born. Students on past trips have been privileged to learn Japanese needling technique, palpation, moxibustion, and facial acupuncture in hands-on practice with practitioners in Japan. We’ve also toured Chinese medicine universities, traditional herbal markets, and a specialized Chinese herbal medicine botanical garden in China. In France, Dr. Nogier teaches auriculotherapy just opposite the restaurant, “Les enfants terribles.” As a student of AIMC, you can gain cultural experiences while mastering the art of integrative medicine with our study abroad opportunities!
“I want to be an Acupuncturist because I want to follow a field of medicine most closely related to what I believe is nature. No artificial, chopped or mass produced pills. I have used pills and I have yet to be satisfied. I prefer natural ointments, foods & teas, exercise and family.”
“I believe that with my background & the amazing tools one learns in Oriental Medicine, I can be a more versatile professional & better prepared to help others in the healing process. I look forward to seeing & treating my patients as a whole, no longer a set of vital signs, symptoms & body parts.”
“Health has such an extensive influence on a person’s life, from personal relationships and professional achievement to attitude & self-esteem. I am forever grateful to my first acupuncturist for validating and treating my pain. She changed my life and gave me hope that I could feel good again. I am eager to do the same for others.”
“If there was more of an emphasis on preventing conditions and ailments there wouldn’t be such a need for synthetic stimulants and prescription drugs to help us in ways our bodies no longer can.”
“I want to follow a field of medicine most closely related to what I believe is nature. No artificial, chopped or mass produced pills. I have used pills and I have yet to be satisfied. I prefer natural ointments, foods & teas, exercise and family.”
Our alumni include Chris Kresser, globally recognized leader in the fields of ancestral health, Paleo nutrition, and functional and integrative medicine, as well as Haro Ogawa, Acupuncturist of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Licensed Acupuncturists’ incomes vary greatly depending on their business model, the hours they work, their practice location, their specialization among other factors. For that reason, the average income statistics for acupuncture profession need to be reviewed with these differences in mind. In 2015, the California Acupuncture Board completed a comprehensive analysis of 485 acupuncturists practicing in the state, read their report here.
Our graduates are working in a variety of settings or pursuing further education:
Students come to AIMC Berkeley from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds, and when they graduate they bring those unique backgrounds and skills to their careers as Acupuncturists. Some graduates choose to work closely within the Functional & Integrative Medicine settings while others pursue more creative private or community practices. Being exposed to a wide variety of Clinic Supervisors, externship opportunities, and Alumni as guest lecturers or during community events, our students graduate with a strong sense of the possibilities for growth and development in the field of East Asian Medicine and having a career that aligns with their values and goals.
Alumni report that they feel very well prepared for their profession. For example, 65% of alumni are working as practitioners compared to 50% of all acupuncturists. AIMC Berkeley grads are working as sole practitioners, as staff in private practices and in community Acupuncture clinics. They are working in Acupuncture schools and hospitals and pursuing doctorate degrees so they can teach or do research.
We take students from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds including nurses, MDs, massage therapists, lawyers, economists, teachers, and therapists.
A biomedicine or science background is not a prerequisite for starting the East Asian & Integrative Medicine graduate program at AIMC Berkeley. We offer our students a strong foundation in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, and Pathophysiology to build a strong integrative medicine practice. Applicants with Master’s level educational experiences in these fields may be able to transfer eligible credits into our program.
Classes take place Monday through Thursday, primarily during the day. Full-time students spend three to four days a week in classes and in clinic. For each hour in the classroom, students spend about two hours of homework. Special projects or research papers take additional time. (1 credit equals 50 minutes in class time per 15-week term). Students are also assigned homework for their 4-hour clinic shift. In clinic, which begins second term in Theater Observation, students can expect an hour to an hour and a half homework for every clinic shift.
To keep a good work-study balance as a full-time student we recommend to keep work commitment to about 20 hours a week, especially when you are a freshman. If you are a part-time student, you may be still able to keep your full-time work schedule. If you live within 30-to-45-minute commute to school, we recommend keeping your school and work commitment to maximum of 50 hours per week. If you need to spend more time to commute to and from the school, you should consider taking a lighter load.
The program lays out foundation for being a general health practitioner of East Asian Medicine only. However, the school offers students several specialized internship opportunities where students can learn and apply specialty treatment, i.e. orthopedics or prenatal care, etc.
Aspects of East Asian Medicine include: Acupuncture, Bodywork (Shiatsu/Tuina), traditional Chinese Herbology, Japanese Meridian Therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine Nutrition, and Qi Gong.
Examples of treatment techniques include: traditional, shallow and contact needling, seven-star needling, cupping, direct and indirect moxibustion, shonishin, auricular acupuncture, e-stim, etc.
We see our student body as a community, not just a group of people who go to school together. During this period of uncertainty, a strong sense of community and camaraderie is more important than ever. We have an active student council, as well as several student-led groups, student initiatives, and peer tutoring.
Our classes have transitioned to an hybrid online & in-person learning format with many lecture classes offered online and essential hands-on classes offered on campus. We’re offering Telehealth and In-person Clinic opportunities to our interns. While waivers from the Department of Education are still in place, we will continue to offer virtual learning & clinic opportunities for community members that would prefer to continue with distance learning.
While our programs are designed with a lot of in-person instruction and clinical, hands-on experience, we recently polled our students and found that they’re experiencing a lot of unexpected benefits from the online format. Students report having more time to care for themselves and their families (or pets!) and making nourishing meals. One student said, “some classes almost feel like I’m getting private instruction since there isn’t a lot of external distraction.”
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