Pacific Rim College

Community Herbalist Certificate

The Community Herbalist Program is a unique 4-month program that introduces students to the incredible world of plants and their medicinal uses according to various cultures. This program explores the history of plant-based therapies and how to identify and cultivate herbs, use plant-based foods to maintain health, and make and apply herbal remedies to restore health.

Graduates of this program can use knowledge and experience gained to establish a community-based herbal clinic to assist family and friends, work in the health and wellness retail sector, grow and maintain herbal gardens, create herbal preparations or matriculate into the Diploma of Phytotherapy program at PRC.... [-]

Holistic Doula Certificate

The Holistic Doula Certificate is a 13.5 week, 270-hour program that prepares students to work as both Doulas and Postpartum Doulas. It is the most comprehensive Doula program offered in North America.

The education and training provided within the Holistic Doula Certificate Program are based on complementary and integrative approaches, bridging Western Medicine with holistic therapies. The program provides strong education and practical foundation in many therapeutic approaches, thereby creating competent and confident Doulas when working with laboring mothers and building their practices. No single therapeutic approach or discipline taught is meant to be comprehensive and to lead to students becoming practitioners in that particular area. Instead, each component adds to the Doula's competency and thus value to the laboring mother and her family. By gaining a comprehensive education in a variety of disciplines, program graduates will be poised to change the current standards of what it means to be a Doula in North America. All students are eligible to partake in the Doula Mentorship once they have completed all classroom requirements of the certificate program.... [-]

The Holistic Nutrition Certificate Program (HNCP) is a unique 4-month program that introduces students to whole foods nutrition and the medicinal uses of food according to various cultures. Graduates of this program can use knowledge and experience gained to advocate for healthier and more sustainable food choices. They can work in the health and wellness retail sector, grow and maintain urban and rural gardens, assist family and friends in making healthier food choices, or matriculate into the Diploma of the Holistic Nutrition program at PRC.

The Holistic Nutrition Certificate Program is offered twice yearly, with programs beginning in January and September. Classes are scheduled on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday days.... [-]

Natural Health Certificate

The Natural Health Program is a 2-year (4-semester) program that provides students with an overview of many natural health disciplines. The NHP can be taken as an independent certificate program or can be an entry program into another school or program at PRC. Students must successfully complete each of the following courses in order to graduate. Elective requirements may be satisfied by successful completion of any curriculum course offered in the School of Phytotherapy, School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and School of Holistic Nutrition. Certain Continuing Education courses may also count as elective credits.

Both part-time and full-time study options are available to students.... [-]

Diploma of Acupuncture

The Diploma of Acupuncture is a 3-year (6-semester) program that deeply explores theoretical and clinical concepts of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Students learn foundational philosophies, diagnostic principles and therapeutic techniques of this ancient and powerful system of medicine, and incorporate them with biomedical sciences and other healing philosophies. This 2145-hour program satisfies curriculum requirements of the CTCMA of BC.

Study Options

The School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine offers year-round educational opportunities with an academic calendar based on 3 semesters per year. New students may enroll every January, May and September and students may either choose to pursue year-round studies or to take a semester or more off at their discretion. By choosing their course load each semester, students may complete any semester on a part-time or a full-time basis.... [-]

Diploma of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

The Diploma of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine is a 4-year (8-semester) program that deeply explores theoretical and clinical concepts of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine involves disciplines such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, Chinese massage, diet therapy and therapeutic exercises. Students learn foundational philosophies, diagnostic principles and therapeutic techniques of this ancient and powerful system of medicine, and incorporate them with biomedical sciences and other healing philosophies. This 2925-hour program satisfies curriculum requirements of the CTCMA of BC.

Study Options

Diploma of Holistic Nutrition

The Diploma of Holistic Nutrition is a 3-year (6-semester) program that explores the use of food to maintain health and to treat illness. This, the most comprehensive on-site program of holistic nutrition in Canada, is comprised of both theoretical and practical courses and includes cooking and clinical coursework. This program is recognized by the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) and is a NANP-recommended education program.

Having reached for the first time a point in human existence where more humans are overweight than are hungry, where our children's life expectancy is less than ours, and where food resources and indigenous knowledge are vanishing faster than we can preserve them, increasing nutritional knowledge on both local and global scales is of vital importance. The Diploma of Holistic Nutrition is training students to advance human and environmental health through the sharing of nutritional knowledge.... [-]

Diploma of Phytotherapy

The Diploma of Phytotherapy is a 3-year (6-semester) program that explores the medicinal uses of North American and European herbs. Students study both traditional knowledge of herbal medicine - that which is passed down through various world traditions over the ages - and modern day, scientific-based knowledge. This, the most comprehensive program of western herbal medicine available in either Canada or the United States, is comprised of both theoretical and practical courses, implementing advantages of hands-on study of plants.

Graduates of the Diploma of Phytotherapy are eligible to apply for membership into the UK-based College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy, which is one of the world's leading professional herbal practitioner registers. Graduates are also eligible for membership into the Canadian Herbalist's Association of BC (CHA of BC), the American Herbalists Guild (AHG), the Ontario Herbalist Association (OHA), and the Modern and Traditional Herbalists Guild of BC.... [-]

Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine is 10-semester program that deeply explores areas of Traditional Chinese Medicine such as psychology, oncology, gerontology, acupuncture detox, research and the classic texts that first recorded the principles of this powerful and ancient system of medicine.

New students can apply directly to this program or can take it as a 1-year post-graduate program upon completion of the Diploma of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine or a 2-year post-graduate program upon completion of the Diploma of Acupuncture. The curriculum is the same whether students apply directly to this program or matriculate from the above-mentioned programs.... [-]