NCCAOM Appoints New Officers to Board of Commissioners
The NCCAOM Board of Commissioners has appointed its 2008 Board Officers and members of the Executive Committee. All of the new members were appointed at the board's February meeting in Jacksonville, Fla. Each member will serve a one-year term that will conclude in February 2009.
Current executive committee members are:
Other board officers include Susan Chapman, PhD, RN (public member); Bryn Clark, Dipl. O.M. (NCCAOM); Jonathon Daniel, Dipl. Ac., CH (NCCAOM); Barbara Esher, Dipl. Ac., ABT (NCCAOM); and Jan. St. Germaine, Dipl. Ac., ABT (NCCAOM).
For a brief bio of each of the new commissioners, please visit the NCCAOM Web site at www.nccaom.org/about/commissioners.html.
Certification Commission to Revamp ABT Exam Process
The NCCAOM also is working on improving the application and administration of the Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) exam process. The commission is considering the possibility of year-round administration of the ABT examination, as requested by ABT candidates. The NCCAOM anticipates that the next administration of the examination will be more user-friendly for everyone.
To accommodate this process, it is anticipated that the next ABT exam will be offered in early 2009, at the very latest. The NCCAOM encourages applicants for the ABT certification to submit their application during this process. For any questions regarding ABT certification, please call (904) 598-1005 or contact the following certification coordinators via e-mail, according to the first letter of your last name:
Tai Sophia Institute Provides Students With Public Health Experience
In addition to its five clinical sites throughout the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, Tai Sophia Institute has now established new partnerships with six organizations that will give students a wider range of experiences in real-world, public-health settings. The new sites are: Chase Brexton Health Services; Healthcare for the Homeless; Howard Community College Wellness Center; Maryland Community Health Initiatives; N Street Village Wellness Center; and Recovery in Community
After completing a mandatory course on addiction and community health, students are required to spend a minimum of 60 hours at one of the off-campus clinic settings. They will gain experience using acupuncture for detoxification and support of overall health and wellness. The clinic experience will help students develop skills in treating clients with compassion, as well as powerful listening skills. They also will learn how to achieve and maintain rapport with individual patients. A licensed acupuncturist employed by that agency and credentialed by Tai Sophia with a faculty appointment will supervise the students at each site.
For additional information regarding the student clinics, contact Faculty Coordinator Kathleen Crosland at kcrosland@tai.edu.
AOMA to Hold Biannual East West Forum
The Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin (AOMA) sponsors the East West Forum twice a year. The forum provides a setting for biomedical and alternative-medicine practitioners to come together to discuss a specific topic relevant to health care. There is no charge to attend the event.
This year's forum will be held on Friday, June 13, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The topic of this year's forum is "Exploring Pain: Medication or Meditation?" Expert panelists scheduled to speak include the following: Pamela Ellen Ferguson, Dipl. ABT (NCCAOM), AOBTA-CI, LMT; Lorena Monda, LAc, DOM, MS; Edward R. Johnson, MD; Donna Robinson, RNC, MHS; and Yuxia Qiu, LAc, MD (China):
Please RSVP to community@aoma.edu. More information also is available on the AOMA Web site at www.aoma.edu/community-classes/east-west-forum.
Oregon College of Oriental Medicine Offers Free Public Seminars
The Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland is offering free seminars to the public on June 7 and June 14, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
The June 7 seminar will focus on acupuncture. Participants will learn about the history of acupuncture and common conditions it can help treat. Participants also can sample auricular acupuncture treatments in a group setting while seated in a chair and fully clothed.
The June 14 seminar will focus on proper eating for the summer season. Participants will learn which foods are most beneficial to eat during summertime. For example, attendees will be able to sample teas that keep the body cool during the hot summer months.
For more information on events taking place at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, please visit www.ocom.edu.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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