The TCM Masters program includes coursework representing the “five branches” of Traditional Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture, Herbology, Tuina (Chinese medical massage), Energetics (Qigong and Tajiquan) and Dietetics (Nutrition). The study of TCM is academically rigorous and challenging, requiring a comprehensive understanding of TCM diagnostic models, the specifics of herbal formulas, and the knowledge of acupuncture meridians and acupuncture points. However, as in any form of medicine, intellectual or theoretical approaches alone do not suffice. A TCM practitioner’s success rests upon careful observation and interpretation of physical signs and symptoms. In the TCM Masters program you will cultivate skills of observation, listening, and sensitivity to human energy flow. These skills will enable you to identify classical patterns at the root of physical, emotional and spiritual disharmonies.
As in China, where TCM and Western medicine are practiced harmoniously, Western medical studies are an integral part of the Masters curriculum and provide you with an understanding of Western diagnosis and pharmaceuticals, essential for appropriate patient care. Our Western medicine department is enhanced by our educational and clinical relationship with Stanford University and the doctoral residency program we have with Stanford and O’Connor hospital. These relationships not only benefit you as a student of our Masters program, but also help to promote a better understanding and acceptance of TCM in the West.
The Masters program includes in-depth clinical practice, beginning in your first semester, comprising one-third of the curriculum. The Five Branches medical centers in Santa Cruz and San Jose assist over 100 patients a day allowing you to experience working in a busy clinical environment. Throughout the program, starting in your first semester, you will attend clinic theatre classes in which you will observe a faculty-practitioner diagnosing and treating patients. In your last year you will diagnose and treat patients with acupuncture, Chinese herbs and other methods of the five branches, under the direct supervision of a faculty member. This integrative learning component will allow you to comprehend and absorb the nuances of Traditional Chinese Medicine more completely.
The Masters Program curriculum is taught on a semester basis and is available in a daytime program at both of our campuses, in Santa Cruz and San Jose, and in an evening and weekend program at the San Jose campus. You can complete the program in four years, or you can choose to accelerate the program if you wish to finish your degree early. Summer and winter breaks allow you to assimilate what you have learned during the semester or to relax and have fun with your friends and family. Enrollment on a part-time basis is available based on consideration and approval by the academic dean and admissions director of Five Branches.
Upon completion of the TCM Masters degree program you will become a practitioner whose high level of comprehensive training will allow you to understand the complex disharmonies of your patients and treat them successfully. Because Five Branches has earned a reputation in the medical community of providing a high quality TCM education, you may be one of the students chosen to join Kaiser Permanente’s Integrative Medicine Department, or one who will go on to work at a hospital or research facility. When you graduate from the Five Branches TCM Masters program you will be prepared for the California and National state licensing board examinations to become a licensed acupuncturist (L.Ac.). We invite you to join our community of graduates who have become esteemed and successful practitioners, teachers, international lecturers and published authors.