Summertime Thanks for an Amazing Year

Posted: June 22, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Student Life | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We celebrated the Summer Solstice this week at Academy for Five Element Acupuncture. According to the laws of nature, summer has officially begun, ushering in the season of the Fire element. And so we celebrate the warmth, the joy, and the connections that summer and fire represent. Additionally, we are also celebrating our one year blog anniversary.

When I first started posting at this time last year, the Academy was preparing for Class 24/25’s commencement. I’m happy to report that the members of that class have passed their board exams  and have started their practices. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since they were here, treating and studying. Now, they’re treating patients all over the country, ranging from Florida to Kentucky, to New Mexico and Alaska. Oh the places that Five Element Acupuncture will take you.

And in the past year, Class 26 has also graduated. They’re in the midst of passing their NCCAOM exams. Yes, I have heard from many corners of the country that the members of Class 26 are passing their exams on the first take.  A few are already in practice. If you’re reading this and asking yourself how long it takes to start practicing after graduation, take this to heart: it can take as little as three months to pass your exams, apply for your license, and start treating on your own. While that’s the fast track, it is possible. I’m adding to the celebration list the inclusion of newly licensed Five Element Acupuncturists. The medicine is spreading and reaching more people. That is something to celebrate indeed.

We’re also celebrating Class 27’s Third Year point location. I am happy to say it is the last test I will have to proctor for them. They did an amazing job, even through their nerves!

To round out the list, Class 28 finished Year Two, Class 29 finished Year One and started the Chinese Herbal Studies program.

It has been a busy year. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate all of our students for their accomplishments this year. As an administrator, it’s a pleasure to support the goals of our students. I also want to take the opportunity to thank my colleagues in the administration for their support as this blog got off the ground, and for their consistent efforts in developing our acupuncture and herbal studies programs. We may not all be acupuncturists, but we believe in what we’re doing.

And so, at the sun’s high point, I offer thanks to everyone whom I have had the pleasure of working with this past year. May our paths cross again soon and often.

Acupuncture and Cake

Posted: May 21, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Student Life | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We’ve been eating a lot of cake lately at Academy for Five Element Acupuncture. Our AFEA community is populated with a lot of foodies- most of our students love to cook or bake, and they love to share. The cakes have been everything from vegan, to gluten-free, to chocolate decadence. The chocolate cake pictured here was a gift from one intern to the rest of her class as they finish up a long weekend. Her note reads, ‘To Class 27, in the middle of a long stretch.’  It’s indicative of how sharing food aims to bring us closer as a community. We share food on birthdays and to acknowledge academic milestones.  Sometimes, there’s no occasion other than to say, ‘I’m thinking of you. Thought this would make you smile.’ Because as delicious as all the cakes have been, they’ve really just been a vehicle to nourish the collective spirit.

Nourishment is a key principle in our program. Finding ways to properly nourish one’s self is an important aspect of the inner development of the practitioner. We ask our students to take care of themselves, to work on their own healing (which means something different for every individual) before they step into the treatment room. Food is obviously a form of nourishment, and these days it has become synonymous with comfort. The American diet in particular tends to focus on food as a form of comfort. Just think about the list of foods we specifically call ‘comfort foods:’  the sweet foods like chocolate, cake, pie and ice cream; or the savory foods like french fries, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes. We indulge in food to celebrate, to commiserate, to comfort ourselves and our friends.

More often than not that indulgence in ‘comfort food’ is destructive rather than nourishing. The shared experience of food isn’t inherently positive. It’s our intention of treating food as a shared or social experience that gives it meaning. It’s the love that inspires the sharing of the cake and the accompanying laughter that make the moment truly delicious.  Because we seek to treat the heart and the spirit, right along with the physical.

And so, how do you nourish yourself? Do you create communal food experiences? If you do, we’ll be having a lunch at the Open House in June for those interested in sharing their stories, their questions and their plans for the future. Please join us! In the meantime, you can feast your eyes on our vegan cupcake display from Class 26’s Commencement this past January:

Celebrating Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day

Posted: October 24, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Five Element Acupuncture, Student Life | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day was October 24th. Here at Academy for Five Element Acupuncture, we’ve decided to stretch out the celebration for the entire week. We kick things off tonight at 5:30pm. Please come and join us!

In honor of AOM Day, we’re hosting information sessions on the benefits of acupuncture and Chinese herbs. All this week students will be on hand in our downstairs classroom to talk with anyone- clinic patients and future patients alike- who is interested in learning more about acupuncture and Chinese herbs. There will also be viewings throughout the day of Numen: The Nature of Plants, a documentary detailing the healing powers of plants and plant-based medicines.

We will also be serving up nourishing snacks that are meant to meet the body’s specific seasonal needs. Fall is the time of the harvest, when the body needs to build up nutrient stores for the coming winter. So soups and stews are good foods to try, like our curried pumpkin soup. To help improve mental clarity and focus, try some of the sour foods we’ll be offering. Recipe cards will be provided so that you can take home the flavors of fall.

Here in Gainesville, we’ve finally started to experience the colder, autumnal temperatures. Those cool crisp mornings are invigorating to wake up to and there’s so much going on in town each weekend. As we get busier it’s important to remember to take care of our bodies in ways that will prepare us for all of fall’s adventures and winter’s return. These seasonal changes are what Five Element acupuncture is based on.  And this week we’re taking time out to spread the word and help support the well-being of our community.

(And for current students, it’s another great opportunity to see what Andi has cooked up for us!)

The Fall High Season at Academy for Five Element Acupuncture

Posted: September 26, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Five Element Acupuncture, Student Life | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Daylight is growing shorter, nights are getting cooler (even here in Florida), and the summer haze has lifted. It’s finally fall- last week’s Autumnal Equinox made it official. And AFEA’s busy season is in full swing. For Gainesville, fall means football games and art festivals. And for us this year, it means exams, first needles, and a brand new clinic class.

You’ve already read about Class 28’s first year exams, but in addition to that excitement, they also received their first needles. The Needling Ceremony is a very important part of the acupuncture training here at the Academy in which they receive their first needle from a senior practitioner. Students spend the first year of their studies establishing a theoretic framework on which Year Two is based. In Year Two, the curriculum transitions its focus away from what five element theory is and moves towards how an acupuncture practitioner uses the five elements in practice. And to signify that shift and to recognize their readiness, students are given their first needle. The ceremony reflects on the significance of that first needle and what it means for the beginning practitioner.  Class 28 is safely on its way home now- if not already there- and I wish them several, well-deserved, rest-filled days. It’s been an intense session (pun completely intended), and an intense year of study.

So, while Class 28 is practicing their needling technique on fruit, Class 27 is looking forward to their first human patients. They arrived last Monday for the first day of their Clinical Residency. After two years of intensive sessions, they are now settling in as Gainesville residents, working their way through Internship Prep II, and starting to recruit their first patients. To celebrate- and commemorate- the occasion, the class and their clinic supervisors took a trip on the Suwannee River. In between guided nature hikes, kayaking down the river, and singing along to the official AFEA song-book, they established their intentions for the clinical year experience. I hope to have pictures for the next posting. They have appropriately named their class, “Abundant Splendor,” and I know I speak for the faculty and the staff here at AFEA when I say we couldn’t be more proud of the transformations they have gone through in the last two years, and couldn’t be more excited to see what the next 12 months bring.

Looking at the last week, I find us at another moment of heavy transition, just like last June around graduation. Beginnings have a tendency to feel caught up in the “middle” of the process these days. There’s always a new something, and yet, that new something is part of a much larger picture that one can always just make out on the periphery. Time works in a  very circular pattern here. And so, in an effort to celebrate this part of the circle, I am inviting all of  Class 27 to share their feelings on the “start” of clinic. I am inviting all of Class 28 to reflect on the “end” of year one. And I am inviting Class 29 to reflect on their first intensive and share how they’re feeling about their second intensive, which is in the not-so-distant future.  I’d love to hear where everyone is in this moment.