From the Preface:
“This information will be very useful to patients, healthcare professionals, educators, students and those responsible for future clinical research and healthcare policy.”
David Eisenberg, MD
Harvard Medical School Osher Research Center

To see what others are saying about the book, click here.

This guide to the 5 licensed complementary and alternative healthcare professions, written by vetted experts, is a desk reference for clinicians and a textbook and resource for educators and students. Also included is information on emerging fields of traditional world medicines, holistic nursing and holistic and integrative medicine.

Developed by
Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC)

Organizational Partners:

• American Massage Therapy Association—Council of Schools
• Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges
• Association of Chiropractic Colleges
• Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
• Midwifery Education Accreditation Council

Plus, American Holistic Nurses Association, American Holistic Medical Association, American Medical College of Homeopathy, Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, International Association of Yoga Therapists and the National Ayurvedic Medical Association.

Project Managers and Editors
Elizabeth Goldblatt, PhD, MPA/HA, ACCAHC Chair, Pamela Snider, ND, ACCAHC Founding Executive Director, Sheila Quinn, Consulting Editor, John Weeks, ACCAHC Executive Director

Total pages: 124

"This book is a landmark achievement. It removes the veil from the licensed complementary and alternative healthcare practitioners who have won the devotion of a significant proportion of our population.”
Larry Dossey, MD and Barbara Dossey, RN, PhD, authors and educators

“Integrative medicine practitioners from conventional medicine often work in collaboration with CAM practitioners. This book is a great platform for developing these relationships to serve our patients.”
Andrew Weil, MD, Author and founder and director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine

From the Foreword
“We see this publication as a helpful textbook and reference not only to the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) community but to the conventional health care professions as well.”
Victor S. Sierpina, MD, ABFM, ABIH, past vice chair, Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine
Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAA, incoming chair, Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine
Adam Perlman, MD, MPH Chair, Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine

• Essential All authors and author teams wrote to a template which provides key information on the profession, its standards, regulatory status, and more.
• Accessible The template allows readers to quickly access the type of information they seek.
• Vetted To create a high standard of content, ACCAHC partnered with leading national organizations to identify authors. The authors reviewed not only their own sections, but had the opportunity to review, suggest edits and comment on the other sections.
• Reasonable Individual copies are priced at less than $25. Bulk purchasing allows college and university bookstores a margin for reselling.

Each purchase creates double value.  The Desk Reference advances the ability of practitioners to collaborate as teams.  In addition, each purchase supports ACCAHC's mission of fostering cross-disciplinary respect and collaboration.

Templates for Content on the Professions

Author teams used the template below: 5500 words per chapter and 1000 word per appendix section.

• Philosophy, Mission, Goals
• Characteristics and Data
• Clinical Care
• Approach to patient care
• Scope of practice
• Referral practices
• Third-party payers
• Integration activities
• Education
• Schools and programs
• Curriculum content
• Faculty and other training information
• Accreditation
• Regulation and Certification
• Regulatory status
• Examinations and certifications
• Research
• Challenges and Opportunities
• Resources
• Organizations and websites
• Bibliography

Special for Educators: Powerpoint Based on the Desk Reference

To facilitate your use of this book in the classroom or in continuing education environments, ACCAHC developed a powerpoint presentation based on the contents of the Desk Reference. This 100 slide powerpoint was developed as a project of the ACCAHC Education Working Group and under the direction of co-chair Jan Schwartz and ACCAHC assistant director Beth Rosenthal, PhD, MBA, MPH. This teaching aide can be downloaded by clicking here and submitting the form. Contact Rosenthal with your interest at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

ACCAHC’s Partner Organizations identified appropriate authors for the relevant section. While authors are typically leaders of the Partner Organization, the organizations have not endorsed the content of the book. Their participation in selecting the chapter authors was not intended to be understood as an endorsement.