BRITISH ACUPUNCTURE COUNCIL

The British Acupuncture Council is the main body representing acupuncture practitioners in the UK.

The British Acupuncture Council was founded in 1995 and today has just over 3,000 members, all of whom are subject to its rigorous standards of safety and competence.

The earliest bodies for acupuncturists in the UK were both founded in 1961 as interest in this form of traditional medicine began to spread through Europe. These first two organisations were the British Acupuncture Association and the Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In the eighties, three other organisations were formed, and these all came to work together as the Council for Acupuncture, which was the immediate precursor to the British Acupuncture Council. In 1995, the members of these five still separate organisations voted to form the British Acupuncture Council.

Lengthy negotiations preceded the formation of the British Acupuncture Council in the summer of 1995. The study and practice of acupuncture in the UK, just as in China and East Asia, has always involved different schools and different styles of practice. One of the great successes of the British Acupuncture Council is the way that practitioners working from very different theoretical backgrounds, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Five Element, or Stems and Branches acupuncture, have all worked alongside each other.

The British Acupuncture Council maintains the centuries-old practices of acupuncture while at the same time enforcing the strictest modern health and safety practices

There are other bodies representing acupuncturists in the UK, but the British Acupuncture Council is the largest and is the only one on the accredited voluntary register run by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (alongside such institutions as the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and the British Association of Child Psychotherapists).

The British Acupuncture Council is based at 63 Jeddo Road, London W12 9HQ. They have a very good and informative website, which includes a user-friendly means to find a registered acupuncturist in any UK location. Unfortunately, unlike in some other European countries, there is no legal restriction upon the use of the term “acupuncturist” in the UK, so somebody simply describing themselves as such provides no guarantee about their training or knowledge or adherence to the British Acupuncture Council’s stringent code of safe practice. When you go to as BAcC member, you know that this will be a practitioner with thorough training in both the principles of acupuncture and in western medical anatomy, physiology, and pathology.

To find out more about the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care: http://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/

To find out more about British Acupuncture Council member, Mark Kiely Lic Ac, MBAcC, BSc (Hons): http://www.londonacupuncturetherapy.co.uk/