Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences

The Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences (ACOS) offers 3-, 4- and 5-year full-time Diploma programs in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). ACOS re-integrates TCM as taught in the Peoples' Republic with a pre-cultural revolution, 400 year old family tradition. The programs include the acquisition of the language, which deepens the ability for students to understand and research TCM in its original world view. All components of TCM are covered, including:

• Acupuncture
• Moxibustion
• Tuina (massage)
• Qigong/Daoyin
• Diet/Nutrition
• Herbology
• Mental-Emotional Therapy and Counseling
• History/Philosophy
• Complete medical theory.
• Taiji Quan

In addition, the Western Medicine component ensures capable communication with other health care professionals and meets the present requirements for licensing. Students receive formal instruction and hands-on experience in business and profession management, to ensure successful future practice.

Our Philosophy

A conventional conception in the western world is that our health is a place where we stand and disease is a deviation from this static point. Professional healers know, however, that health is a dynamic balance dependent on contextual variables such as lifestyle, environment, genetics, exposure to pathogens and misadventure. In Western philosophy, from the time of Rene Descartes in the 17th century, there has been an ideational separation of mind and body which has enabled the profound achievements of internal medicine and surgery. However, it is realized now that true healing must involve the whole being of a person, and that consideration must be given to more than just the physical aspects of illness. To address this problem in Canada, hospitals and ministries of health are looking at a wide range of alternative medical practices.

One of the deepest and broadest of the non-western systems of medicine in the world is Chinese medicine. In Chinese culture the understanding of health as a fluid balance of process and change is firmly rooted in both ancient time and living consciousness. The central goal of Chinese medicine is to achieve harmony for health and longevity. This harmony is reached internally through medical treatment and externally through the promotion of positive lifestyle changes. The health process is approached holistically. Rather than focusing on a symptom and its isolated manifestations, dysfunction is dealt with in a wide context of the persona as an integrated body and mind existing in a larger physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual environment.

Centuries of practical experience and clinical observation have proven the efficacy of Chinese medicine. In the People's Republic of China, the integration of traditional methods of healing into the national system of medical delivery has proved effective and practical, raising levels of health in the population and keeping the costs of health care down. Either system of western biomedical or traditional Chinese medicine is used where it is most effective so that they complement one another. Consider that one in six people alive today lives in China, yet their per-capita health care costs are a fraction of those in North America and Europe.

It is our aim at the Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences to promote the wisdom of the Chinese medical tradition in a way that benefits all people of our world. Medicine as we have known it cannot remain the same in the future, and we believe that Chinese medicine offers a potent approach to health and healthy living for all peoples.

School Facts

• The Academy offers rigorous 3-, 4- and 5-year diploma programs in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Acupuncture.
• The Academy has a faculty of 15 highly qualified instructors delivering 3,990 hours of instruction in our comprehensive 5-year program and 3,375 hours of instruction in our comprehensive 4-year program.
• Students are instructed in all aspects of TCM including acupuncture, Chinese herbs, Chinese dietary therapy, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Tuina (Chinese massage). As well, there is a Western Medicine component to the programs, including counseling skills. Our Business Management course provides students with the necessary business skills required to set up a successful practice in Chinese Medicine.
• Unique features of our program are the integration of Chinese language (Mandarin) into the daily experience of the students, comprehensive Qi Gong training and advanced study of Meridian theory.
• The busy Academy Outpatient Clinic located on campus, enables students to partake in clinical observation. A patent medicine and raw herb dispensary with over 400 herbs and a comprehensive bookstore is also located on campus.
• In the final year of studies, students under the supervision of their instructors begin treating patients in the Student Clinic. The Student Clinic, operated solely by the students, is a low cost outpatient clinic offering services to the community.
• Students undergo an intensive practicum, which provides them with additional hands-on experience with highly qualified practitioners throughout Canada.

If you are interested in any of our programs and would like to find out more, please Request Information.