Who is admitted as a member of ACMA Association as a naturopath? #
We take into consideration what was published in 2010 by the World Health Organization (WHO) in a document called “The Benchmarks for training in naturopathy“.
Naturopathy experts distinguish two types of naturopathic training in function of prior training and clinical experience of trainees.
Type I training programmes are aimed at those who have no prior medical or other health-care training or experience. They are designed to produce naturopathic practitioners who are qualified to practise as primary-contact and primary-care practitioners, independently or as members of a health-care team. This type of programme consists of a minimum of two years of full-time study
(or its equivalent) of no fewer than 1500 hours, including no less than 400 hours of supervised clinical training. Acceptable applicants will typically have completed high school education or equivalent.
Type II training programmes are aimed at those with medical or other healthcare training (western medicine, dentistry, chiropractic, osteopathy, etc) who wish to become recognized naturopathic practitioners. The learning outcomes should be comparable to those of a Type I programme.
The Type I programme can be adapted to a Type II programme which is designed to enable other health-care professionals to obtain additional qualification as a naturopathic practitioner. Accordingly, the duration and syllabus of the Type II programme will depend on prior education and experience, and will vary from student to student. However, the duration should be no fewer than 1000 hours, including no fewer than 400 hours of supervised clinical training or its equivalent and the syllabus will be tailored to include any course content from the Type I programme that had not previously been studied by the student.
