ICOMunity
Welcome to the ICOM blog. Here we share student and college news along with articles on acupuncture and general health and well-being, plus insights into Chinese Medicine and Chinese culture.
World Acupuncture Awareness Day 2022
It's World Acupuncture Awareness Day! We are so proud that over the last fifty years, ICOM has produced many hundreds of brilliant Acupuncture practitioners who are now practicing far and wide across the globe. Students often come to train with us because they are so inspired by their own experience of Acupuncture treatment that they want to learn the art themselves. Our Acupuncture clinic has...
Winter Lights
by Elio Basagni Many human civilisations have regarded the time between Autumn and Winter as a time of cleansing and purification. It seems that during this time of the year rituals have been devised and offerings made to honour what is gone and to welcome what is coming. Interestingly, all the festivities related to this dark time of the year are almost always entangled with some sort of symbol...
Fifty Years of ICOM Acupuncture College
On Friday 30th September East Grinstead’s Town Mayor Cllr Adam Peacock kindly presented this year’s graduates with their certificates during a very special graduation ceremony, which took place on the 50th anniversary of the founding of our Acupuncture college. Later on, graduates from the last 50 years joined us for a very special celebration to mark our 50 years. Around ninety members of our...
Reasons to study Acupuncture at ICOM
There are many reasons to choose ICOM for your Acupuncture training. Here are just some of them. Come along to our next open day and you'll discover many more... You will study at the UK’s longest established Acupuncture training college. We have trained first class Acupuncturists for fifty years. We are internationally renowned for our philosophical and practical application of the Stems and...
Five tips for boosting emotional health
Historically in British culture, talking about our emotions was often really frowned upon. But thankfully the tides have turned, and we are now talking about and exploring our feelings more than ever - this is a wonderful development. This week we are proud to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Week. Here at ICOM we celebrate our emotional selves. ICOM teacher and resident counselling and...
Turn, Turn, Turn. The Tiger is Back.
by Elio Basagni Strings of heavenly stems and earthly branches, marking time and space with their shifting combinations, create recurring cycles of different lengths, such as 60, 12 and 10 years, months, days and hours. Life can only exist within the rhythm and movements of such cycles, interconnected at different levels, and allowing perpetual return and dynamic stability of all existence, by...
A Double Graduation on our Founder’s 100th Birthday
On Friday 26th November we held a happy Graduation ceremony at Meridian Hall in East Grinstead. The event, attended by Town Mayor Cllr John Dabell, was a double celebration for the college. It was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of our founder, Dr. Didericus van Buren. Twenty-six students received their certificates from the Town Mayor in front of their friends and...
A 1988 conversation with Dr. Van Buren, founder of ICOM
Dr. Van Buren was a world renowned acupuncture master, healer and pioneer. Having practiced acupuncture for more than 50 years, he is the founder of the International College of Oriental Medicine (ICOM). ICOM is renowned for training some of the best acupuncture practitioners in the world. This is an interesting and inspiring interview with Dr Van Buren from 1988 made by one of our then...
A Beautiful New Print of the Neijung Tu 內經圖
When you visit Van Buren House you'll now be greeted with a stunning red feature wall in the main entrance hall along with a beautiful new wall hanging depicting the Neijung Tu 內經圖. After graduating from ICOM this summer, the very talented Anabela Santos kindly gifted the wall hanging, screenprinted by hand herself, and even painted the wall that it sits against, as a token of her thanks to the...
Discovering The 5 Personality Types – Which one are you?
The theory of the five elements is one of the main tools an acupuncturist can use in order to understand a person's nature, personality types and symptoms of disease. The five element cycle is related to the cycle of the seasons throughout the year: from Spring (wood element), to Summer (fire element), to Autumn (metal element), and on to Winter (water element) The pivot around which the seasons...
The New Moon Eight Day Method – by Elio Basagni
During autumn and winter everything in Nature starts to move inward. This is a natural cyclical process that allows life to be constantly renewed. What is not essential is shed away: trees abandon their leaves showing their intimate form; fruits’ pulp gets rotten to give nourishment to the bare seed now stored deep into the soil waiting for the next cycle to start in spring. Peasant societies,...
ICOM Acupuncture Clinic is open again!
In this short video, Director of Clinic Sarah Major explains the new safety procedure for appointments at our clinic. You’ll see some changes, but the warm welcome you will receive remains unchanged. More safety information is below, and you can find details of booking on our new clinic website at icomclinic.org Before your appointment You will receive an email confirmation of your appointment...