Choosing A Practitioner Of Chinese Medicine

Choosing a practitioner of Chinese medicine is not as easy as it sounds. Regulatory bodies – albeit working hard to enforce rules and regulations – have not been successful in stemming the tide of frauds and self proclaimed healers. While it is only too easy to trust governmental entities to protect the American consumer from the medic who is practicing in his or her field without a license, when it comes to alternative forms of medicine the patient is by and large the best source of defense. Yes, this does place the individual in a position of the utmost responsibility when it comes to the quality of their healthcare. Even as in Western medicine many of the accreditations are automatically checked by insurance companies who will include the physician in their directory only after she or he is found to be fully licensed, the same standard is not applied to the practitioner of alternative and thus Chinese medicine and still many a person in search of an alternative healer will not pick up the slack and do the leg work.

This has led to a surge of therapists, healers, herbalists, and acupuncturists who proclaim to be extensively trained, but who – in some cases – have little more education than a correspondence home study course taken via the Internet. Much of such a practitioner's knowledge is theoretical and in some cases even erroneously applied.

Finding the right stuff is not nearly as hard as some would assume and choosing a practitioner of Chinese medicine is as simple as asking questions about their training. For example, if the healer claims graduation from a certain school, check to see if it is accredited. If it is not, the odds are good that it is a diploma mill and as such it does not hold any value. Interview the healer with respect to his willingness to refer the patient to a practitioner of Western medicine in the case of a life threatening illness. Generally speaking, a therapist must offer this kind of advice to a patient who exhibits symptoms of a potentially life threatening or disabling illness.

Choosing a practitioner of Chinese medicine should also lead you to let your eye roam critically over the establishment where the modality is practiced. Is it clean? If there are needles used, such as in acupuncture, is there a bio waste container readily available? Some practitioners will rely on needle cleanliness to provide a safe treatment environment. Ask the practitioner about his knowledge of the protocol. Any healer who balks at being questioned in such a manner should be excluded from your choice of individuals whom you will permit to treat you.

Remember, the healer is working for you; therefore, it is entirely reasonable to ask for references and a background. Similarly, any practitioner of Chinese medicine who is truly serious in her or his passion about the field will heartily agree that caution is the need of the hour in a field that in the past has received a bad reputation because of a few bad apples that threatened to ruin the entire batch.

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