Are there different types of Acupuncture?

Acupuncture from a Registered Acupuncturist

Acupuncturists are regulated healthcare professionals, and members of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario, CTCMPAO. Their training is long and extensive, minimally 2,000 hours, and includes Western Biomedicine subjects such as physiology, anatomy, and Western Diagnosis, TCM diagnosis and treatment, 500 hours of clinical practicum, as well as exams related to Theory, Diagnosis, Treatment, Safety, and Jurisprudence.

A Registered Acupuncturist, or R.Ac., uses the Traditional Chinese Medicine approach to diagnose mental and physical health imbalances, and safely insert thin needles in selected points in the meridians of acupuncture, in order to promote health, and prevent/treat common diseases.

The body of knowledge from TCM is vast and deep, and Registered Acupuncturists may have a style that differs. Some will emphasize the regulation of Internal Organs, others balancing of the Five Elements, for instance, but all work within the frameworks of common principles and health laws from texts and standard practices.

Acupuncture provided by other regulated healthcare professionals

You may have received acupuncture from a chiropractor, physiotherapist, massage therapist or naturopath. In Ontario, seven other health colleges allow their members to practice a scaled-down version of acupuncture, but only members of the CTCMPAO college can use the designation Acupuncturist, or have Acupuncture services covered by insurance. A Naturopath for example may do acupuncture and have it covered under Naturopathic benefits, but Acupuncture benefits specifically are only covered with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) Registered Acupuncturists.

Members from other colleges practice good acupuncture. In general their training is a lot shorter, 150 to 300 hours (compared to 2000 hours). It may happen that acupuncture from other healthcare professionals will tend to be more based on recipes (these points are good for shoulder pain for instance), as opposed to a thorough personalization of the diagnosis, how systems/points interact, or affect the person's health based on the body of knowledge from TCM.