A Study Guide for IOC

We offer the opportunities that you will find nowhere else. Do you want to work on yourself in order to become healthy and vital? Do you want to study and learn a good profession? Does the traditional Chinese way of thinking appeal to you? Do you, at the same time, also want to study a modern profession with the latest scientific insights? If so, you can study and train with our short or long term training and education. The Oriental College guarantees sound knowledge in the chosen profession at the completion of one’s study, a study which will always be exciting, varied and instructive; a study which will give you the opportunity to develop yourself into the person that you always wanted to be: friendly, helpful, independent, having in one’s possession a wealth of knowledge and methodology to determine your own direction for the rest of your life.

At the Oriental College we combine traditional Chinese medical, psychological and social wisdom, personal training and self cultivation, as well as western medical, psychological and cultural Anthropology. This allows you to take advantage of an optimal and modern approach to learning that you will not find anywhere else in Europe where the learning of Chinese medicine or other such studies are concerned.

The Oriental College is the only veritable, independent university for the study of (Chinese) natural medicine in Europe. We have adapted ourselves to the Bologna/European guidelines for university studies, and use the European standards for scientific research. The professions that we have developed from the Chinese tradition in combination with western achievements guarantee, worldwide, the maximum of personal and professional development.

The Oriental College has much to offer. What we ask in return is enthusiasm, perseverance, inquisitiveness, independence, cooperation, and a willingness to grow and develop yourself and the world around you!

Our studies are designed for students who prefer to look beyond what is usually on offer, and for whom it is important to always work on one’s development. This is the tradition of Chinese medicine, that the therapist/teacher constantly works on his/her own development. This process of self cultivation is a central theme for the Oriental College. Also important: independence in your future profession. We expect our students to develop insight into what is taught, thus preventing falling back on treatment methods based solely on formula’s such as are quite common in modern TCM.

If you want to know more about our studies, please read this guide and make an appointment so that we can answer your questions personally.
FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME STUDIES

The Oriental College is a training institute where various studies can be followed on an academic level. Common denominator in all our studies is that they are based on Eastern philosophies, mainly from the Chinese and Tibetan cultures.

Within our program you can learn to be a excellent professional in:

• Acupuncturist
• Tuina and Anmo masseur
• Moxibustion therapist
• Herbal medicine and pharmacy (under construction)
• Qigong (chi kung) teaching and /or healing
• Taijiquan (T’ai Chi) teaching and sports
• Martial arts teacher and expert
• Wudang fitness teacher
• Yijing counselor
• Qigong teacher
• Qigong revalidation expert
• Qigong healer
• Qigong exercise engineer
• Daoist Psychological Counselor
• Geomantics (Feng Shui) and astrology (Ming shu) (under construction)
• Daoism researcher (New in Europe!)
• Chinese language translator and interpreter

All these studies are combined with the profession of Anthropological and Medical Anthropology researcher

We guarantee academic excellence and skills, and refuse to be downgraded into Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM, equal status to nurses and veterinarians in respect to doctors) regulations. We are proud to be professionals in the Chinese medicines!

Chinese medicine is a knowledge that has degenerated in the West to treatment according to formula’s that don’t do justice to the originality of the subject. At the Oriental College, we treat it differently. We not only base our studies on traditional insights and methods (based on Qigong), combined with modern knowledge, but we also, as only institute, combine the studies with medical anthropology. After all, we train students to work in the Western with Eastern knowledge.
Our bachelor programs start in September and in February.

Our extensive study program in various subjects, with, as is traditional, the Chinese cosmology as center-point, has led us to be accredited by the “World Council of Academic Excellence”. Exchange programs with various Chinese education institutes allow our students to gain in-depth knowledge in China as well.

Self-cultivation, or seeing to your own health and vitality in first instance, was always one of the core elements of Chinese medicine, which includes the adage that you cannot apply something on your patients that you haven’t tried out first on yourself. Thus, an extensive trainee-ship as well as an extensive program to work on yourself are part and parcel of our high quality standards.

The program is built up in a modular fashion, which allows you to determine your own study pace. National and international guest teachers add their expertise to our program, and our research department has various projects available for research.

You are looking for a new career, a study that will enrich your life, teach you about life, culture and yourself and at the same time teach you a time valued profession?

This is where you want to be: The Oriental College, a private university, with worldwide recognition in the field, internationally accredited by the World Council for Academic Excellence and the first and only independent university for Chinese Medicines in the world. Are you serious about study? Do not be fooled by nice sounding promises and other half truths: Excellence takes effort and inspiration, not filling your head with mindless facts. Our formula combines active exercise (qigong) with learning theory, professional skills and culture studies. Each part is integrated with the other and explains about the other. Our study is full time or part time, just as you prefer. But it is always good stuff.

University

To study at a University in Chinese medicines means that later you will say to your clients, students, friends and family that you take your profession more than serious. So our contract with you is that you later must be proud of yourself for having completed the training. Because we are an independent university and cooperate with many universities all over the globe means we give you the most modern and developed education in the Chinese medicines you can have:

- We are not influenced by politics, like Chinese universities and therefore not limited in what we are allowed to teach or say, we can help you develop a true image of the fields and history of Chinese medicines and cultures.
- We are not influenced by neo-liberalist commercialism, so we do not process you like numbers. Nor do we use old fashioned learning systems where you have to memorize formula’s to be able to graduate. We teach you to be intelligent practitioners.
- We do not buy our degrees at a foreign university so our degrees have a true value, namely based on your study results and the many materials we offered you for study.
- We also do not put limits on what we can give. If we get more, we think our students need to get it too. That means life long learning for you, just as international law requires. We will keep upgrading you during the course of your professional life. We will also monitor you by post graduate programs of interest and value and hope to learn from you too.
- We help students actively in many ways to pursue a rewarding careers and are continuously involved in creating new job opportunities around the globe or locations you prefer.
- All our knowledge is practice and evidence based. We will show you how to proof the value of your skills and how to produce research to support your research.
- We also teach you how to stay healthy and fit and use this in your advantage as a professional. Our combined program of qigong, professional and academic learning prevents that you fall victim of your work and supports deep understanding and high excellence in your chosen profession.

Full time and part time study

All our coursed can be followed either as full time or part-time study. You can also just follow theoretical modules for your own interest or as a post-graduate study or as an up-graduate study because you studied elsewhere and feel (as usual) something is still missing in your understanding and practice.

Chinese medicine

In fact internationally we speak of the field of Chinese medicines and psychology. There are many approaches to health in the Chinese medicines, hence the so many professions we offer above. In all these approaches some things are every time the same: Chinese medicines revolve about ethics, not diseases that are things in people. The study of Chinese medicines involves therefore the study of culture, of thinking, of behavior and of society. Why do people get sick, how can we improve health, how can we participate in governmental policy making and professional self regulation?
Chinese medicine is positioned in a 90 degrees angle with bio-medicine. Both are scientific, but base themselves on a different science. Chinese Classical Therapeutics always involves a part treatment to restore normal functioning and a part personal cultivation to prevent returning of complaints. As a therapist you need to have gone through a piece of personal cultivation yourself. You are the model on which you base your ideas of health. To do that last part we have combined Chinese medicine with anthropology to teach you about culture in this multicultural society. You cannot think as yourself in therapy, you have to understand your clients! We discuss culture, religion, aesthetics, sociology, science and everything else you need to know or you bring up.

Anthropology

Anthropology and medical and psychological anthropology are very important fields of study in modern medicine, philosophy and politics. Anthropologists are requested to actively participate in many development programs of medicine, culture and society. Why? Because anthropologists develop ideas about people.
We believe medicine cannot be studied without study of anthropology in this modern time. If you believe you can just learn some therapeutic tools and they will always work on any disease, think again. How many times did you take medicines that worked? What made that they worked? Because you noticed your therapist understood you and your background.
Anthropology also researches people and their (often personal) cultures (backgrounds). Because of doing so, they can help and assist people in their development as a professional or as a group or as a diseased or confused person. They can do so especially by combining their academic skills and knowledge with the field of Chinese medicines, since the Chinese medicines deal with people and their lives too.
On top of that, you could be come a professional anthropologist yourself by the directions you choose in our programs and support the growth of medicines in modern societies.

Sociology

In sociology you learn how a society constructs itself and how people organize themselves. Why is that important to know in Chinese medicines study? This is to have an advantage to settle your career for one. Because in the structure of society many problems for people are being produced is another reason to come to an understanding of society. We see sociology as part of the Anthropology program. It will help you widen your view of disease and health, but also widen your career options.

Medicine studies

Who doesn’t want to practice a profession that makes her or him useful to his or her fellow human beings, to be involved in the survival of the species, be a hero or heroin in her own right? Everybody, Of course! Medicine studies when grounded in personal cultivation and philosophy is just that. Medicine that disperses recipes according to bureaucratic rules or that sees people as flesh that needs cutting or chemical adjustment or other forms of mechanistic invasion does not. At the Oriental College we see medicine as both a technical as well as a philosophical profession where personal commitment to health and fellow human beings is the prime reason why to study something like this. Medicine is the noblest of professions, but also the most complex to study. So expect to work when studying!

Art of health

Health is not something you can buy, nor something you can upload or install in someone. Health can only be acquired through practice. Practice can only come after education.
Health is something we mostly gradually lose through gradual forgetfulness, haste, greed and plain stupidity. Health can therefore only be overcome by recognizing the aesthetics of life, of nature, of activity. Life in itself is due to the way we live it a manifesto, a monument for the way we perceive life. The Oriental college takes that as a core idea in all its studies and professions.

Qigong

Yangsheng Qigong figures prominently in all out programs. In fact, Qigong is the core of our BA program and several MA programs are closely intertwined with qigong as well. Why? Because Qigong is the method to come to understanding of concepts developed in Chinese culture during the last 5000 years. In this we break with what ordinary studies do. We want you to have a solid comprehension of the professions by developing firsthand insight of meaning and relation within ancient Chinese culture and in relationship to modern culture. It is what Chinese medicine since prehistoric times is based on! We will correct you during your study on incorrect use of terminology (such as energy for Qi and so on). We firmly believe that Chinese medicine should only be studied from its own cultural context to be able to understand traditional professional literature on health and treatment. By learning this way you also get the opportunity to research yourself and develop a vision on life, society, nature and everything.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture skills are not easy to develop. TCM study averagely focuses on needle formula’s and simplifying and mechanizing needle setting. Newer and easier methods are developed by industrial conglomerates and also electrical and laser equipment to avoid that you have to learn acupuncture and without actually improving curative effect. But machines and easier techniques and formula’s are not acupuncture. They are an insult to the profession. Why?
Acupuncture requires understanding why that one needle will be enough to achieve that result to achieve a specific curative effect. This is called excellence in skills, and that is what our study aims for. To achieve excellence you first learn firsthand how the body and mind work through yangsheng (health cultivation) qigong mind and body practices and later by investigating the body by developing massage skills. This is the way it was traditionally done, and we think this way is still the best. Skills can not be developed from books, you need hands on experience and self experimentation, like in all serious medicines. You do not need machines, you need intelligence and creativity.

Tuina

Tuina and Anmo are some to the traditional names given to massage body manipulation techniques for beneficial and healing effects. Massage is after exercise technique the most important method of Chinese medicine. Massage can help with many problems, but can also prevent many problems to get out of hand when applied in proper medical theory and by skillful hands and minds. Chinese medicine tradition provides this theory, the IOC provides the skills and you have to develop the mind!

Massage study is integrated at the Oriental College with acupuncture so that you have the best of both worlds. There is always a high demand for massage therapists for helping people to deal with stress and physical discomfort. It is a good start for a career in medicine and it will help you to build good trusting working relations with your clients but also deepen your professional skills beyond belief. Why? Because your massage skills are rooted in our oriental College program of Qigong practice from the onset.

Where is Chinese massage different from western massage? Chinese massage treats people that are bodies. Western massage only massages muscles and bones separate from the people, however nice it feels. Chinese massage can be firm, soft, rapid, slow, intense, superficial, all upon demand and in relationship to people’s body or emotional complaints.
Where does OC Tuina differ from ordinarily Tuina? Because of the qigong skills you can acquire excellence!

Psychology and Medicinal psychology

The Oriental College is the only university of Medicines in the world that gives so much emphasis to the psychological ideologies underpinning Chinese medicines. In fact, Chinese medicines are no medicines when not the mind and construction of the mind is taken under consideration as well. Behavior, chemistry and thoughts of individuals are after all of importance to the choices that develop health and disease as well! Within our program the content and purposes of Chinese traditions are being researched for application in psychological and psychotherapeutic practice like nowhere else. Daoism, Huanglao naturalism, Confucianism, Buddhism and other classical strains of ideas thought are all being investigated and experimented with to come to proper understanding of the many psychological and social problems people can find themselves in. these are moreover contrasted with western approaches to show similarities and differences.

Yijing

The study of the Yijing, the book of changes is at the core of many aspects of Chinese medicine and culture. This enigmatic book provides material for long debates over the how and what of life, the universe and beyond, but also about the book itself, because it provides valuable clues as how the history and culture of China could come about. This book is about the natural as well as the supernatural. We root study of the Yi in practicing its methods and the theoretical ideas of modern and ancient researchers of the book, its ideas and purposes. Deep study will lead you to become great counselors as well as advisers in many fields of Chinese culture and medicines.

Daoism

Daoism has become a myth in the west. The Oriental College provides in cooperation with Sichuan University a comprehensive program for the study of Daoism where parts will be studied here, but some in China under the tutelage of Daoists. Religion, philosophy and other cultural aspects of Daoism are foundational for the way Chinese medicine developed. Eventually therefore the study will combine with anthropology and comparative medicine studies to make excellent researchers and publicists.

Wudang Taijiquan

Taijiquan is a mystery to most practitioners. Its modern manifestation as exercise for the elderly is just one of the many facets that come to light in this extensive and intensive study. Through martial arts, Wudang Taijiquan especially, a sum mum of health can be acquired. A the Oriental College you will find opportunity to learn different kind of forms that will help you to excel as sports teacher and supporter of alchemy based health practices. First and foremost in this training course is the formation of a strong stamina to be able to bear up with the rigorous practices in the higher levels of practice. This is not a course like elsewhere, this is a course that will tax you and make you become the basics of taijiquan!

Exercise for health

Qigong practice is dominant in our program, but can also be studied to become professional teacher at any level of excellence. To become expert teacher you need to go through rigorous training and develop certain qualities yourself before you can teach. We cannot settle for light programs of 1 hour or less practice. We recommend minimum 4 hours practice per day. More practice develops stout health and clear understanding of health too. Light practice only produces nice feelings and however important that is, it can be cause for disease. And only after you have got that, you can call yourself professional qigong teacher.
Qigong teachers find professional application as physiotherapeutic specialist in revalidation, sports, fitness and spirituality. Direction depends on your choices.
But qigong is not only for developing health. Some Qigong exercise helps develop and stimulate intelligence and creativity. Therefore qigong can provide a lot of support in many other professional skills. Many people can or have lots of benefit from Qigong exercises and many more could because of you. Qigong also supports by developing exercises, for instance by creating specific exercises for professional excellence in skills. Many companies could use professional exercise engineers that use qigong to train their employees to develop better skills in their profession.

Qigong based studies of Chinese medicine cultures, just the thing to do.

What makes the Oriental College different?

The Oriental College differs from other institutes in Chinese medicine and culture.As you have seen we incorporate medical anthropology and sociology in our program. But these are not the only differences. Here we list some other:

• International academic network

Many institutes claim to have contacts with universities in order to appear to be on an academic level, but they don’t appear to have much cooperation going. Sometimes the level of the Chinese universities in question are not even recognized as such in Europe.
We have at our disposal an extensive network of universities (recognized) in China and in other parts of the world. We are also connected to Euro TCM, an organization concerned with the quality of schooling in the area of Chinese medicine.
Accreditation by the “World Council of Academic Excellence” has also made us the standard with which to compare levels of schooling in Chinese medicine. If you so wish you are able to study partly in China. We also conduct annual study travels to China.

• Individual supervision

Every three months the progress of your study will be dealt with in an individual talk with one of the teachers, and when appropriate, a task will be given with which to work. This ensures that you are developing the right way.

• Trainee-ship

We can offer you a trainee-ship in one of our practices, with professional supervision and opportunities to practice what you have learned. Trainee-ship is a compulsory part of the master’s program, ensuring that at completion of your studies you are a confident and solid practitioner. Our standard for trainee-ship is the same as the standard of the World Health Organization.