ICAK AK Professionals are healthcare practitioners in their own right and are governed by their own professional codes of conducts. These professionals include osteopaths, chiropractors, medical doctors, dentists, physiotherapists and acupuncturists who use AK as an additional diagnostic tool.

The ICAK Foundation Course

The Foundation course in Applied Kinesiology is open to those who have completed a 3000 hour (equivalent to a 3-year full time) undergraduate education in a medically oriented degree such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic, or physiotherapy. The course is taught in 5 weekend modules, on a monthly schedule and runs in concordance with the academic year. At the end of the course, you are entitled to take a practical Proficiency Exam. On passing this exam, you will be awarded a Certificate of Proficiency to practice AK.

On completion of the full course and exam, you will be entitled to membership of ICAK-UK provided you also have membership of a regulatory body of a healthcare profession approved by ICAK-UK; plus current professional liability insurance.

Following on from the Fundamentals Course there are a further three intermediate seminars available to attend. Upon successful completion of all eight weekends, you will be eligible to take the test of Clinical Competence. This test includes both a written and practical exam. On passing this test, you will be awarded a Clinical Competence certificate and will be eligible to use the PAK (Professional Applied Kinesiology) status.

Advanced Courses

These are run approximately twice annually, with one seminar taking place on the same weekend as the annual AGM.

Topics covered in recent years include Advanced Orthomolecular Medicine, Foot Biomechanics and Orthotic Prescription, AK and Visceral Osteopathy, Peripheral Nerve Entrapment, Digestion and Detoxification, Treating Children with Special Needs, Cranial Nerve Testing and Treatment, Ligament Interlink, and Advanced Injury Recall Technique.

For more information - please see our news page for details of upcoming courses - and register for our mailing list by emailing us info@icak.co.uk -

What is APPLIED KINESIOLOGY?

Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a system that evaluates structural, chemical and mental aspects of health using manual muscle testing combined with other standard methods of diagnosis. AK is a non-invasive system of evaluating body function that is unique in the healing arts, and has become a dynamic movement in health care in its relatively short existence.

The combined terms "applied" and "kinesiology" describes the basis of this system, which is the use of manual muscle testing to evaluate body function through the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system.

Treatments may involve specific joint manipulation or mobilization, various myofascial therapies, cranial techniques, meridian and acupuncture treatment, clinical nutrition, dietary management, counselling skills, evaluating environmental irritants and various reflex procedures.

Why Kinesiology?

Many osteopaths or chiropractors learn few, if any accurate muscle testing procedures during their undergraduate degree. This is primarily because there are many confounding factors that can affect the outcome of a muscle test, and the examiner needs to be able to control for these.

This is where Applied Kinesiology excels, and through manual muscle testing the examiner can find underlying hidden imbalances in the body, through neurological feedback and the motor responses.

Muscle testing is one of the best ways to achieve accurate communication with the body. It is invaluable not only for diagnosis and the choice of appropriate treatment, but also for checking the immediate clinical outcome. It also dramatically expands your ability to treat a wider spectrum of health conditions.

How can it broaden my practice?

AK includes use of the acupuncture meridians and points, quick and accurate cranial corrections, testing of homoeopathic and herbal medicines as well as nutrition, so you can make the treatment fit the person rather than the other way around. Patients are impressed by the palpable and observable changes in their bodies, and are usually very enthusiastic in recommending it to their friends and family.

Why ‘APPLIED’ Kinesiology?

In 1964, the late Dr. Goodheart made the first correlation between finding a weak muscle using manual muscle testing and then employing therapy to make it stronger. After that, he looked beyond his own chiropractic profession to the fields of biomedicine, osteopathy, acupuncture, dentistry, nutrition, biochemistry, and others for methods to increase the health and well-being of patients based on using the body itself as a diagnostic tool. Dr. Goodheart had a uniquely intelligent and enquiring way of looking at a patient’s problem and asking, "Why is that?" This allowed him to correlate many different types of examination and treatment procedures into a unified method of examining and then treating many difficult patients.

There have been all kinds of developments following this basic discovery that muscles can be used to evaluate the innate intelligence of the body. There is a form of kinesiology for almost every letter of the alphabet! Unfortunately, the majority of these forms of kinesiology are not well controlled, and hence can be inaccurate and unreliable Applied Kinesiology is the ORIGINAL system developed by the founder of the kinesiological approach, Dr George Goodheart. It was developed as an adjunctive system for osteopaths and chiropractors, and expanded to include medical doctors, dentists and vets, and other medically based therapists. AK teaches sound, replicable and reliable diagnostic and treatment procedures, which are based on extensive research and clinical trials. As a licensed practitioner of AK and member of ICAK-UK, you are of an established competency, and a member of the ‘Gold Standard’ organisation in the field.