Raison d'être

A note from the founders, Sarah Ling and Maddy Hickey-Smith:

We have founded this Institute to fulfill the aims stated on the home page as we so strongly feel there is a need for such a "body".

Complementary therapies have a significant role to play in helping people regain and retain a good state of health and wellbeing. Having practised a variety of therapies over a number of years, we have seen how beneficial they may be and how they can support people through times of stress, pain and disease.

The passion we have for our therapies extends to that which we have for the training of therapists. As experienced tutors of complementary therapies we are committed to providing a high level of training, so that those individuals who come to us to learn, will do so in a professional and friendly environment, and will go on to practice their therapies in a confident and competent manner.

The training provides a stepping stone for the rest of a practitioner's learning - it is just the beginning! We offer ongoing support to our students where necessary and organise further events to help them expand and consolidate their knowledge, which will also go towards the CPPD points that professional organisations require their members to have.

It is a great shame that in some areas there is discord between complementary and conventional medicine, when both approaches have the same goals - that of helping people through the difficult times of physical, emotional and psychological illness. The Institute hopes to be able to bring about an understanding of how complementary therapies can live up to their name.

There is much scope for research into how certain complementary therapies can help people with particular health conditions. We intend to collate data which will help provide information on this.