Acupuncture · Herbal Medicine · Mind-Body Medicine
We get you to the point.
A three-year professional program in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, plus workshops and a community clinic open to everyone. Inner Sunset, San Francisco.
Cohort-based professional program · Open community clinic · Public workshops year-round
- 2014
- Training practitioners since
- Inner Sunset
- San Francisco, CA
- 24
- Students per cohort
- $35–$65
- Community clinic visit
Two ways in
Study to practice, or drop in to feel the difference.
For future practitioners
The Professional Program
A three-year, cohort-based path in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, built around supervised clinical hours from your first year.
See the curriculumFor everyone else
Workshops & Community Clinic
No background required. Evening and weekend sessions in qigong, herbal medicine, and acupressure, plus a sliding-scale clinic staffed by our advanced students.
See what's openThe Professional Program
Three years. One craft, practiced daily.
Meridian's program pairs classical Chinese medical theory with the Western biomedical sciences state licensure requires, and puts you in front of real patients well before graduation.
Acupuncture & Point Location
Channel theory, needle technique, and the anatomy underneath every point.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Materia medica and formula construction, practiced in our own teaching dispensary.
Tuina & Manual Therapy
The medical bodywork tradition acupuncture grew up alongside.
Western Biomedical Sciences
Anatomy, physiology, and pathology, taught to the standard your future patients' doctors expect.
Qigong & Meditation
The practices our practitioners use to stay well while treating everyone else.
Clinical Practicum
Supervised patient care in the teaching clinic, starting well before your final year.
- Format
- In person, four days a week
- Duration
- Three years, cohorts start fall and spring
- Cohort size
- Capped near 24 students
- Licensure pathway
- Coursework and clinical hours aligned to California Acupuncture Board requirements
Admissions
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. A background in the life sciences or a related field helps, but is not required. Admitted students meet with faculty before their first term begins.
Start your application
Tell us a little about yourself. Admissions will follow up with next steps within a few days.
Workshops & Community Clinic
Come as you are.
No background in Chinese medicine required, just curiosity. Every workshop is taught by our faculty or advanced students, in the same rooms our practitioners train in.
Six-week evening series
Foundations of Qigong
Slow, standing movement and breath work, the same forms our students practice every morning.
Single Saturday, 3 hours
Herbal Medicine for the Home Apothecary
Build a small home apothecary and learn what a handful of common herbs are actually good for.
Single evening, 2 hours
Acupressure for Stress & Sleep
Self-treatment points you can use on yourself, starting that night.
Quarterly, one per season
Seasonal Wellness: The Five Elements
How to eat, move, and rest with the season instead of against it.
Weekend workshop
Intro to Cupping & Moxibustion
The two oldest tools in the tradition, and when a practitioner reaches for each.
Sliding scale, no insurance needed
The Community Clinic
Open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Every treatment is overseen by a licensed faculty supervisor.
$35–$65 / visit
Reserve your spot
Workshops run in small groups and fill up. Register below and we'll send exact dates, times, and what to bring.
Register for a workshop
Pick the one you're drawn to. You can always switch later.
Faculty
Taught by people who still see patients.
Every core faculty member keeps a clinical practice alongside teaching, so you're learning current technique, not a lecture written once and repeated for years.
Wei ChenDAOM, L.Ac.
Program Director & Dean of Clinical Education
Trained in Chengdu and Kunming before completing her doctorate in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Still keeps a two-day-a-week practice focused on fertility and internal medicine.
Marcus AlaviL.Ac., MSTOM
Herbal Medicine Faculty & Dispensary Director
Runs the teaching dispensary and formulates custom herbal prescriptions for faculty patients and the community clinic alike.
Sarah Okafor-LinDAOM, L.Ac.
Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Faculty
Splits her week between the classroom and a sports medicine practice near UCSF, treating athletes referred in by physical therapists.
Liang ZhouCertified Instructor
Qigong & Movement Faculty
Trained for over a decade in Beijing before moving to the Bay Area. Leads the morning qigong practice every student takes in year one.
Renee PopovichND
Western Biomedical Sciences Faculty
A naturopathic physician who teaches the anatomy, physiology, and pathology sequence that bridges Meridian's two medical traditions.
The Building
Designed to be used, not just seen.
Fourteen treatment rooms, a dispensary stocked in raw herb and granule form, a sprung-floor studio, and a reading room that stays open past most students' bedtimes.
The Dispensary
Raw herb and granule form, stocked and dispensed by faculty and supervised students.
The Movement Studio
A sprung floor for qigong, tuina practice, and the morning group form every student learns.
Treatment Rooms
Fourteen private rooms, used for both the teaching clinic and faculty's own patients.
Visit
Find us on Irving Street.
Meridian sits on the ground floor of a converted storefront in the Inner Sunset, six blocks from UCSF's Parnassus campus and two from Golden Gate Park. The N-Judah and the 6, 43, and 44 buses all stop within a block.
Meridian Institute
1310 Irving Street
San Francisco, CA 94122
- Front desk
- Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm
- Community clinic
- Tue, Thu, Sat, 9am–5pm
- Transit
- N-Judah · Muni 6, 43, 44
Ready to find your point?
Whether that's a three-year professional program or a single Saturday afternoon, the next cohort and the next workshop are both closer than you think.