Enrich Your Practice - Inspire Your Patients
Most acupuncturists already have some understanding of Chinese medicine nutrition. You may discuss foods that are damp, hot, or cold, or encourage patients to “nourish the spleen.”
But beyond the basics, many practitioners hesitate.
How do you answer questions about fasting, keto, or the microbiome, without contradicting the principles of Chinese medicine?
Patients live in a world of constant diet trends and conflicting advice. Western nutrition continues to evolve, and patients expect us to have the answers.
The Questions You Can Finally Answer
Every day, our patients ask about the latest diets, fads, and foods they’ve read about online.
“Is fasting good for me?”
“Should I be eating fermented foods?”
“Is keto or paleo right for me?”
"Should I eat this or that?"
Here’s the truth: without the right framework, it’s easy to feel underprepared, or to fall back on generic advice. We've all been there!
With the Chinese Medicine Nutrition Diploma, you’ll gain the depth, confidence, and practical tools to move beyond rudimentary advice and integrate food as medicine at the heart of your practice.
With this diploma, you’ll have the knowledge and the Chinese medicine lens to answer every single one of those questions with confidence. And provide nutritional advice that benefits your patients and aligns with your acupuncture practice. This is an exciting time to be in practice.
No more second-guessing.
No more generic advice.
Just clear, confident guidance your patients can trust.
Our unique Chinese Medicine Nutrition Diploma gives you a structured, clinically grounded way to:
Translate nutrition questions into clear Chinese medicine guidance.
Reinforce your acupuncture with practical strategies patients can use daily.
Expand your practice into an inspiring, integrated approach that patients deeply value. And if you've ever become bored with your practice - yes, we all have at some point - it'll help with that too!
This isn’t just adding more information.
It’s learning how to practice at a whole new level.
"The course has been set at the perfect level; fascinating lectures, with speakers that have real, specialist knowledge. On top of that, the emphasis is always on how the information can be used practically in the clinic and day to day. It feels like another piece in the puzzle on the continuing journey towards being an effective practitioner."
- Hugo (2024)
Integrating Traditional East Asian Medicine and Contemporary Western Nutrition
We’ve Done the Hard Work For You
To translate Western nutrition into a Chinese/East Asian medical framework, you’d need years of study. But most practitioners don’t have that time.
That’s where we come in.
We’ve done that work for you. Bringing together the latest nutritional science and the wisdom of Chinese medicine, and giving you the tools to apply it directly in your clinic.
No need to wade through endless research.
No need to try to make sense of conflicting advice.
You get the distilled, practical integration ready to use with your patients.
"I would highly recommend the CMN Diploma! The information is plentiful and presented clearly by lovely lecturers. The handouts accompanying the live videos are excellent. The fact the sessions are weekly allowed greater engagement in the course, and there is scope to dive even deeper than the lectures themselves with many supporting papers and links to further broaden knowledge. It has been a wonderful addition to my practice."
- student (2025)
Taught By A Team Of Experts
The Chinese Medicine Nutrition Diploma is taught by a team of experts with extensive experience in teaching, clinical practice, research and nutrition.
"All the tutors and speakers have been absolutely amazing, there hasn’t been a single session which I didn’t love. Well done for choosing amazing people to teach this course! I’ll be recommending it to all my friends."
- Larissa, student (2024)
Click here to meet your teachers
Oh, and did we mention The Northern College of Acupuncture has been training acupuncturists just like you for nearly 40 years? We're really good at this!
Your Journey With Us
Delivered over one year, comprising 30 online lessons and live sessions, the diploma combines in-depth knowledge with practical application.
You’ll explore:
Digestion and the Gut
Digestion from both TCM and contemporary nutrition perspectives
The gut microbiome
Spleen-nourishing foods
Seasonal and Practical Food Therapy
Seasonal food theory
Fermentation cooking demos
Enhancing restricted diets cooking demo
Medicinal mushrooms cooking demo
Women’s Health
Menstrual cycle repair with food
Perimenopause and menopause nutrition
Mind and Spirit
Food for the Shen and cognition
Clinical Applications
Cancer treatment support
Skin health
Musculo-skeletal health
Immunity and auto-immunity
Environmental toxins and parasites
Cooking Demos
Practical cooking demonstrations, delivered online, will bring a hands-on component to this course. You will be sent over lists of ingredients in advance of the sessions so you can follow along in real time with the teacher. The relevance of this will vary from session to session depending on how many recipes are covered.
When there's a recipe to follow in a cooking demonstration, you'll be sent an ingredients list in advance so that you can follow along.
Most of our cooking demonstrations will use foods which you can easily find in a supermarket, but sometimes they’ll introduce you to foreign foods which have specific medicinal value, these may be harder to find, but we’ll always explore alternatives.
The cooking demonstrations will focus on the following topics in detail:
Spleen nourishing foods
Cooking for a healthy menopause
Medicinal mushrooms
Fermentation
Blood nourishing foods
Oncology support
Vegetarian cooking
"I absolutely love the cooking demos. They’re awesome and really practical."
- Chrissy, student (2024)
Why Chinese Medicine Nutrition?
Because your patients don’t just need treatment.
They need tools they can use every single day.
Chinese Medicine Nutrition shows patients how food choices can support their healing in a way that’s consistent with your acupuncture, not in conflict with it.
It strengthens your treatments.
It speeds up recovery.
It empowers your patients.
And it sets you apart as a practitioner with a unique, integrated approach to health.
"I'm blown away, really great course, perfect compliment to what I’m doing."
- student (2024)
Who This Is For?
This diploma is for Acupuncturists if you want to:
Build on your current knowledge of Chinese medicine nutrition and take it further.
Confidently answer every patient's questions about diets, fads, and food.
Enrich your practice with a deeper, more holistic approach.
Inspire patients to take ownership of their health with food that heal.
Add creative new offerings and income streams to your clinic.
Creative New Offerings And Income Streams To Your Clinic
There are numerous options for utilising this diploma to enhance your clinical practice. We explore these ideas during the course to help you create new income streams with your diploma. Here are a few tasters:
Offer Chinese medicine nutrition consultations
Embedding food into your consultations can enrich your patient’s experience of the treatment process, often helping them to get on board with TCM perspectives of health. Offering Chinese medicine nutrition consultations as an extra can create new income streams for your practice.
Include Chinese medicine nutrition diploma on your website
Beautiful food is eye catching for everyone, how about using some of your newly discovered recipes on your social media and website. To accompany these, you could write short articles to explain some of the principles of Chinese medicine.
Create recipe cards to give or sell to your clients
These could be geared towards specific patient groups. You could make them available on your website or enjoy printing snazzy card sets for people to buy.
Create a recipe book or ebook to sell
For those of you who love recipe books, why not make your own?! Weave it in to your other passions and interests so that you find a niche in the market, tell your patients all about it. One of our tutors on this course, Kirsten Chick, has published a book on food - so you can ask her about this process.
Create workshops and events for specific patient groups
People love to gather around food, so why not invite your patients to gather to learn more about how food can help them?
You could inspire them to consider seasonal foods, anti-inflammatory approaches to food, or tailor their approach to specific health concerns.
Start a YouTube Channel or Podcast
YouTube and Podcasts are full of generic advice and duplicate content. You won't fall into that trap because very few people know how to combine traditional East Asian medicine and contemporary Western nutrition. You will.
Stand out from the crowd
It's a well-known fact that you need to stand out in the market space, and offering something different and unique will do just that. Plus, you get to have a lot more fun.
Your Next Step
Food is medicine.
However, only when you know how to use it with depth, nuance, and alignment to the principles of Chinese medicine.
The Chinese Medicine Nutrition Diploma builds on the knowledge you already have and takes you further. Giving you the wisdom and confidence to make food an everyday part of your clinical success.
"This course is fantastic. Professional, thorough, engaging and hugely informative. Well worth the investment for the quality of teaching and tutors, would highly recommend."
- student (2025)
Here Are Some Practical Details About The Diploma
Cost
Total course fee: £2,900. This fee is non-refundable following a 14-day cooling-off period.
Instalment option: a deposit of £899 confirms your place on the course. Instalment 1: £1,099 due 01/02/2026, instalment 2: £1,099 due 01/05/2026
Places are limited
We only accept a limited number of students each year, so apply now as your £899 deposit will guarantee you a place.
Time commitment
This course will be delivered live online on Fridays 10 am to 12noon. These sessions will be recorded and available for you to watch online at any time during the course. There will be a further 2 hours of optional home study, which can be completed at your convenience.
Learning materials
Session notes will be sent out to you within two weeks prior to each teaching session to give you time to do any preparatory reading. Tutors will be available to answer any questions via email about each session for 7 days following it.
Level of prior knowledge
We have developed this CPD diploma for professional acupuncturists. In order to benefit from this course, you will need to have an understanding of basic anatomy and physiology, and TCM sufficient to be able to diagnose patterns of disharmony. Other TCM practitioners such as Qi Gong, Tuina and Shiatsu therapists who have been in practice for at least 12 months are also eligible to participate if their knowledge base is adequate.
Scope of practice & certification
Throughout this course we will explore more the ways in which you can utilise the knowledge you are gaining on the course in your practice. This diploma equips you to share information with your patients about food and nutrition but it does not qualify you a Nutritional therapist or Nutritionist. To receive a certificate of completion you will be asked to fill out a series of short questionnaires.
Your Inspiring, Knowledgeable and Supportive Teachers
Hannah Swift
Hannah is an acupuncturist from Edinburgh who currently lives in Japan. She has run The Practitioner Hub for the NCA since it's inception in 2021 and has taught moxa seminars since 2018. She loves seasonal cooking, growing veg and dancing.
Kirsten Chick
Kirsten has been a practicing Nutritional Therapist for 20 years and teaches at several colleges. She has created a variety of training programmes, from fertility and menopause to integrative oncology. Kirsten writes for a broad range of publications, her book "Nutrition Brought to Life" is now in its 2nd edition.
Eriko Harada
Eriko runs a medicinal food cafe in rural Hyogo, Japan. She previously worked as a nurse and then became interested in preventative approaches to health. She now uses a seasonal model for cooking and believes in a connection to nature for a healthy body and mind.
Mika Furugori
Mika is a macrobiotic chef at Holistic Retreat Centre Hotaka Yojoen in Nagano, Japan. She completed Master’s program at Cooking School of Japan Macrobiotic Association (Seishoku-Kyokai) in 2012. One way Mika sees herself is as a bridge; in her cooking as a chef transforming food grown organically in Yojoen’s gardens into vegetarian meals.
Pat Irving
Pat is an acupuncturist, qigong, yoga and somatics teacher living and working in West Cumbria. She’s been in practice since 2008 and uses the principles of Yang Sheng - 养 生 - nourishing life - to give her clients the knowledge and tools to eat, move, rest and manage their emotions with intention.
Robin Sherriff
Robin holds an MSc in Gastronomy, his dissertation was about saké making in Kyoto and the use of Koji in Japanese cuisine. In 2020 he formed The Koji Kitchen in Edinburgh – creating products and workshops in the field of fermentation. Robin formed The Fermenters Guild UK at the beginning of 2021. His focus now is growing Scotland’s first artisanal miso kitchen and finalising his book ‘The Science of Fermentation’, set for a global release in October 2025. @thekojikitchen
Hayley North
Hayley teaches yoga, qi gong, dance and meditation; she weaves these practices together with her passion for food energetics, holistic cookery and nutrition. Over 20 years Hayley has travelled the globe cooking for retreats. She also leads food energetics based workshops and runs retreats.
Lindsay Fieldhouse
Lindsay is an acupuncturist and naturopath who graduated from NCA. She has continued to add to her clinical skillset by training in Naturopathic Nutrition along with a variety of acupuncture techniques, such as Paediatric Acupuncture, Dr Tan's Balance Method and Japanese Acupuncture.
Martin Powell
Martin is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a biochemist and the author of "Medicinal Mushrooms, The Essential Guide" (2013) and "Medicinal Mushrooms - A Clinical Guide" (2nd Edition 2014).
FAQ
Here are the answers to our most frequently asked questions...
Do I have to be an Acupuncturist to join the course?
Other TCM practitioners, such as Qi Gong, Tuina and Shiatsu therapists who have been in practice for at least 12 months, are also eligible to participate if their knowledge base is adequate.
Watch our free taster sessions
Register your interest in the diploma below:
Timetable 2026
- Fri 9th Jan 2026: Introduction to the course - Hannah and Kirsten
- Fri 16th Jan 2026: Digestion & Assimilation – Kirsten
- Fri 23rd Jan 2026: Seasonal theory – Eriko
- Fri 30th Jan 2026: Gut microbiome & blood sugar management – Kirsten
- Fri 6th Feb 2026: Menstrual cycle repair with food – Lindsay
- Fri 13th Feb 2026: Fermentation theory intro – Robin
- Fri 20th Feb 2026: Cooking demo - spleen nourishing foods – Hayley
- Fri 27th Feb 2026: Cooking demo - blood nourishing foods – Hayley
- Fri 6th Mar 2026: Food focus for female fertility support – Lindsay
- Fri 13th Mar 2026: Introduction to Macrobiotics – Mika
- Fri 20th Mar 2026: Food focus for male fertility support – Lindsay
- Fri 27th Mar 2026: Pregnancy – Lindsay
Break
- Fri 10th Apr 2026: Food for Mental Health – Kirsten
- Fri 17th Apr 2026: Food for the Shen – Pat
- Fri 24th Apr 2026: Mid-point check-in – Hannah and Kirsten
- Fri 1st May 2026: Musculoskeletal health – Kirsten
- Fri 8th May 2026: Medicinal Mushrooms theory – Martin
- Fri 15th May 2026: Mushroom cooking demo – Hayley
- Fri 22nd May 2026: Perimenopause – Lindsay
- Fri 29th May 2026: Skin health – Kirsten
- Fri 5th Jun 2026: Healthy Qi - Diabetes & weight management – Lindsay
- Fri 12th Jun 2026: Healthy Ageing - cognitive function, dementia-risk – Hannah
- Fri 19th Jun 2026: Fermentation – Robin
- Fri 26th Jun 2026: Immunity & Autoimmunity – Kirsten
- Fri 3rd Jul 2026: Environmental toxins & parasites – Lindsay
- Fri 10th Jul 2026: Oncology Support - theory – Kirsten
- Fri 17th Jul 2026: Oncology Support - cooking demo – Hayley
- Fri 24th Jul 2026: Adverse reactions to foods – Kirsten
- Fri 31st Jul 2026: Vegetarian cooking – Eriko
- Fri 7th Aug 2026: Final Week Wrap Up – Hannah and Kirsten
*this timetable is subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness
Disclaimer
Please note that while the Northern College of Acupuncture makes every effort to run courses as advertised, courses are subject to change or cancellation if enrolment targets are not met.
