NCNM's New Campus Clinic

Today I visited NCNM's new campus clinic. I was impressed by the organization and cleanliness of the place. The treatment rooms were quite spacious. The students from the ND program and the Classical Chinese Medicine program share the building. On the second floor one side is devoted to ND's and the other CC Medicine. I had the pleasure of getting a CC Med student as my tour guide and she explained the basics of acupuncture to me. It was surprising to learn how deep the needles are placed in the body. I always thought they were quite superficial but I learned today they often stick them an inch deep! Sometimes when working in the glutes they use 2-3 inches! Crazy. I suppose the depth is often left up to the practitioner, where they penetrate the tissue to the depths of the Qi?? Interesting. When asked about how she knows how deep to go she simply said you "feel" it when you've tapped into the Qi... I asked her if the idea stems from elements and molecules being attracted to the metal and she said the idea isn't about that at all. Even though this could happen as a secondary effect.

I spoke with a recent ND graduate about the program and it's intensity. He told me his story is quite different the regular student because he did the dual degree in both programs which was around 35 hours of class a week. I told him we were doing about 36 hours a week at DC school and he seemed amazed. Tomorrow I am heading to participate in a campus tour and to learn more about this different approach to healthcare.

I am attracted to naturopathic because it's tenants are similar to my background in personal training, in that their goal is to help people take responsibility of their health and to increase wellness in those who live healthy lives. It definitely digs deeper into physiological therapeutics than DC school because they focus on balancing the body from within.

I learned ND's do quite a bit of adjusting too. This was quite shocking because I thought only DC's, DO's and PT's adjusted. But, I guess their goal is to help folks obtain structural balance too. It seemed to me the profession is heavily based in prevention. The good stuff.

All for now