Is this for you? | TAA

Is this the career you didn't know you were missing?

Jen Wade (Joint Principal)

If you have landed on this page I guess you might be thinking about a change of career but hadn't thought of acupuncture, or you are at the start of your adult education journey and wondering if this might be for you. Or any one of a number of reasons including "I'm sure I didn't click on this".

And you might be thinking "I wish I liked my job more", "I really want to help people", "I want to do something that makes a difference", or perhaps even "I'm too old to start again", or "I could never do a degree". You might simply have no mental image of the kinds of people that study acupuncture and practice for a living. Oh and the 'age' question is a nice easy one - our average age is

Using the words and stories of our lovely graduates then, perhaps I can help you explore these thoughts and ideas? And perhaps you'll look into this in more detail and decide to take your first steps along a totally new, life-affirming path? Or maybe you will just park the thought for later. Either way we'll start with Caroline, who graduated in 2019 and now has a busy, successful practice in Henley-in-Arden.

Caroline - previously an administrator/receptionist, then a full time mother of four boys!

My journey began one night in 2013 when I woke in abject terror, feeling that I was dying. This carried on for months, all tests came back clear, and my consultant said that I was suffering from panic attacks. I somehow ended up at Jen's door and over the next few months she helped me to regain control of my life, and the panic attacks became a distant memory.

What came after that was a nagging feeling that I wanted to help others, but as a full time mother with four boys, I had a really busy life as you can probably imagine. And anyway, big, life-changing things are done by other people aren't they? I'll never forget the day thought, when I got up the courage to tentatively ask my practitioner "do you think I could do this?" and the rest, as they say, is history.

So I enrolled, I studied hard, I had some of the best experiences ever, making friends for life in my student group. I graduated in 2019 and stepped out of the door into the very best job in the world.

And I would never have thought it was for me, or that I could change lives in the way that mine was changed, but here we are. Coming full circle I am now a tutor at the college, sharing what I have learned about life, and about this wonderful system of medicine, to similarly excited and motivated students.

I wrote in my application form that 'a ship in harbour is safe, but that's not what ships are built for'. Give yourself space to think about what's possible maybe, and perhaps take the leap of faith that I did

Caroline xx

What else might help give you a sense of who we are, and the types of people that study with us. There are lots of graduate stories in our prospectus of course, but on this page we are going to include some video testimonials, as well as quotes from current students, and some snapshot illustrations of the careers and ages in our student cohorts. What we want to show you that studying with us can be for everyone, from all walks of life, any ages and professions - ours is a truly inclusive industry, populated by diverse and wonderful human beings. And this change of pace and increased fulfilment is open to everyone committed to the health and wellbeing of others.