Acupuncture training: What does L.Ac. mean?

Have you ever wondered what "L.Ac." means? Or wondered what training this person doing acupuncture has had? Here are your answers. L.Ac., those of us who are trained in the medical system called Chinese Medicine of which acupuncture is just one of the therapies are required to have 3 to 4 years of academic education in an approved Traditional Chinese Medicine school. Naturally, physicians can do acupuncture and generally they take a 300 hour course if they want to add acupuncture to their medical practice. Chiropractors can get "certified" to do acupuncture after a 100 hour course. Physical therapists do something called "dry needling" or trigger point therapy - don't get confused, this is NOT acupuncture and should not be called such. There are weekend courses in dry needling for PTs who want to add it to their cache of therapies. Where does that leave you, the consumer? Ask questions! Ask where your practitioner went to school and/or how much training he or she has in acupuncture. Ask what his/her theory of treatment is, how good a needler is the practitioner, etc. As I said, practitioners like me are what I called "fully trained" in Chinese Medicine AND nationally certified by the NCCAOM. We practice acupuncture, manual therapies like guasha, we can prescribe Chinese herbal medicines, auricular acupuncture, and more. Some of us also have additional training. My doctorate degree is in Research Psychology and my experience with allopathic (Western or modern) medicine was in doing research with heart patients. After a number of years of professing and research assignments I decided to learn Chinese Medicine. Being a research scientist is helpful in my Chinese Medicine practice because I can determine whether studies about acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are well done. There are many gifted practitioners available. Do your research and find the one who is right for you!