Introduction
The graduate certificate in Complementary Medicine and Wellness is a course of study emphasizing patient/client counseling and education about mind-body approaches, complementary therapies, health promotion, disease prevention and wellness. The program goals include preparing professionals to help their patients/clients achieve a level of health and well-being that reaches beyond merely the absence of disease.
Participants learn to optimize the patient/client-practitioner relationship while promoting health across the physical, psychological, spiritual, social and environmental dimensions. Specific skills include stress management and relaxation training, patient/client education and wellness counseling, and evaluating new and traditional modalities using evidence-based criteria. A 40-hour clinical practicum in an integrative medicine facility is included in the Professional Seminar (HS 630).
Recent trends in health care delivery have challenged practitioners and educators to integrate alternative approaches that are complementary into standard practice and to evaluate their safety and effectiveness. It is intended that candidates will use the certificate to enhance or further their professional practice, current licensure or formal education.
Numerous health care systems, hospitals and clinics are opening facilities devoted to complementary and alternative health care. Professionals who have completed formal certification programs have been selected to head these facilities.
The program augments the background of professionals such as counselors, exercise scientists, physicians, physician assistants, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, educators, dieticians, psychologists, social workers and clergy.
Curriculum
The program is offered as a full-time or part-time course of study accommodating the needs of working professionals. It is designed so that the certificate can be completed in one or two years. The certificate is awarded upon completing the specified 16 credit hours of study:
HS/CNS 641 or HS 441: Integrative Holistic Medicine Principles for Practice (4 credits)
HS 630: CMW Professional Seminar (2 credits)
CNS 653: Counseling for Wellness (4 credits)
Specialty Electives (4 credits)
Student-Selected Electives (2 credits)
Course Schedule
For the most current course schedule, please visit SAIL and view the class schedule.
Program Philosophy
The Complementary Medicine & Wellness Certificate Program curriculum emphasizes mind-body approaches and wellness for optimizing the patient/client-practitioner relationship, promoting health and preventing diseases. The program's conceptual framework is based on: 1) psychoneuroimmunology (PNI); 2) stress management and the relaxation response; 3) the health benefits of belief; and 4) consumer empowerment when utilizing the health care delivery system and making health decisions.
The Program's Conceptual Framework
PNI is the study of the body's integrated organ systems involved with health and disease behavior. PNI is often considered the science of the mind-body connection. The hormonal and nervous system effects of the relaxation response are the physiologic opposite of fight-or flight. The relaxation response is the basis of many stress management methods that are used clinically. Counseling and education regarding health care options empower patients/clients by helping them incorporate into their lifestyle PNI mechanisms, stress management and prevention strategies. Providers become partners in health.
Courses are based on knowledge for furthering human potential by examining complementary and alternative methods, and proposing models and mechanisms that help explain their effects. For many professionals, this knowledge has enhanced practice by improving patient/client relationships, assessment, therapy, rehabilitation, prevention strategies and counseling skills. New ways of viewing health and disease have resulted in healthy lifestyle changes for both patients/clients and providers.
The program attempts to meet the needs of those who have indicated a strong interest in courses and a formal certificate program in mind-body - related topics. Individuals from a variety of disciplines may choose relevant courses or complete the certificate program to augment or expand their education, practice and careers. Many major health care systems, hospitals and professional journals have emphasized that complementary medicine, wellness and prevention are the leading edge of tomorrow's health care. They are growing fields that are defining the way future medicine and health care will be practiced.
The Program's Title
Popular use of the term alternative medicine originated from the mission statement of the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine (now the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine). However, most unconventional practitioners and their patients/clients do not exclude the use of conventional modalities. Instead, they are used together. Hence the terms: adjunctive, integrative and complementary medicine which are those modalities not practiced in most hospitals and not usually taught in medical schools. Complementary medicine would therefore include stress management, exercise, nutrition, group support, acupuncture, biofeedback, hypnosis, massage, chiropractic and herbals, to name a few. In short, the title reflects a goal of the program's curriculum: promoting health and wellness using methods that complement conventional practices.
Program Mission
When the Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health was established in the early 1990s, practitioners and educators were challenged to integrate into traditional health care and teach patients/clients about safe and effective alternative therapies that are complementary. One of the goals was to help achieve a level of health and wellness that reaches beyond merely the absence of disease.
Many providers and academicians, however, claim they do not have adequate knowledge regarding alternative and complementary methods, and although the goals of wellness are beneficial, providers indicate they lack the counseling and patient education skills needed to facilitate these goals.
Few accredited institutions of higher education provide formal education in understanding alternative or complementary medicine, or wellness. The program furthers knowledge about wellness and the effects of complementary methods while providing a needed balance to disease-oriented and often over-specialized models of health care. The program attempts to facilitate a constructive shift in the health care paradigm, and improve patient/client care by integrating complementary methods with standard care.
Questions.....and More about Oakland University
Inquiries may be directed to the Office of Graduate Study, 520 O'Dowd Hall, phone (248) 370-3168; or the CMW Program, 363/370 Hannah Hall, phone (248) 370-4191 (Director), or (248) 370-4038 (Program Secretary).
To learn more on-line about Oakland University and our beautiful campus, visit Oakland University's website. This website also contains complete university catalogs, course schedules, and faculty profiles.
Admission to the Program
Applicants should hold a bachelors degree with an undergraduate cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or above from an accredited institution. Applicants are required to submit: 1) a completed Graduate Office application and the CMW Program's supplemental admissions form, 2) a one-page prospectus describing how the applicant intends to integrate or use the certificate program in practice or for furthering education, and 3) two satisfactory letters of recommendation from professionals qualified to comment on the applicant. An interview by the program faculty is required. Admission is selective, with preference given to applicants determined to be the best qualified to undertake the program of study.
About the Application Forms
All necessary forms (i.e., the Application for Admission to Graduate Study and two Recommendation for Graduate Admissions forms) may be obtained by contacting the Office of Graduate Study, 511 O'Dowd Hall, phone (248) 370-3168, or the CMW Program, 363/370 Hannah Hall, phone (248) 370-4191 or (248) 370-4038.
Alternatively, the Application for Admission to Graduate Study may be completed on-line by clicking here.
The CMW Supplemental Application Form appears below, and it may be printed.
Admission Procedure
Admission to the program is a two-step process. Applications must be accepted by both the university Office of Graduate Study and by the CMW Program Admissions Committee. The following should be delivered or sent to the Graduate Office:
A completed Application for Admission to Graduate Study with transcripts.
Two Recommendation for Graduate Admissions Forms completed by professionals qualified to comment about your suitability for graduate study in the CMW Program
A completed CMW Supplemental Application
A one-page (approximately), typewritten, double-spaced Prospectus describing how you will use CMW studies in your current or future professional practice, or how the studies will support or will be integrated with an academic degree or research
The Graduate Office address is:
Office of Graduate Study
160 North Foundation Hall
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
Following approval by the CMW Program Admissions Committee, the Office of Graduate Study makes the final admissions decision and notifies the applicant.
Note: If you have been approved for graduate work by the Oakland University Office of Graduate Study within the last two years, only items 3 and 4 need to be submitted. If recommendations for another Oakland University graduate program have already been received, additional recommendations are not necessary. If only items 3 and 4 are being submitted, they may be sent directly to the CMW Program:
Director of the Complementary Medicine & Wellness Program
370 Hannah Hall
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
Timelines
Application to the Office of Graduate Study should be made two months prior to the beginning of the semester you plan to take coursework. The deadline may be changed under special circumstances. You may enroll for classes after admission to the university as a regularly admitted graduate student, a conditionally admitted graduate student or as a post-baccalaureate student.
Supplemental Application Form
To download the supplemental application form, click on the link below.