When I came to England, nearly twenty years ago, Traditional Chinese Medicine was still relatively little known in this country. There were no Chinese Herbalists in the High Street, no NHS patients receiving Acupuncture treatment and very few students being taught Oriental Medicine. Today the picture is totally different and Chinese Medicine is now considered respectable and popular enough by the government to warrant Statutory Regulation and Universities such as Middlesex are collaborating with Chinese Universities to offer degree programmes in TCM.

None of this surprises me though. From the age of 14 when my father found two Masters for me to learn Chinese Medicine from and with whom I spent many weekends collecting herbs in the mountains and watching them treat local villagers, and all through my studies and teaching at Guangzhou University, and especially in my day to day experiences in practice, I have been privileged to see the power of Chinese Medicine not only to heal but to transform people's lives.

For the roots of Chinese Medicine come from a great wisdom and knowingness about life, the natural world and our relationship with it. This knowledge and wisdom has been passed on from generation to generation for many thousands of years, timeless yet still evolving. And at the heart of this wisdom is the simple and yet profound insight that a person's health and happiness rest upon a state of balance within, at all levels of a person's being. Without balance there is disharmony and disease, and Chinese medicine helps to restore this balance.

But although the ideal of balance may be a simple one to understand, to achieve it is not so simple, for a human being is a very complex thing. And so Chinese Medicine itself has to be complex, with thousands of different herbs that can be used in treatment, hundreds of different Acupuncture points that can used to balance qi, etc. It is for this reason that all Chinese Medicine Doctors in China have to train for up to six years.

In the Asanté Academy our doctors and teachers come from all parts of China, with a good mixture of different schools, styles and experiences. They all have a devotion to Chinese Medicine and treat and teach with a loving and caring heart. They are also all highly qualified and experienced and have a deep understanding of authentic Chinese Medicine.

The more students I meet the more I can see how hungry they are for real knowledge of Chinese Medicine. The more patients I treat, the more I can feel how important real and authentic Chinese Medicine practices are. It is for these reasons that I founded the Asanté Academy of Chinese Medicine, To promote the teaching of real authentic Chinese Medicine which I learnt from my Masters in my hometown in China. I want to see the great ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine benefit not only our patients at Asanté, but eventually all of mankind, regardless of their colour, race or religion. I hope that people from the West as well as the East can share in this great knowledge and that perhaps it can become a major force in combating illness in centuries to come. (Cited from About Asante)

For more information, visit Asante Academy of Chinese Medicine

Mr Song Xuan Ke, MBAcC FRCHM MATCM, Founder and Principal of the Asanté Academy, has been teaching Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in China, UK, Italy, Sweden, Ireland, Holland, Belgium and USA for 20 years.

His clinical success as a leading consultant of T C M has been featured in the Observer, Daily Mail, and on BBC, CNN, ITV, CHANNEL 4 and many other broadcasting media throughout the world.