At the Swedish Institute I was treated like a person, not a number. the instructors took a real interest in me and my hopes and plans for the future. The small classes made it possible for me to get the attention and help I needed, and get my questions answered. The school, located in the Chelsea section of West Manhattan, was convenient for me and the afternoon hours schedule made it easy for me to keep my "day Job". I worked in the morning and attended classes in the afternoon. I was also impressed with the practice opportunities, first working on other students, the the public. I learned to be comfortable as I made my clients comfortable. I learned how to work on clients as well as how to understand my clients concerns and needs. The classroom training gave me the background to really understand where their pain was coming from and come up with solutions for them. Last but not least, I met some really nice people at the school, and I expect that I will remain friends with some of my classmates for the rest of my life. We learned together, studied together and practiced together. We laughed together a lot too. I made some great friends, got an education and became a massage therapist. It was all good!

The Swedish Institute was a good fit for me to take my acupuncture training at as the class sizes and attitude of the instructors was to my liking and learning style. My favorite hallmark of the program is the attention that is paid to the philosophical underpinnings of Acupuncture as a practice, because at SI it is taught as a practice derived from Classical Chinese Acupuncture. It is possible to learn treatment-focused acupuncture that is more Westernized in the way of thought it follows, but I find that the SI treatment of the subject is more authentic and was the method I was interested in learning.. SI instructors are well informed when it comes to the cumulative knowledge that Acupuncture is based on and it set me in the right mindset to learn and practice effectively. Although the coursework is demanding, there was help available if you needed it and all the instructors took an active role in helping me succeed; individual attention while preparing for my practical work was very much appreciated and would not have been available at a larger school.