He, who knows his destiny, finds the way [Lao Zi]

‘Finally a lecture where we have learned something new’ and: ‘I’d surely like to know more about this,’ are two statements we’ve heard regularly from our students the last year. Statements on the need of depth.

International Lectures would like to meet this need. But we do realise: you have to make depth your own. If you want to do that correctly, it will take time and that calls for multi-day courses and educational programs. But we also realise that it means for you: how do you know what you’d like to deepen? And: what will it mean in practice?

To start with answering the last question: in our opinion, depth is an enrichment of your basic knowledge. It can help you gain more insight into your patients, it can learn you various treating methods, it can turn you into a specialist for specific patient groups (like children, hart patients, oncology patients, depressive patients). In this way you could manifest yourself in a recognizable way within the western healthcare system and thus make a connection with it. Not only towards the professional workers but also towards for instance the insurance companies and towards specific patient groups.

Depth calls for study. This means not only TCM-knowledge, but also self-knowledge. According to us, these two belong together like a key and a lock. That’s why we organize introduction days so you can chose whether it is really the direction you want to go. Does the subject appeal to me? Does the teacher appeal to me? What does it offer me in my practice? Is my heart really into it?

Depth calls for quality. Both from the content as well as from the teacher that shares his knowledge and experience with you. We strive for the highest achievable, also as far as the location is concerned, the number of lecture days, and the use of the newest technological developments (like E-learning, webinars, etc.), taking as much as we can into account that we ask you to pay us money. Whenever we can, we will try to arrange payment in terms for you (even if it hasn’t been mentioned on our website with a particular course). And sometimes we organize something for a small amount (like ‘Meet Yair Maimon’ on last August 31) or even for free, like some information meetings (last May 31 and June 15) and webinars (last July 4 and 29).
The next free webinar is planned for September 10th.

Depth also calls for making connections, as is so beautifully enclosed in the eastern way of systems thinking. Therefore Yan Schroën will teach according to the ‘systems medicine’ method, a modern way of medical thinking that enables the building of bridges between the eastern systems thinking (and therefore the Chinese philosophy and medicine) and western medicine. He will start with a ‘2-year Chinese herbal education’ and in the beginning of next year with the ‘Basic TCM-education’.

International Lectures also wants to make connections with other schools in Europe and offer, whenever possible, European TCM-studies, like ‘Shen Acupuncture’ from Yair Maimon (9 days in total; start October 4th 2013) and ‘Teaching from the Roots’ from Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée and Ken Rose (14 days in total; start September 12th 2014; more information and registration will be on our website soon). Further we’d like to make connections to the western medical world. And we have asked various teachers to teach on the same subject, like Yair Maimon and Elisa Rossi on ‘Shen’ and Amos Ziv and Jan Chin (more information on our website soon) on ‘Heart/Cardiovascular system’.

Last but not least: depth calls for travelling. How does another culture affect someone? What is the effect of a different setup of healthcare for the patients? Can I understand my craft, my life, my ‘being’ differently by reflecting it to other circumstances?

We also asked ourselves: how does the daily life, the work of many of our guest teachers look like? That’s why we will travel to Israel in March 2014 where we will attend the ICCM (International Congres on Chinese Medicine), visit hospitals and clinics where Chinese medicine has been integrated in the health care system, and also visit the famous Zen Herbs gardens and pharmacy. Surely, a daytrip to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea are planned as well! If you are interested in this trip: you can join us!

Finding the right depth doesn’t only call for your wisdom, it also brings wisdom. The wisdom that is hidden in texts like the one from the Yellow Emperor who said to Qibo: ‘The first principle of acupuncture is that it must be rooted in Shen.’

We wish you a good study year!