Student Choice Placements

The GMC now recognises Lifestyle Medicine within graduate outcomes, and here at NCIM we are experts in the field of bringing together conventional, lifestyle, functional, and holistic approaches to personalise care. 

In this pioneering SCP, students will explore the evidence base underpinning yoga and mindfulness in the prevention and management of stress, anxiety, burnout, and trauma, and their use as adjunct interventions with IBS, ADHD, eating disorders, cancer care, and many conditions.  

The programme draws on biomedical, psychological, and philosophical perspectives, encouraging students to evaluate research, interpret findings, and understand how empirical evidence aligns with traditional frameworks of yoga practice and philosophy. 

We will focus on positive lifestyle choices, balance, and disease prevention—examined through the lens of the nervous system, the mind–body connection, the gut–brain axis, mindfulness, contemplative practice, and the link between personal and planetary wellbeing. 

At the same time, trauma-informed yoga practice and guided reflection will encourage students to embrace their own humanness and vulnerabilities, foster greater self-awareness, and develop a vital toolkit for self-care and compassionate clinical practice.  

This immersive programme combines contemporary theory, embodied practice, and personal inquiry, equipping future healthcare professionals with the critical understanding, experiential insight, and advocacy skills necessary to advance whole-person approaches to health and wellbeing. 

The course runs as twice-weekly 3-hour sessions over 6 weeks with each session combining physical yoga and embodiment practices (with an emphasis on relaxation, grounding and personal insight), a lecture component and group discussion. Students will also meet experts in the field of Lifestyle and Integrative Medicine and take part in workshops focusing on lifestyle approaches such as Food for Mood and Nature Connection for wellbeing. 

Students will also learn more about, and if possible participate in, the delivery of NCIM Social Prescribing Initiatives such as Thrive55: Building Age-Friendly Workplaces, and explore the social and community impact these programmes deliver (e.g., the wellbeing days with employees/volunteers over the age of 55 include yoga for wellbeing). As NCIM is a not-for-profit community interest company, students will also learn about how the third sector supports health and wellbeing in diverse and underserved communities, and the strategies used to address health inequalities. 

Additional reading, research and yoga practices (meditation, physical postures/sequences, relaxation tools, breath work) will be given to students between sessions to deepen their learning and experience of self-practice.  

Students will be required to do independent research to find out about similar individuals and organisations using yoga within Lifestyle, Personalised and Preventative healthcare.  

Students will also be offered free access to the NCIM Membership, where they can attend live online webinars, access a catalogue of past webinars and conferences, and wellbeing resources, all with a focus on whole-person health.

There will be the option to attend the Integrative and Personalised Medicine conference in London and be part of the NCIM team. 

No prior experience of yoga is required and flexibility, fitness, strength and stamina are not pre-requisites for joining. Students will not be assessed on their physical skills at all. All bodies are welcome.   

Integrative Medicine (IM) is an emerging, whole person care approach which has been described as the intelligent combination of conventional, lifestyle, functional and holistic approaches. As you will discover, it is much, much more than that. It aims to offer wider choices to practitioner and patient alike and seeks to provide a deeper sense of what health and healthcare means. This becomes even more important in later life when we are aiming to optimise health and stay well within a prevention model of healthcare. Teaching is delivered via a range of seminars and experiential sessions. During the SCP, you will be encouraged to critically appraise research in this field and to learn about a few IM approaches (e.g. nutrition or mind-body medicine) that particularly interest you. Your project will then focus on one aspect which you will interrogate through an evidence-based lens and understand trial design when applied to complex interventions. 

Aims of the SCP  

• To introduce the concept of IM, consolidating the whole person care model with an emphasis on health promotion 

• To start to model the nature of “optimum health” from multiple perspectives and specifically looking at preventative medicine, social prescribing approaches and complementary approaches e.g. acupuncture for chronic pain or nutritional approaches for heart health 

• To understand illness from the patients’ perspective and look at what patients use to support their health and wellbeing 

• To interpret and make use of the emerging evidence for social prescribing and/or IM programmes/interventions, critically analysing the available research in the use of complementary approaches for the management of particular conditions.  

• To create an in-depth piece of work in an area of IM that is of interest to you and where you can use scientific inquiry and explore the evidence mosaic to analyse this emerging model of healthcare. 

The epidemics of diabetes and obesity have never been more important to understand as numbers increase and health and wellbeing decrease. This SCP delivered by the National Centre for Integrative Medicine, will explore the factors in our diet that are predisposing us to inflammation and chronic disease including eating ultra processed foods and living high carbohydrate lifestyles. We will explore the way the body runs a hybrid fuel system and having periods of fasting and low carbohydrate eating can improve energy and improve insulin resistance for ourselves and our patients. Learning a range of approaches to support metabolic health will reinforce the need to personalise lifestyle prescriptions for each individual. 

We will dive into the physiology of insulin and ketones and study emerging information about Metabolic Syndrome and how that will impact so many of the patients you will see in your future career. Not only will you develop skills to support your patients, but you will also learn in practical and interactive seminars including Cooking from Scratch with the NCIM Nutrition team, how to maintain your health and wellbeing. We will study these elements of nutrition within the context of Integrative Medicine and a model of personalised and preventative medicine. 

The three-week programme will include seminars with experts in the field of lifestyle and integrative medicine along with weekly cooking from scratch sessions with the NCIM nutrition and medical team to become more aware of the science of metabolic flexibility and how to put this into daily living to enhance health and well-being. The teaching will take place at the beautiful Ham Green House in Pill where the National Centre for Integrative Medicine is based. There will also be practical elements of mindfulness, nature connection and movement all of which are important elements of lifestyle medicine. 

This SCP will focus on the evidence for and practice of Yoga in reducing stress, cultivating wellbeing and supporting the healing of trauma. The aim of this course is to explore the practice of yoga (physical postures, breath work, relaxation and meditation) as a tool for enhanced mental and emotional wellbeing and personal development.  Students will gain an overview of the historical, spiritual, philosophical and therapeutic aspects of the yoga tradition while learning about the scientific evidence basis supporting the practice. There is a thread of Self-Care woven throughout the course which we emphasise due to the ever-present threat of burnout in the Healthcare Profession. You will have an opportunity to practice various styles of yoga, breathwork and meditation and be encouraged to develop a personal practice between sessions to build into your regular self-care routine.  Crucially, this SCP will also look at how you can personally manage stress in the future and explore a range of practices that can support your health and wellbeing and that of your future patients. All sessions will include a combination of physical practice, a lecture-style learning component and group discussion.

Based at Ham Green house just outside Bristol, this SCP will focus on the evidence for and practice of Nature Connection in reducing stress. NCIM in partnership with the Natural Academy will explore the evidence for Nature Connection and how it is being delivered into the NHS for children and adults. We will also explore social prescription as a way of prescribing activities rather than pharmaceuticals and how this can resource individuals and communities to build resilience. Crucially, this SCP will also look at how you can personally manage stress in the future and explore a range of lifestyle and integrative approaches that can support your health and wellbeing. There will be time for you on the land around Ham Green and the option of a short retreat. 

Learning outcomes:  

• to understand nature connection and how it can vary from ecopsychotherapy to a community horticulture for health social prescribing initiative 
• to understand models of stress and how to recognise stress in ourselves and our patients 
• to understand Integrative Medicine and how it safely combines conventional, lifestyle and complementary approaches to support health and wellbeing 
• to learn about how lifestyle approaches such as nature connection, breathworks, yoga and nutrition can be combined to reduce stress 
• to critically assess the evidence for these approaches and how they can be incorporated into modern healthcare 
• To explore models of delivery of Nature Connection into the NHS 

You will meet dynamic teams across the two organisations NCIM and the Natural Academy and there will be a range of interactive seminars looking at managing stress with nutrition, sleep, movement, breath, and nature connection along with opportunities to join yoga and breathwork classes and Food for Mood cooking from scratch sessions. There will be mindfulness elements in nature and learning breathing techniques and the opportunity to take part in a short retreat.