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Eastern and Western Veterinary Care Meet at Chi Institute by Nancy DeVault
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et owners are therapy comparable progressively to massage and seeking alchiropractic. Its ternative veterinary continuing educacare for their furry tion (CE) courses family members, are approved by such as traditional AAVSB RACE and Chinese veterinary New York state, and medicine (TCVM), its TCVM master an extension of program is licensed Traditional Chinese by the Florida ComMedicine (TCM) mission for Indewhich uses ancient pendent Education mind and body and accredited by practices. While the Distance Educait’s relatively new tion Accrediting to Western culture, Commission. Xie TCVM has long believes in a balbeen used in China. anced application Dr. Huisheng Xie In 1998, Dr. of both TCVM and Huisheng Xie founded the Chi Institute of Western veterinary medicine for complete Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine veterinary medical care. to teach veterinarians and veterinary “TCVM is a holistic approach school students the four pillars of TCVM: that is suited to assess the well-being acupuncture, food therapy, herbal mediof the whole patient, and treatments cine and tui-na, a Chinese manipulation are generally noninvasive with few side
The best medical system involves the integration of the two systems so that the strengths of one can compensate for the weaknesses of the other. ~Huisheng Xie 32
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effects. However, TCVM lacks the tools necessary to pinpoint illness to specific disease-causing agents like pathogenic bacteria or viruses, and treatments are better suited for chronic conditions than acute ones,” explains Xie, who serves as the institute’s president. “On the other hand, Western veterinary medicine utilizes the tools of modern science to diagnose disease with great precision, and Western drugs and procedures are powerful and fast-acting,” he explains. “However, its insistence on detailed diagnosis may come at the expense of getting the larger picture. Furthermore, while modern medicine can perform miracles for trauma and acute injuries, it has little to offer chronic conditions like liver failure and atopy, which can be treated effectively with acupuncture and herbal medicine.” Marketing coordinator Nabby Rivera says most students come to the Chi Institute without any previous training in holistic care. “DVMs (doctors of veterinary medicine) take our continuing education courses and get educational credits through us to maintain their license,” Rivera says. The most popular CE courses focus on acupuncture, with emphasis choices of small breed, mixed breed and equine. “We are track-specific so veterinarians can specialize and get certified in what they need for their practices,” she shares. Dr. Beverly Chevallier says she expected a weekend seminar to satisfy her curiosity surrounding TCVM. “I had no idea that the concepts and the material would be so foreign to me and that I would leave Chi with more questions than I had answers for,” she admits. A weekend course in 2012, kickstarted a new path that led Chevallier to a master’s degree as a Certified Traditional Chinese Veterinary Practitioner, “The Chi Institute changed my practice, changed my life and changed my outlook for the future-all in a positive way. I only regret not starting this journey 35 years ago,” she says. The way Xie describes it, a disease disrupts normal bodily functions and acupuncture restores normal body homeostasis to allow innate healing and regeneration to function optimally. “For
