Certification Programs:

Asian Healing Arts
and Whole Foods Nutrition Program

This program is a comprehensive blend of East Asian approaches to wellness, sound nutritional practices, and contemporary scientific perspectives. Created by Paul Pitchford, author of the acclaimed Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, this three-quarter curriculum brings together a synergy of mutually supportive therapies into a dynamic unity. The therapies that are included form the fundamental “branches” of Far Eastern healing: whole foods nutrition, bodywork, and the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—sustained by the foundation practices of meditation, tai ji, and qi gong. The principles of health and healing in this training are established through the cultivation of stillness, centered awareness, and respect for the whole human being.

As a graduate of the program, you will have the tools to meet your clients’ therapeutic needs from an integral, holistic perspective. You will be able to identify the nature of your clients’ health issues using Traditional Chinese Medical theory and Zen Shiatsu palpation skills. Your integrative healing arts training will allow you to correct imbalances through contacting the meridian/organ systems with bodywork, qi gong, and meditation. Using the dietary teachings of the program, you will be able to provide client-specific nutritional assessment with recommendations. Having cultivated your own awareness, you will have the knowledge and vision to counsel others in making lifestyle changes that are life affirming, health promoting, and socially/ecologically responsible.

The “integrative healing arts” signature of the program provides a new and unique method of nutritional education as well as counseling skills for using with future clients. Our assessment methods train you in heightened sensory awareness of the TCM meridian system.  Such an ultimate method of assessment, utilized by Asia’s finest practitioners since ancient times, is experienced by sensing—via touch—the vitality (qi) of the acu-meridians and points, to determine the condition of client’s internal organs. This diagnostic method then confirms the various other assessment methods of the program (listed later). Thus the bodywork, qi gong, tai ji, and meditation trainings are substantial and taught at high skill levels in order to provide you with a rare healing experience—authentic qi awareness, leading to professional diagnostic accuracy.

First Quarter
In the first quarter of this program, Meridian Massage integrates East and West in a bodywork protocol that utilizes classic massage strokes focused on acu-meridian channels while providing you with a foundation in Western musculoskeletal anatomy. The focus of this bodywork will be improving flexibility and circulation of bodily fluids and qi; other topics include Joint Mobilization, acu-meridian stretching, and gentle myofascial stretching. Students will learn how to employ proper body mechanics while giving this relaxing yet invigorating massage. Effects, benefits, and contraindications, as well as specific protocols and pathologies, will be covered. You will also be introduced to traditional Chinese medical theory and its rudimentary components such as the Five Elements and Eight Principles.

Second Quarter
The second quarter of the program, Integrative Healing Arts 1, provides training in shiatsu acupressure, a traditional East Asian system of healing touch that enhances health and longevity through a complete bodywork sequence involving pressure points and subtle stretches. Theory topics include an exploration of the crowning achievement of Chinese Medicine—its “Syndromes of the Organs” and the nutritional therapies associated with them; this process includes the remarkably insightful principles of traditional Chinese physiology and pathology.

TCM diagnostic tools include the tongue, pulses, and in-depth interview techniques. Students will develop skill in tailoring their bodywork sessions to the specific needs of their clients. Receiving integrative sessions from fellow students on a daily basis allows you to experience renewed health and vigor.

Emphasis is also placed on the foundations of whole foods nutrition, including the latest thinking on fats, carbohydrates, proteins, sugars and many other topics. Whole foods cookery classes teach you to prepare food-as-medicine for the mind and body. Additionally you will experience fine organic cuisine prepared by the superb Heartwood chefs. Ultimately, you will learn how to make dietary changes to foster vitality and well-being.

Third Quarter
In the third quarter, Integrative Healing Arts 2, the focus shifts to assessment, treatment planning, and application, all within the context of clinical experience. Advanced methods of zen shiatsu—with it’s mindful, intuition-enabling nature—will be taught as well as a consolidation of all previous bodywork methods including meridian massage. This level of bodywork coupled with advanced awareness practices (qi gong/tai ji and meditation) will generate a solid, hands-on basis that ensures your success in nutrition assessment and counseling.

Treatments such as moxabustion, cupping therapy, an introduction to auriculotherapy (ear acupoint therapy), and meridian-specific exercises are also taught.

Dietary teachings include protecting against the major patterns of imbalance found in Western culture—obesity, heart disease, inflammatory diseases, cancer, and others. Various diets will be explored for their beneficial as well as detrimental aspects, e.g., raw food diets, vegan, plant based diets, Sattva yogic traditional diets, low carb/high protein diets, blood type, and others. Central principles of whole foods nutrition, illustrated through nutritional science, TCM principles, and cooking demonstrations, will include the value of unrefined foods, spices and herbs, the benefits of seasonal and regional diets, fasting and purification, cleansing protocols, parasite purge and infection eradication plans, understanding food combining, and strategies for providing optimal nourishment for children, the elderly, and during pregnancy.

Program Objectives

• To empower students with a proven integrative healing art, including in-depth knowledge of whole foods nutrition along with dietary and lifestyle counseling skills, and the diagnostic, therapeutic support for these
  skills—Zen Shiatsu acupressure and meridian massage, the theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine, tai ji and qi gong exercises; and meditation-awareness practices
• To provide students with holistic training representing a dynamic merger of ancient East Asian teachings with modern health science
• To work with students in a supervised clinical setting with direct client contact for assessment, treatment and development of nutritional and lifestyle plans
• To encourage students to personally experience the remarkable healing value of this integral program
• To give students a unique, superb training in highly sought-after therapies of integrative medicine; and the tools and information needed to build a successful practice and gain employment in the field
• To qualify students for these options: entrance to the National Certification Exam (NCE) and membership in the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia (AOBTA); and to provide ideal skills for those in transition to advanced schools of
  Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture.

Asian Healing Arts and Whole Foods Nutrition Program
9 months - 810 hours

Curriculum

Integrative Healing Arts

Human Sciences

Professional Development

Movement & Meditation