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The PRTCM is an Irish-based professional body founded in 1983 to promote and protect the professional interests and medical standards of fully qualified practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine throughout Ireland and in the UK, thereby to foster the highest quality of TCM health-care for the public.

It was the first such professional body in Ireland whose members are recognised, for the provision of Acupuncture treatments, by VHI Healthcare, Laya Healthcare, Irish Life Health and the other principal health insurance providers.

This site is designed to provide members of the public with the information they require to select a fully qualified and fully insured practitioner of Acupuncture TCM or, indeed, one of the other TCM therapy options such as Chinese Herbal Medicine or Medical Qigong.

Details about each of the main TCM therapies is provided, as well as information about finding a practitioner, making an appointment, and attending for treatment.

TCM News and Research

The TCM view of how Spring affects health

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Spring is considered a time of renewal, growth, and transformation, both in nature and within the human body. The energy of Spring is closely associated with the Wood element, which corresponds to the functional systems called Gan and Dan. These are two of the Zangfu systems of TCM. If you […]

What does the PRTCM do?

The PRTCM is an Irish based professional body. It aims to ensure Acupuncture and other TCM methods are safely available to the public. It works to both regulate and represent practitioners of TCM in Ireland and the UK. The PRTCM regulates the clinical practice of Acupuncture and TCM by ensuring all of its members meet […]

New Medical Qigong Graduates added to the PRTCM register

We at the PRTCM are happy to inform you that four of our TCM practitioner members on the register have completed post graduate training and are now qualified Medical Qigong (MQG) Practitioners. Some, already qualified, MQG Practitioners have completed further training and are now qualified at a specialist level. What is Medical Qigong (MQG) […]

World Health Organisation (WHO) and Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has, over the years, provided information about some aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Acupuncture in its numerous publications.
Last year one of our members gave us some advance notice that the WHO was planning to include traditional medicines in its International Classification of Diseases in 2019.

Irish President Michael D Higgins receiving the PRTCM founder in June 2016

On 3 June 2016, the Founder of the Professional Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Prof Tom Shanahan, was honoured to meet the Irish President at the Presidential palace. Tom Shanahan founded the PRTCM in 1983, and since then has been promoting Traditional Chinese Medicine in all its forms, in Ireland, Europe and beyond. During the […]

What is Acupuncture TCM?

Acupuncture is part of an ancient and sophisticated form of medical treatment called Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which originated in China but has increasingly spread throughout the world.

It is important to realise that acupuncture is only a part of Chinese medicine - to imagine that Acupuncture is TCM is as mistaken as to imagine that, say, surgery is western medicine.