Senior AIMC Berkeley Student Carleen Cotter taught a hands-on Salve Making Workshop on Saturday, June 10th.

More than 15 AIMC Berkeley students and a clinical supervisor came to learn the art of medicine making. At the end of the class, everyone got to take away their own salve made with three yellow herbs—Philodendron root, rhubarb root and skullcap flower. The project was funded through AIMC Berkeley’s student council and the student activities fee.

“Carleen’s salve making class was hands-on and fun!” said Joyce Kwok, L.Ac, PT, an AIMC Berkeley Clinical Supervisor. “I learned great techniques and infromation that I’ll add to my practice.”

Students ground the herbs in the AIMC Berkeley pharmacy and cooked and strained them to make a flowery essence. At one point after squeezing the …

Graduation is such a special day for all those who have given the last many years of their lives to studying Asian medicine. A sweet celebration of all the triumphs over the challenges, the many hours of dedication to the medicine, the deep bonds between peers, mentors and the web of support that all students need to make it through the gauntlet of graduate school.

Many came out to commemorate the accomplishment at this year’s graduation ceremony at the Grandview Pavilion in Alameda on Sunday, June 4, 2017. The ceremony told the story of what it is like to conquer the masters’ program, the love story with the medicine and the growth that is necessary to step into the role of practitioner. As needed with any …

Learn more about setting up your own acupuncture practice with tips from Alyssa Dazet, author of “Building a 6-Figure Acupuncture Practice”.

Last August, exactly one week after taking the California Licensing Exam (CALE) in Sacramento, I was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer, secondary to a cancer that started somewhere below my diaphragm. It was a shock to get that diagnosis.

I was so excited to begin my new career as an acupuncturist after being a poor college student for four years. It’s been an incredible journey – incredibly painful and at the same time incredibly healing. I first debated whether or not to go to the emergency room for a pain in my right rib cage. It turned out to be a pleural effusion – the emergency room doctors and nurses thought it was strange that I wanted to take a picture of the fluid they drained …

Chief Strategist at UCSF Benioff Integrative Hospital. Nurse. Doula, Mental Health Researcher/Yoga Teacher, Veterinarian Acupuncturist Assistant These are the diverse positions held by our Summer 2017 students. Now they share a new title: Student of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Here is what our new students say about what made them take this important step in their lives—embarking on the path to become acupuncturists: “Oriental medicine, herbs and acupuncture have healed me more than all other health modalities combined,” said Hali Hanson.

Rahanna Frykberg sees firsthand the benefits of acupuncture at her job at the Holistic Veterinary Care in Oakland: “Time and again I witness the healing, regenerative, rebalancing powers of acupuncture in combination with herbal medicine and the true transformative magic of integrative medicine.”

Yaminah Abdur-Rahim comes from a …

Two semesters ago, UC Berkeley Junior Daiwei Liu was carrying a full course load, working 15 hours a week in Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman’s lab studying Huntington’s Disease and kick-starting a brand new student-initiated class “Traditional Chinese Medicine 101: Know more about your body and yourself”.

Liu organized the class through the De-Cal program at UC Berkeley which lets students innovate their own courses. Liu wanted to share the power of Traditional Chinese Medicine with other students. It was such an exchange of ideas that philosophy professor Joseph Tussman sought to foster through the Democratic Education at Cal program (DeCal), which he founded in 1965.

Nishanga Bliss, Dsc, LAc, demonstrates Qigong at a Winter 2017 De-Cal at UC Berkeley.

Liu’s class joins a wide ranging lineup of De-Cal …

Front row (l-r): Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, Academic Director of Shang Shung School of Tibetan Medicine; Yasuo Tanaka, President of AIMC Berkeley; Dr. Yangdron Kalsang LAc, Founder of Kunde Institue Back row (l-r): Adam Okerblom LAc; Founder of Sowa; Dr. Sanggee Bohm, Visiting Instructor at University of Virginia School of Medicine; Dr. Kunga Wangdue, Vice President of Traditional Tibetan Medical & Astro Association New York; Tsering Zangmo; Geshe Lobsang Partsang, Buddhist Chaplain at Santa Clara County Jail; Dr. Jordan Wheeler LAc, Pharmacy Director at AIMC Berkeley; Robyn Adcock LAc, Program Director of AIMC Berkeley; Isabella Liu, AIMC Berkeley student.

AIMC Berkeley, a leader in the field of acupuncture and integrative medicine education, was honored to host a distinguished group of Tibetan doctors and scholars on April 19, …

At San Francisco’s Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend I stumbled across a flyer advertising an invitation to hear a cancer patient tell her story of recovery at Konko’s Church of San Francisco in Japan town. Since cancer runs in my family across three generations, and most recently for my parents, I did not think twice about going to hearing her presentation. It was well worth going!

Doctors told Mrs. Fusami Kudo that she had end-stage ovarian cancer and had less than a month to live. She underwent excruciatingly painful treatment; she had to be physically restrained with a towel in her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She underwent 30 days of radiotherapy.

Once she passed the 30 days she was told she would live, she learned …

Rebirth of AIMC Berkeley

The origins of modern day Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley (AIMC) really begin with its current chairman, Dr. Shuji Goto. Goto has provided illustrious leadership to acupuncture colleges both in the U.S. and in Japan. Since 1988, Dr. Goto has served as President and Chairman of the Board at Goto College of Medical Arts and Sciences in Tokyo.

And in 1991, Dr. Goto served as chairman of the American College of Chinese Traditional Medicine (ACTCM) in San Francisco.

He became chairman of ACTCM when bankruptcy was imminent. But Goto was able to raise the necessary funds, save the school, and make reforms to create financial solvency. ACTCM acknowledged Dr. Goto’s powerful impact by renaming their library after him. However, Dr. Goto’s work was …

Alzada Magdalena will speak at a brown bag lunch at AIMC Berkeley on Friday, April 7, 12-1pm

Alzada Magdalena, a 2001 Graduate of AIMC Berkeley (back when it was called Meiji College), has two acupuncture practices—one in Davis, CA and the other in Prineville, Oregon.At her two practices, The Healing Arts, she treats patients, teaches Qi gong, meditation and dietary practices.

Alzada began her acupuncture practice in 2002, merging it with her existing bodywork practice.

Two years later she opened a clinic in a remodeled bungalow in downtown Davis, California, and practiced there until 2011. In 2011 she and her family moved to Bend, Oregon.However, her Davis patients requested she come back to take care of them, and so she has done so.She has returned to …