International College of Oriental Medicine - ICOM

17/11/2025

Our penultimate Open Day of the year is happening this Thursday at ICOM.

If you are looking for a rewarding career in health then check out our accredited acupuncture course.

These Open Days give you a real feel for the college and the course. Plus you will find out more about what it’s like to study with us.

Come along to meet us in person at the college. We’ve got lots planned including a presentation by the Principal, an Acupuncture demonstration and some great activities for you.

You’ll get a great insight into our course and what sets us apart from other colleges and you’ll meet some current students and find out about college life.

Register your place via the homepage on our website.

https://orientalmed.ac.uk/college/open-days/

14/11/2025

The renowned Peter Firebrace is hosting another online CPD seminar next week all about Wind Points used in Traditional Acupuncture.

▫️Date: Tuesday 18 November
▫️Time: 6-8pm
▫️Cost: £40
▫️For Acupuncture practitioners and students
▫️Location: Online (class will be recorded)

We will explore why a specific set of points have been designated as wind points, their full meaning, qualities, uses and helpful clinical combinations in practice. Point by point we will build up a study of the point names, so that we are aware of them as the Chinese are, by name and not just by meridian and number, which was never a traditional concept.

Book your place: https://orientalmed.ac.uk/product/wind-points/

Image: Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating red and white ‘wandering wind’ (you feng, identified with seborrheic dermatitis), from Yizong jinjian: Waike xinfa (The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).

13/11/2025

Fantastic informative reel by our recent ICOM graduate, Magalie to celebrate Acupuncture Awareness Week 2025.

13/11/2025

Back by popular demand - our Facial Revitalisation Acupuncture Workshop is happening at ICOM this weekend.

Hosted by two of our highly-experienced practitioners and teachers Kirsten and Galit, you will be in safe hands learning techniques such as framing, threading, dispersing, revitalising. Plus safe and gentle techniques surrounding zones of concern, inflammation, and scars.

This popular Facial Revitalisation Acupuncture course will teach participants a gentle and holistic approach to using acupuncture for facial revitalisation. You’ll learn intuitive facial acupuncture techniques that achieve maximum results with minimum needle intervention.

This course is open to acupuncturists who have qualified from any BAAB accredited institution. It is also open to 3rd year students attending a BAAB accredited course.

Book here:

This popular Facial Revitalisation Acupuncture course will teach a gentle and holistic approach to using acupuncture for facial rejuvenation.

12/11/2025

In Chinese Medicine, movement is one of the fundamental pillars of health.

Qi is the vital energy that animates all things - it is never still. It rises, falls, enters, exits, and transforms. Health depends on this continuous flow; illness arises when movement becomes obstructed.

At ICOM, students and patients learn that movement isn’t only physical - it includes the movement of breath, emotion, thought, and spirit.

Practices such as qigong cultivate awareness of these subtle rhythms, helping future practitioners to understand health as a dynamic balance rather than a fixed state.

Movement, then, is medicine and a reminder that harmony depends on flow.

Join us at our next Open Day on 20 November to learn more about how movement and flow underpin acupuncture and Classical Chinese Medicine.

Image 1) Acupuncture Awareness Week
Image 2) ICOM year 2 students practicing qigong in the gardens of Van Buren House last week.

11/11/2025

It’s Acupuncture Awareness Week, and we’re talking about the benefits of traditional acupuncture as a personalised, preventative, lifestyle medicine – one that connects mind and body, and encompasses a whole system of health.

One of the most well-known lines on prevention in the Huangdi Neijing Suwen comes from Chapter 2:
“The sage does not treat disease after it has arisen, but prevents it before it occurs;
does not put things in order after disorder has arisen, but prevents disorder before it begins.”

-- The Great Treatise on Regulating the Spirit with the Four Seasons (四氣調神大論):

This teaching forms the foundation of yang sheng (養生 nourishing life): the art of aligning with seasonal rhythms, moderating emotion, diet, and activity to maintain harmony.

It’s the Suwen’s reminder that true medicine is preventative, not reactive and that living in tune with nature remains at the heart of traditional acupuncture practice.

Acupuncture Awareness Week takes place from 10 – 16 November 2025 and culminates on World Acupuncture Day (16 November).

British Acupuncture Council

10/11/2025

This week is Acupuncture Awareness Week 2025.

Our Acupuncture Course is accredited by the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board, the educational arm of the British Acupuncture Council.

The acupuncture course at ICOM has been accredited by the BAAB since 1997, and our college and teaching clinic has been supporting our local community for over 50 years.

We are proud to up-hold and contribute to the gold-standard training of BAcC Members, and the benefits of traditional acupuncture as a personalised, preventative, lifestyle medicine – one that connects mind and body, and encompasses a whole system of health.

Image credit: BAcC - a table showing different qualities of pulse diagnosis as understood through the lens of Chinese medicine.

Read more about our training at orientalmed.ac.uk

07/11/2025

A reminder that we are hosting our last open day of the year later this month.

We have been training acupuncturists for over 50 years and many of today’s leading authors in the world of Acupuncture trained here including Giovanni Maciocia, Roisin Golding, Peter Deadman, Sandra Hill, Royston Low, and many more.

We have blogs and articles on our website detailing what we offer, how our college operates and ways in which we support students throughout their studies.

If you would like to visit us in-person then why not register for our next Open Day, you can register via our website.

Next open day; Thursday 20 November 10am-2pm at ICOM in East Grinstead.

Register your place here by clicking the link below.

If you're interested in studying Acupuncture, why not attend one of ICOM's Open Days? They're currently held online via Zoom.

06/11/2025

CPD Course at ICOM
Introduction to the Safe Practice of Acupuncture in Cancer Care

•with Dr Beverley de Valois PhD
•Saturday 29 November 2025 | £100

We are delighted to share that Dr de Valois has been awarded the ISCMR Scientific Article Prize 2023–2024 for her paper “Acupuncture in Cancer Care: Recommendations for Safe Practice”.

Join her at ICOM for a one-day, in-person seminar exploring how to treat people living with and beyond cancer safely and confidently.

This seminar is suitable for acupuncturists, students and any complementary health therapist interested in working within the scope of cancer survivorship.

Book your place: https://orientalmed.ac.uk/product/acupuncture-and-cancer

Images: Beverley de Valois

05/11/2025

Did you know ICOM is the only acupuncture college in the UK to incorporate Stems and Branches theory into its licentiate course, providing the broadest based education in classical and traditional acupuncture.

What is Stems and Branches theory?

Stems and Branches is one of the most classical and distinctive aspects of acupuncture. It explores how the cycles and transformations of qi in nature also affect us as human beings shaping our health, emotions, and development throughout life.

We have blogs and videos on our website explaining more about our course content and what you can expect from studying Traditional Acupuncture at ICOM.

If you’re curious to learn more, join us for our next Open Day on 20 November and explore how studying acupuncture at ICOM can lead to a rewarding career in healthcare.

Learn more by clicking the link below.

Classical & contemporary approaches are taught at ICOM - Yin/Yang, 5 Elements, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as well as Stems and Branches acupuncture

04/11/2025

Join us tonight for the first of two webinars hosted by Peter Firebrace discussion Spirit Points.

On this course we will explore why a set of specific points have been designated as spiritual aspect points. We will look at their full meaning, qualities, uses and helpful clinical combinations in practice.

Read more:

Peter Firebrace will explain why a set of specific points have been designated as spiritual aspect points, looking at their meaning, qualities and uses.