In today’s complex medical world, with an ever-increasing selection of therapies on offer, those seeking treatment need to be discerning regarding qualifications and professionalism when choosing a therapist to help them with their health issue.

In addition, individuals interested in training to become professional practitioners may be overwhelmed by the range of daytime and evening courses in complimentary medicines offered by many training institutes. It is not always clear who certifies the training institute and what, if anything, we will legitimately and ethically be able to practice when we complete such a course. If a course is certified and approved (and included in the insurance offered) by a reputable professional association, this will be indicative of the legitimacy of the training course.

Standards of Practice and Training
Professional Associations’ aims are to offer to the public an informed choice of safe complementary medicine, practised by professional practitioners, trained to a high level of competence. They often have several levels of membership including Student, Therapist (beauty or auxiliary positions), Practitioners (offering treatments to remedy illness, usually from self-employed complementary practitioners and clinics) and advanced practitioner membership (usually for teachers and others with higher levels of qualification and specialisation). In addition, information on practitioners and their services is made freely available to the public, complaints and disciplinary procedures are in place and courses for continuing professional development are established through affiliated bodies. So consumers can ensure minimum standards of practice and adequate training by selecting a practitioner who is a member of a recognised and established professional association. Membership of such an association not only gives the practitioner the security of belonging to a professional register, usually established for many years, but it also allows any member of the public to have confidence that they are consulting a competent, well-trained, legitimate, professional and registered practitioner who conforms to a Code of Ethics and holds valid malpractice insurance.

A Code of Ethics
A Code of Ethics applies to registered members of professional associations. Its purpose is to establish and maintain standards of practice of the relevant therapy, and to inform and protect members of the public seeking treatment. There are general principles that therapists need to observe in order to be deemed to be acting professionally and therefore to maintain membership. In general, members should endeavour to act in such a manner as to inspire public trust and confidence, uphold and enhance the good standing and reputation of the relevant profession and, above all, safeguard the interests - including, particularly, the confidentiality - of the client. Therapists should conduct themselves with dignity and integrity, maintaining the highest standards of expertise. Where necessary, this would include liaison between practitioner and the client’s medical doctor. For legal and professional purposes, the therapist must comply with the law of the land where the therapist practises, advise the association immediately in the event of any police or governmental inquiry into his/her practice, and secure and maintain full indemnity insurance.

Legal Standards
and Recognition
Members of professional associations (and therefore their clients) benefit from campaigns made on their behalf to ensure not only the survival of the tradition of complimentary medicines but also the continuous increase in the standards of these therapies. They seek the recognition of complementary medicine as a unified profession. They accept that the philosophy of allopathic medicine is one of a symptomatic treatment while the philosophy of complementary medicine is the treatment of the whole person designed to eliminate the cause of the illness so that the body itself can then effect a lasting balance. They also recognise that Complementary Medicine is increasingly used as preventive medicine. The Complimentary Medicine view of a client evaluation is the assessment of the whole patient as perceived from the viewpoint of the philosophy of the discipline involved, enabling the complementary practitioner to offer a suitable course of treatment. This difference in treatment approach and the belief that it is not always possible to integrate Complementary treatments with *allopathic, has resulted in many associations working to establish Complementary Medicine as a distinctive form of medical care, campaigning for a separate Act for Complementary Medicine monitored by a single statutory body responsible for standards and regulation. They believe that their professions should be seen as working in parallel with allopathic medicine enabling the public to take advantage of the many private clinics administered by self-employed complementary medical practitioners. Many offer affiliation to Courses, Organisations and Registers to protect their position and show their determination to achieve an established practitioner qualification that will be acceptable to the registration body.

What is Malpractice
Insurance?
It is essential that all practitioners are insured to practice and are covered by malpractice insurance in the unfortunate event of any legal action. This protects both the client and the therapist. If you are a prospective therapist, considering enrolling in a course that states you will earn, after extensive work, a profession qualification at the end, you need to ask what association you will be eligible to join and in what capacity? Then research that association and its affiliated insurance, confirming its legitimacy. Increasing regulations will ensure that if a therapist is not certified by an approved training body, is not a member of a recognised professional association and has no approved insurance, they should not be practicing. Insurance schemes available through professional associations are only available to graduates from approved, training institutes. Clients should be aware of association membership of all their healthcare practitioners, keeping themselves informed and thus ensuring they are responsible and in control of our own health choices.

As clients looking for an addition to our available choice of health care practitioners or as potential complimentary therapists, we need to ensure that profession training and monitoring takes place. We do this by adding our own individual weight behind the conviction that the many long-established complimentary therapies are a welcome addition to the wide range of medical care available to those of us fortunate to be able to choose. And we do this by recognising and supporting the regulating and monitoring associations. By doing this, we going some way to establishing a medical care system that is not comprised of conflicting factions, at odds with each other, but is in fact an integrated system of medicine, with the well-informed consumer selecting the appropriate therapy for their condition from a wide range of recognised, expert therapists. This is the way to ensure we have a complete medicine system available to us in the future - and as consumers, medical professionals and as therapists, we would surely want that.