Category: Events

I recently had the opportunity to represent the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College (AIMC), Berkeley at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine’s “Symposium on the Potential of Chinese Medicine in the U.S. Healthcare System”.

The purpose of the Symposium—I believe UCLA’s first on the subject—held on Sunday, July 16th, 2017 was to bring together professionals in Chinese medicine, integrative medicine, and public health to discuss the potential and challenges of Chinese medicine in the United States.

Dr. Qi Zhang, head of the traditional medicine unit at the World Health Organization (WHO) gave the keynote speech addressing his organization’s role in “strengthening integrated, people-centered health services” in 2017 and beyond. He also discussed the WHO’s current work in developing a traditional medicine chapter in the ICD-11, the eleventh …

New developments in the acupuncture field and how they will affect our students were topics covered at AIMC Berkeley’s Community Tea July 12, 2017. About two dozen students attended to share how they would like to shape the curriculum, particularly the herbal program, and learn relevant news.

Nishanga Bliss, Academic Chair at AIMC Berkeley, said the school needs to create integrative medical practitioners who can speak with pharmacists around the world.

Herbal Pharmacy Manager Jordan Wheeler, concurred: “If you tell someone that this herb calms the shen, they’re going to look at you like you have a plant growing out of your head.”

Wheeler said he is attending a symposium at UCLA’s Center for East West Medicine where many Oriental Medicine schools will convene to look at ways …

Study Abroad: China 2018

We will start out in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. In Beijing we will explore some of the most amazing cultural sites in China. In Tianjin we will observe Chinese medicine practiced in an integrated model in a hospital setting at The First Teaching Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Southern China

In Southern China we will meet Dr. Eric Brand, author of “A Clinician’s Guide to Granule Extracts.” Eric will give us a tour of Chinese medicine universities, traditional herbal markets and a botanical garden that specializes in Chinese medicinal herbs.

Guilin & Yangshou

The Guilin and Yangshuo visit will allow you to see the greener, more natural side of China, dotted by limestone karsts and terraced rice fields. As you will discover, China …

The weekend of May 27-May 28 about 25 students from AIMC Berkeley and other Bay Area Traditional Chinese Medicine schools and licensed acupuncturists turned out at AIMC Berkeley to learn from an expert in moxibustion, Jinju Mizutani. In his class “Mizutani’s Japanese Moxibustion Seminar: Gynecological Disorders” students had the opportunity to learn hands-on with individual coaching from the teacher.

“After practicing 15 years, this is one of the better CEUs I’ve done,” said Dennis Von Elgg, LAc, and both an instructor at AIMC Berkeley and a practitioner of the professional clinic. “It’s extremely applicable to a majority of our patients who are experiencing adrenal imbalances”.

A little bit about Mizutani: Born and raised in Japan, Mizutani is a graduate of Japan Central Acupuncture College in Tokyo from …

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”.

You might ask, did I imagine that within a year of finding Dr. Nogier’s auriculotherapy classes on his website, that I might find myself travelling to Lyon, France in a group of nine students, three AIMC Berkeley faculty members and four LAcs, to attend his seminar?

I’d like to say a sincere thank you to our President Yasuo Tanaka for supporting this idea, to our outgoing and former student, Ann, Esq., who was certainly the catalyst, and especially to Christine Newell, LAc, our native Parisian supervisor (because she did all the work)!

It seemed to come about by chance. I did a little research for Instructor Koki Kawanami, LAc’s Acupuncture Techniques II class. We were scheduled to cover the NADA protocol,, so I dutifully googled …