Root and Branch College

06/05/2026

What is different about the Root and Branch training?

We have a strong focus on developing tangible skills in our hands, so we can reliably create change for our patients.

03/05/2026

At Root and Branch College, we pride ourselves on our course which teaches students to carry out tangible treatments to effectively improve patients health.

Visit our website to find out more about our 3-year, degree level acupuncture and Tuina course.

29/04/2026

We are thrilled to announce that the Root and Branch College website is live!

Please come and visit us at: https://rootandbranchcollege.com

At the Root and Branch College, we pride ourselves on offering tangible training in Chinese Medicine. We offer a three-year, degree-level course leading to qualifications in both acupuncture and Tuina. The course is based on the perspective taught by the Association for Traditional Studies, rooted in the Chinese Classics and focusing on developing tangible skill for the reality of clinical practice.

We will be starting with our first cohort in October 2026; click on the "apply now" button on the website to apply.

A three-year, degree-level training in classical Chinese medicine, integrating tangible acupuncture and Chinese medical bodywork (Tuina), developed to support the consistent development of real clinical skill.

23/04/2026

We have approached the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board (BAAB) and are working towards accreditation by them.

BAAB accreditation is important to us as it is an assurance that an acupuncture course is of the highest standard available in the UK: it shows that all areas of the curriculum are covered at the required depth (Chinese medicine, Western medicine, safety and ethics of practice, clinical experience, etc) and that a course operates under good governance and with solid procedures. It confirms that student feedback is regularly solicited to ensure that student satisfaction is high at every stage of the course.

Picture from one of our teaching clinic rooms at Yi Dao Clinic, West Hampstead.

20/04/2026

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR FOUNDER:
Conny Cooper MBAcC MRCHM, a dedicated Chinese Medicine Practitioner with an impressive resume!

With a BSc in Acupuncture, an MSc in Chinese herbal Medicine, and a diploma in Tuina, Conny has helped thousands of patients over her 20-year career.

She has done several study trips to Hangzhou, learning from Chinese hospital doctors, and has worked at the Pain Clinic of the Royal Free Hospital back in London, liaising with the medical team there. She also has done extensive training with the Association for Traditional Studies and is a senior student there.

Conny cares greatly about high standards of practice in the Chinese Medicine profession. Between 2020 and 2023 she was CEO of the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine, helping regulate the profession and support practitioners through outreach programmes. She also sat on the Accreditation Board of the EHTPA, ensuring high standards of herbal medicine courses, for 6 years.

She is now thrilled to be dedicating her efforts to the training of the next generation of practitioners, here at Root and Branch College.

16/04/2026

SPOTLIGHT ON OUR FOUNDER:
Zarig Cooper MBAcC, acupuncturist and Tuina practitioner extraordinaire!

Zarig has a 20-year career in Chinese Medicine with an impressive training path (BSc in acupuncture, a diploma in Tuina, a diploma in herbal medicine, 3 study trips to China, 8 study trips to the teaching clinic of the Association for Traditional Studies in Asheville, USA).

He is passionate about passing on tangible, effective treatment skills to the next generation of practitioners.

Zarig loves sharing his knowledge and experience with the many practitioners he has had a chance to teach over the years on various training courses.

12/04/2026

On traditional training:
In a traditional training setting, a medical apprentice would have sat with the old doctor as they worked, and observed as well as assisted the treatments, day in day out. The clinical practice would have been their main focus of learning, with the apprentice practising skills and gradually using them with patients under the watchful eye of the old doctor. Theories from the classics would have been introduced by the old doctor as and when they were relevant to the patient in front of them. The theories were thus alive and of value as they were directly linked to real patient situations.

While circumstances change, and we teach our acupuncture and Tuina course in the standard course setting which is now commonplace in the UK, our focus remains as much as possible on retaining the real-life context in which Chinese Medicine is meant to be grasped. We emphasize gradually learning and honing hand and needle skills over time, as apprentices would have done. We also present the information from the Classics in a way which relates to real life situations. Always, our focus is on how knowledge and skills directly inform and shape our treatments, to achieve the best health improvements for our patients.

While our graduates work within our modern scope of practice and are encouraged to integrate into standard healthcare, we believe that Chinese medicine training which retains this traditional, tangible focus offers the best path to becoming a truly effective practitioner.

08/04/2026

Learning doesn’t stop after graduation! While our course will provide you with all the skills necessary to set up and build a thriving practice, there is always more to be learnt and skills to be refined. This is what makes life as a Chinese medicine practitioner so stimulating!

Alumni of the Root and Branch College will join the worldwide community of practitioners who have trained under the Association for Traditional Studies (ATS).

ATS offers yearly clinical training summits in Finale Ligure, Italy, where senior practitioners and newer ones come together to refine their skills and understanding of the medicine, as well as socialise and enjoy being part of a community.

03/04/2026

For every patient encounter, the main objective of a treatment is always to manipulate the patient’s Qi in order to bring their system back to health.

Manipulating the Qi can be done by hand, or by extension with a needle, but there is no separation between hand and needle skills as they are based on the same underlying principles.

Therefore hand and needle skills are extensions of each other and must be seen as 2 parts of the same whole, and we teach them together to allow for this integration.

31/03/2026

🌳What’s in a name? 🌳
The terms “Root and Branch” (本 běn and 標 biāo) refer to a concept from the Chinese medicine classics, which state that a disease has an origin, or root, which is separate from the symptoms, or branches. When assessing a patient, the physician’s role is to understand both where a disease is coming from, and how it is manifesting, and then to decide at which level the treatment must be aimed at to bring their system back to health most quickly.
At the Root and Branch College, we are proud to base our teachings on the traditional concepts from the Chinese classics.

29/03/2026

Our course is based on the syllabus from the Association for Traditional Studies.

Based on the Chinese classics, and focused on developing tangible skill for the reality of clinical practice.

28/03/2026

A big, warm "hello world" from Root and Branch College founders Zarig and Conny Cooper.

We are delighted to announce the launch of our 3-year, degree-level course in acupuncture and Chinese bodywork (Tuina).

Starting in London in October 2026.