What to Expect in your First Year at ICOM

Joining our friendly Acupuncture college is an exciting time. In your first year you’ll be bonding with your cohort, many of whom will likely become lifelong friends. You’ll also get to know your teachers and the staff at the college. The college is a warm and supportive place, and you’ll soon feel like part of a big family of like minded people. If you’re new to East Grinstead, you might also be familiarising yourself with the local area. At ICOM it’s a tradition for the first year students to arrange the annual Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations for fellow students, staff and families. This is always a hugely fun evening.

In terms of the study, if you’re full time you’ll be learning about Chinese Medicine, Anatomy and Physiology, Acupuncture Point Location. You’ll also be beginning the Research and Personal & Professional Development modules. If you’re studying part time you’ll be taking fewer modules in your first year.

In this series of posts, we’ll focus on a particular module of our Acupuncture Licentiate course to give you an insight of what you’ll learn in your first year. Part one covered Chinese Medicine module.

Part 2 – Point Location

There are many aspects involved in becoming a successful acupuncture practitioner. One of the most important is your practical ability to be able to ‘find’ or locate the acupuncture points accurately, with skill and sensitivity. 

There are 361 acupuncture points on the 14 Main Meridians. At ICOM we teach ALL of them, not just some of them. You’ll learn all the Acupuncture points and meridians during the first two years of the programme so the first year involves a large amount of memorisation. But don’t worry! This seems like a daunting task but you will be guided in developing learning strategies that work best for you. Regular practice is essential and so you’re encouraged to form study groups with your class mates so that you can support one another’s learning the Acupuncture points between classes. This really helps and can be fun, too.

The Point Location classes at ICOM are largely of a practical nature. They follow a structured format to build and accumulate your knowledge of the acupuncture points throughout the year. You’ll practice on each other, after watching a demonstration on the given meridian to be covered in each lesson. You’ll spend the mornings learning the ‘new’ meridian from the ICOM Acupuncture Point Location Manual. In the afternoon you will recap the meridian taught in the session the week before.  This comprehensive approach ensures any problems can be captured early, whilst the information is still fresh in your mind.

There is considerable one-to-one ‘hands-on’ supervision, and you’ll have ample opportunity to ask questions and you’ll be guided individually. You’ll also have a weekly group question and answer session.  You’re encouraged to try to begin to integrate what you are learning in your Chinese Medicine and Anatomy & Physiology modules as your knowledge of the functions and locations of the acupuncture points accumulates. 

Patient Care

As well as starting to learn the Acupuncture points, these classes also give you the chance to learn how to behave and care for a patient in clinic, which is reinforced through your observations of others who may already have more experience of this.

You’ll also learn huge amounts about patient care from the required clinic observations with qualified practitioners. All students are encouraged to work with different partners throughout the year. This is to help you gain a thorough knowledge of the many different types of patient anatomy that you will encounter in the future. You are also encouraged to reflect on your observations and experiences in your Clinic Portfolio. This will link your learning with the Personal and Professional Development module.

Want to know more?

Want to find out more? Come along to our next Open Day and you’ll learn all about our prestigious Acupuncture training and chat to staff and students.

Have a look at our Course Overview page to see which modules you’ll take during which year of our Licentiate programme, and how these are broken up into part time study.

Our aims for you

At ICOM our aim is to inspire lifelong learners. We strive to:

• provide you with the space and support to become the best practitioners you can possibly be. 
• cultivate in all our students integrity, humility and dedication. 
• keep our class sizes small to ensure that we can support your individual needs.
• provide you with a thorough and rewarding training in the theory, diagnosis and practice of traditional Chinese acupuncture to develop you as a caring, perceptive and effective acupuncture practitioner. 
• provide you with the necessary skills to practise acupuncture safely and competently upon graduation. This includes skills in patient assessment and diagnosis, as well as accurate and informed use of acupuncture techniques, moxa and cupping.
• ensure you are given a sound understanding of Western anatomy, physiology and differential diagnosis/pathology.
• help you to become a reflective practitioner, able to identify personal and professional goals for continuing professional development and lifelong learning. 
• give you a keen awareness of ‘red flag’ symptoms and limits to your competence.
• prepare you to join the wider profession, which includes membership of the British Acupuncture Council along with practice development and management.