SW Acupuncture College to Close

Southwest Acupuncture College in Gunbarrel is closing operations permanently. "After 41 years of providing excellence in education in the field of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, Southwest Acupuncture College will be ending our programs and closing on August 31, of 2023. We will not be accepting any additional students and will hold no further interviews, tours, or open house events," their website reads.

Academic Dean Nate Mohler and Administrative Director Heather Lang talked about closing for good following closing for several months during the pandemic. "The college is currently hosting its last graduating class," said Lang who has worked for the college for 15 years. "There are 152 students in the last graduating class. This group of students has made it through Covid and the various challenges that Covid created while enrolled with us. The students are like our family members. It's sad that this is the last group of them," Lang said.

Nate Mohler served as a faculty member in 2012 and went on to receive his natural medicine doctorate in 2018. Mohler now serves as the Academic Dean for the college. Mohler explained the challenges the college has experienced and the factors that led to the decision to close. "The largest factor is the financial challenge," Mohler said. "It's very expensive to run an acupuncture college and there is a lot of competition. While there are only 20 chiropractic colleges in the US, there are 60 acupuncture colleges," Mohler said. "That's too many colleges to support the low number of students these days."

Both Lang and Mohler talked about the fact that the college had sparked interest from other larger schools' intent on merging or acquiring the college. "We had a couple colleges expressing interest in buying us but then Covid came and erased those opportunities. We've never recovered from Covid," Lang said.

Southwest Acupuncture College opened its 2nd location in Gunbarrel in 1997. The first location was founded in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The school's mission to educate and license students in acupuncture and Chinese medicine supported many students and enjoyed a long history. Dean Mohler explained the genesis of the acupuncture and massage schools in Gunbarrel. "Boulder has always been a cradle of Eastern medicine. Different groups of people came here seeking new ideas on health and medicine and were the pioneers who made Boulder a bedrock of the culture," Mohler explained. "It all started with Bob Flaws and his wife," Mohler said. Mohler tells the story, "In the 1970's, Flaws went to Nepal and India to study Tibetan medicine. Because of the barriers to becoming a Tibetan doctor Instead he started studying Chinese medicine. Flaws wanted to understand the art of massage before embarking on acupuncture, so in 1977, Bob moved to Boulder, CO and attended the Boulder School of Massage Therapy. Honora Lee Wolfe, founder of Boulder School of Massage Therapy and Flaws married. It was around that time that Flaws started studying acupuncture. https://healthy.net/author/bob-flaws-l-ac/

"Most Chinese medicine and acupuncture texts were translated by Bob Flaw," Mohler said. "One translation is not typically enough to really get at the heart of the richness behind the ancient practice. Because of the surge in popularity to study abroad, many students of Chinese medicine and Chinese language helped to develop more complex translations of the original medical texts. These translations have assisted in the development of more complex applications of Chinese herbal medicines and acupuncture here in the US," Mohler said. Mohler learned how to farm Goji berries for use in Chinese medicine from Ms. Wolfe. Goji berries can be used in many ways. "The bark is used for joint pain, it tonifies chi and blood and the leaves are used in soups," Mohler explained.

Over the last 20 years, the number of people using acupuncture has increased dramatically. "With very minimal training, Medical Doctors and Chiropractors have always been able to practice acupuncture, which is scary," Mohler said. Licensure in the field typically takes between three to five years. This is in part due to the fact that acupuncture licensure varies from state to state. For more information, visit the college's website here. "Initially naming what they were doing, "dry needling", Doctors and Chiropractors were using hypodermic needles traditionally used to deliver medicine to perform acupuncture with nothing in them," said Mohler. "In the old days an acupuncturist would get a set of needles and they would sterilize and reuse the needles." Mohler said.

"Acupuncture is being practiced more than ever before," Mohler said. Auto Immune problems, Pediatrics, Sports Medicine, Women's Health, including inducing childbirth are some of the reasons to use the needles. Each practitioner has their own specialty. Mohler says he likes to work on headaches. "When I started in 2004, everyone was in private practice-now it's so common that acupuncturists are employed by Kaiser and other hospitals. In Boulder County, for example, each hospital now has an acupuncture program, and every hospital has an acupuncturist," Mohler said.

Speaking about modern pain management and the opioid epidemic, Mohler explained that acupuncture is now being offered regularly as a treatment for pain management. A 2020 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) online article reads, "Today the CMS finalized a decision to cover acupuncture for Medicare patients with chronic low back pain. Before this final National Coverage Determination (NCD) reconsideration, acupuncture was nationally non-covered by Medicare. "We are dedicated to increasing access to alternatives to prescription opioids and believe that covering acupuncture for chronic low back pain is in the best interest of Medicare patients," said CMS Principal Deputy Administrator of Operations and Policy Kimberly Brandt. Over-reliance on opioids for people with chronic pain is one of the factors that led to the crisis, so it is vital that we offer a range of treatment options for our beneficiaries." https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-finalizes-decision-cover-acupuncture-chronic-low-back-pain-medicare-beneficiaries

"The acupuncture profession in the US has entered a golden age," Mohler said. "Students who are graduating now are better off because there's a richer understanding of the benefits of acupuncture and it's more widely accepted." "Funnily enough it was during the Nixon administration when an emergency situation brought acupuncture to the news and helped inspire the public's curiosity about acupuncture," Mohler said. "In 1971, Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State at the time, went to China and an accompanying journalist, James Reston, had acute appendicitis. Reston required emergency surgery to have his appendix removed. The Chinese doctors administered acupuncture to relieve Reston's pain. When he returned home, Reston wrote an article about his experience in the N.Y. Times which brought attention and curiosity about acupuncture to the US," Mohler said.

Reflecting on the benefits of having supported the college for 15 years and expressing her reverence for acupuncture as a treatment for pain and other problems, Administrative Director Lang said, "I have underlying health issues. My knees were troubling me but I was able to avoid knee surgery. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for acupuncture."