Jing Fang Apprenticeship
What is the Jing Fang Apprenticeship?
The Jing Fang Apprenticeship (JFA) is an apprenticeship-style training in Chinese herbal medicine. The apprenticeship gives students a practical and solid grounding in the subject.
The programme teaches Chinese herbal medicine from scratch and leads to a Licentiate in Classical Chinese Herbalism. Officially opened in 2015 by Dr Feng Shi-Lun, the JFA teaches the Jing Fang Six Syndrome Differentiation System.
How does the apprenticeship work?
Students follow a practical clinic-based approach to the study of Chinese herbs, with access to a full herb dispensary in our South Oxfordshire base. The apprenticeship is a manageable and systematic way to navigate the ocean of Chinese herbal medicine.
Attending weekly clinics, students observe and discuss clinical practice. Apprentices are in the clinic from the beginning, immediately exposing them to the way the Jing Fang Six Syndrome Differentiation System works in practice. Students gradually build up to treating their own patients under supervision.
- Observe the treatment of patients
- Gain hands-on experience in herb dispensing
- Bring your own cases for discussion
- Bring any questions for discussion
In addition to the practical side of the course, students must also complete our Jing Fang lecture series (the online theory component) to help cement their learning.
How long does it take?
Typically, students take around two years to complete their competency-based training. As we adopt a flexible attendance approach, it is possible to take less, or more, time to complete the course.
On completion of the Apprentice Logbook, apprentices graduate from the Jing Fang Apprenticeship (JFA), and are awarded a Licentiate in Classical Chinese Herbalism.
Accreditation
We have entered the European Herbal and Traditional Practitioners Association (EHTPA) process for the accreditation of Chinese herbal medicine courses. Find out more about accreditation here.
Apprenticeship structure and costs
The Jing Fang Apprenticeship schedule is divided into three terms of 10 days each, with extra days in the summer and at the beginning and end of some terms. The extra days provide for catch up for days missed, and may be attended free if you are on the yearly pathway.
In clinic
The Apprenticeship runs on Mondays at the Cholsey Pavilion and Cholsey Complementary Health Centre, OX10, 9PT. We see patients from 11.00am to 2.30pm, followed by an afternoon discussion session from 3.30–6.00pm. Apprentices are encouraged to bring questions and cases for discussion.
Zoom sessions
Some clinics and classes are held online via Zoom, and these sessions will be scheduled in advance. On these occasions, the zoom clinic will run on Monday from 10.00am to 1.30pm with the discussion session on the next day, Tuesday, from 11.00am–1.30pm. In the event of face–to–face clinics becoming impossible again for any reason, the clinic will run online on Monday and Tuesday mornings.
Apprentices may choose one of three pathways for their study.
- Yearly Pathway: Commitment to the whole apprenticeship with payment yearly in advance. This is the recommended pathway, since apprentices who choose this pathway are the most successful in completing the programme. There is also a substantial financial discount if you choose this pathway.
- Termly Pathway: Commitment to the whole programme with payment termly in advance, or commitment only to one term with payment in advance. This is recommended for those herbalists adding Jing Fang to their herbal medicine portfolio, or who are studying the online lecture series and wish to augment it with clinical experience.
- Daily Pathway: If there are particular circumstances that require a different attendance pattern, then this can be negotiated. If an Apprentices is unable to attend once a week, then a bespoke attendance regime can be arranged, with payment by the day. This is a hard way to achieve completion of this programme, and usually in this case it takes longer than two years, but it has been done. However, it is not recommended, as this approach comes with a high drop out rate.
Clinical/class days:
- Yearly Pathway £2400: book for a whole year of 30 days plus 7 extra summer and pre–term days, and save £210 per term plus 7 extra days worth £679.
- Termly Pathway £870: book for a term of 10 consecutive days to get £100 off per term.
- Daily Pathway £97: Book one day (face–to–face or online) and try it out as a single CPD day, or book by the day as you go along.
If you book for a term or a year, access to electronic copy of the following study materials is included in the price, and on payment of your deposit (£400) you will be given access to the SCCH Dropbox Library, which contains:
- English version of Shang Han Lun with commentary, mainly from Dr Feng
- English version of Jin Gui Yao Lue with commentary, mainly from Dr Feng
- Many other useful handouts
Online payment is not currently accepted.
Jing Fang Lecture Series
Parts I, II and III £350 each, Part IV £175, complete set discount £1100
The theory aspect of the JFA is available in a Jing Fang lecture series, written and presented by Frances Turner. This consists of 60+ hours of easily accessible audio with PDF slides, and takes you systematically through Jing Fang from A to Z. The lectures are illustrated by cases from Frances’s observation of Dr Feng Shilun in Beijing in 2014, 15 and 16 as well as from her Oxfordshire clinic.
It is highly recommended that you study this material before or alongside the clinicals/class days, as it takes you through the herbs and formulas, with their clauses in the Shang Han Za Bing Lun, and will help you to contextualise what is happening in clinic.
Bristol Chinese Herb Garden Dispensary Day: Price tbc but in the region of £100
Tony Harrison runs a dispensary day in Bristol, where you can also visit the Chinese Herb Garden and see the herbs growing, as well as learn to make creams, tinctures and pills. This is an invaluable resource and highly recommended. You can access Tony’s free videos on Youtube, and particularly useful is the one on pao zhi: Pao zhi herbal processing explained.
Textbooks & DVD sets
You may also like to buy some textbooks; please see the resources list for a complete list. In particular, a good formulary and a materia medica are essential tools for a herbalist, and the DVD sets from Dr Feng ShiLun are an invaluable insight into his practice, giving us many Jing Fang case examples.
Online payment is not currently accepted.
Phytochemistry and Pharmacology: two day online training with Chris Etheridge, price tbc but in the region of £100/day
Phytochemistry and pharmacology are huge subjects that in themselves merit degree level training. These two days give you a taste of these subjects and their relationship to the classical approach to Chinese herbal medicine. This course gives us a sense of the wider context of Chinese herbal medicine in the UK today.
When you reach the second phase of your training and are seeing patients in your own clinic under supervision, you are required to get student insurance. This is available from Balens.
Enrolment
To enrol on our apprenticeship course, please complete the enrolment form below. We will then contact you to arrange an interview.
Testimonials from patients, students and graduates.
Frances does a wonderful job of teaching Jing Fang to us in England, online and in person. It has transformed my herbal practice into being more effective, with quicker results, and being more curative.
The Jing Fang introductory lectures are extremely useful. The information is explained in a very clear and structured manner, with case studies that illustrate all the different formula patterns. The audio is a bonus. These lectures provide a very solid base that complement the practical side of the apprenticeship and help consolidate your learning.
Jing fang has given me a way of understanding herbal medicine that is both profound and effective. For that I am eternally grateful!
It has been the most remarkable and fulfilling educational experience I have ever had.
Thank you for bringing Jing Fang into my life, it has done miracles for my health…I feel so privileged to have discovered this lineage.
Your depth of knowledge, as well as your warmth and willingness to share it, have made the last two years the most important and enjoyable of my career to date.
Dr Feng, you have turned my world upside-down with this wonderful Jing Fang system… reading your case histories is inspirational.
I have been very lucky to meet Frances Turner and study the Jing Fang tradition you have shared all over the world. It’s a truly wonderful medicine, which I absolutely love to continue learning and practicing. So many have benefited from these teachings.
It has been the single most helpful thing I’ve done for my health – it’s been life changing.
It has been rewarding and challenging to use this medicine. Every patient is a teacher!
It is such a privilege to be studying the Jing Fang Apprenticeship with Frances Turner, and I cannot wait to incorporate this incredible system into my practice to help patients.
It has been the most remarkable and fulfilling educational experience I have ever had, because the learning is done through observing real patients and seeing how Frances diagnoses and treats them. Every week I’m there, I learn something new whether it is about herbs or formulas or syndromes. And being at the clinic is always hugely interesting. Doing Frances’s course and learning the Jing Fang pattern diagnosis has changed the way I treat my own patients as an acupuncturist.