The Acupuncture Internship Program offers a unique learning experience for students to become professional and compassionate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM ) acupuncturists.

This program offers fundamental and practical skills that reinforces what they learned in college.

Students have the opportunity to work as a pre-doctor of TCM in a clinical setting with real patients. Usually students need to pay for an internship, but in these program students are actively practicing and therefore receive compensation. Students need this program to learn how to discipline themselves, how to use their knowledge effectively and to become professional. Thus, every student is welcome to join this internship program. The earlier students start joining as an intern, the more experienced and prepared they will become as a professional TCM doctor.

Internship Objectives:

Care for patients:
- Provide a clean environment
- Ensure patients’ safety and comfort
- Refrain from disclosing confidential information
- Listen and be compassionate to patients’ concerns
Become professional:
- Build a healthy relationship with co-workers
- Focus on patients’ conditions and not on unimportant matters
- Gain confidence and experience
- Observe how to communicate effectively with patients and co-workers
Apply knowledge into practice:
- Apply knowledge and skills based on TCM concepts only.
- Pulse and tongue diagnosis
- Develop palpation skills
- Practice cupping and massage skills

Dr. Gui Chao Wu’s Personal Journey:

After graduating from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, he immigrated to Toronto, Canada. His sponsor provided him with excellent living conditions and a suitable clinic without additional costs and received a basic salary. As this was his first venture, he was unable to thrive in this environment and made the decision to move to Los Angeles, USA to continue his TCM acupuncture career. He earned his

California, USA acupuncturist license and worked under the guidance of a former physician and head of the Acupuncture department in a hospital in China. Although he gained a different experience in the United States, he was still unable to expand his potential and growth, so he moved to Calgary. He identified a strong gap between knowledge gained through schooling and applying that knowledge as a professional doctor. This resulted in the development of the Acupuncture Internship Program to prepare students to remove the challenges he had to face.

Students’ Internship Testimonials:

I have been working with Dr. Wu since May 2016. When I first started, I was shadowing Dr. Wu for a while but eventually started treating the patients alongside him (not including the needling part, of course). I used to make a lot of mistakes at the start, but with Dr. Wu’s patience and guidance, I was able to correct them. I always keep in mind Dr. Wu’s words: “You have the knowledge and this program is to help you how to apply the knowledge.” This belief of Dr. Wu was based on Professor Cheng Kai’s concept:

“You have to know that you have the knowledge and you must also know how apply that knowledge”. I believe that these words best describe the internship program. If I were to compare my skills from a year ago – from communicating with patients to my cupping skills – to the skills I have developed since, I am confident enough to say that I know how to apply my skills a lot more effectively now.

I joined Dr. Wu’s Acupuncturist Internship Program in March 2017 when I had absolutely no idea of what a TCM acupuncturist’s life was like, how the traditional TCM methods of diagnosis were performed, how the communication and treatment was supposed to be done, etc. I mean, we are learning all these theories at school, but we don’t really know how they work in real clinical settings.

I was thinking about these all the time before I was lucky enough to be accepted by Dr. Wu as an intern for this program. Observing Dr. Wu’s professional way of treating and taking care of patients makes me feel more enthusiastic about Traditional Chinese Medicine. I enjoy being in the clinic environment very much. Each time I come, I can always learn something new or learn something from the mistakes I make here. Sometimes I don’t even realize what I do is improper, but Dr. Wu always nicely reminds me and encourages me. I can tell that I am getting better in many aspects, which helps me tremendously to build up my confidence.

Right now I am on my third year of study and I feel so much at ease with myself and my treatments for patients thanks for all the expertise I have at Dr. Wu’s clinic. This program is definitely preparing me for my future career as a TCM acupuncturist. Thank you, Dr. Wu!

Acupuncture Internship program provided by Dr. Wu has being a great journey full of experiences, observation and hands on practice. In this internship program I found the opportunities to have exposure early into the practice of and Acupuncturist and a sense of how clinic settings work was abundant and greatly useful. This program is applicable to any Acupuncturist candidates as this helps to really engage in our abilities of what we learned and apply them into practice, this is one of the utmost valuable factor in any internship program which this has a very solid intuitive on. During these few months of my practice I have been opened to cooperation during a busy environment and being more familiar with procedures that guide us into our safe and clean working habits. Overall my sincere impression and thoughts is that this will really help us train, becoming more comfortable and capable of being well practiced Acupuncturists in the future.