Our members
Join our supportive community of highly dedicated professionals in acupuncture and manual therapy.
Our priority at TEMA is to ensure high standards of health and safety, ethics and skills among our members. You can become a member easily through our online registration process. Full membership automatically includes registration with the British Acupuncture Federation and access to great discounts such as insurance from Balens and Sharps box collections which can alone cover the yearly membership fee.
Our codes of conduct
We take professionalism and safety seriously and by joining TEMA you agree to adhere to our code of ethics, working policies and health and safety standards. Choose TEMA for a supportive community of professionals dedicated to the highest standards of practice in acupuncture and manual therapy.
TEMA Membership
Membership to the TEMA is open to acupuncturists who have at a minimum studied to a diploma level course.
Who can join and fees
- £70 Full membership MTEMA is open to acupuncturists who have trained and qualified to a minimum UK Diploma level or equivalent (this does not include the discounted insurance price)
- £5 Student membership STEMA is available for those under training on a diploma course or above (this does not include the discounted insurance price)
- £50 Non-practising membership NPTEMA is available for those who are qualified but are not currently working (excludes BAF registration)
- At the discretion of the TEMA Board, Honorary members will be designated in exceptional circumstances
Full TEMA Membership
£70 Full membership MTEMA is open to acupuncturists who have trained and qualified to a minimum UK Diploma level or equivalent (this does not include the discounted insurance price)
Student TEMA Membership
£5 Student membership STEMA is available for those under training on a diploma course or above (this does not include the discounted insurance price)
Non Practicing TEMA Membership
£50 Non-practising membership NPTEMA is available for those who are qualified but are not currently working (excludes BAF registration)
Membership Benefits
- Joining automatically makes you a registrant with the BAF and their benefits of membership.
- You may already have insurance but if not we offer a specifically designed scheme offering four levels of insurance which are listed in the Discounted Insurance Section below and can be purchased in addition to the membership fee. There are also further options for blood letting and semi-permanent needles.
- Once your membership has been approved the insurance form can be found in the Members Area of the website. This is paid for separately.
- TEMA Logo can be used on your websites, emails and social media as well as using the letters MTEMA after your name
- BAF Logo: you can use “Registrant of a BAF Member Organisation” logo on websites, emails and social media
- TEMA and BAF support acupuncture in a non political environment
- Professional status and recognition
- PSA Authority recognition – BAF are currently in the process of applying for PSA recognition which, once complete, will enable you to use their logos for client confidence
- General Medical Council guidance: doctors are able to refer patients to practitioners on Accredited Registers
- Clinic contact details to be added to a locator map
- Parliamentary support via our agreement with Unison healthcare trade union.
- Insurance discounts: once you have joined you qualify for our specially discounted BAF Affinity Insurance Scheme
- London Boroughs Special Treatment Exempted Status
- Ability to make a difference – you can put your ideas directly to both the TEMA board and the BAF board via your TEMA representative
- Access to useful information in the document download area
- Discounts on equipment and services with our partner providers
- Discounted seminars, meetings and workshop
Balens Insurance
BAF Affinity Insurance Scheme
BAF have partnered with Balens Specialist Insurance Brokers to provide our TEMA members with a bespoke Affinity Scheme Insurance Policy which has painstakingly been designed to cover acupuncture and related therapies.
We are now one of the only groups who optionally can insure you for blood letting as well as semi permanent acupuncture needles such as ASP (auricular semi-permanant) and press needles which you were most likely not insured for previously.
The policy also includes automatic cover for many adjunct therapies such as cupping and gua sha.
Balens Discounted Premiums
The premium for cover depends on the activities you practice. All policies provide a limit of indemnity of either £4,000,000 or £6,000,000.
Auricular Acupuncture cover from £52.95 per annum
Acupuncture cover from £58.90 per annum
Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tuina and Acupuncture from £113.23 per annum
Student cover from £17 per annum
To apply for cover you are required a current TEMA member and can login to the members area of our website or the BAF website and complete the Balens Insurance Form.
Please note if you are not a current TEMA member and purchase the BAF Affinity discounted insurance you will not be insured.
Balens Insurance FAQs
BAF have partnered with Balens Specialist Insurance Brokers to provide our TEMA members with a bespoke Affinity Scheme Insurance Policy which has painstakingly been designed to cover acupuncture and related therapies. We are now one of the only groups who optionally can insure you for blood letting as well as semi permanent acupuncture needles such as ASP and press needles which you were most likely not insured for previously. The policy also includes automatic cover for many adjunct therapies such as cupping and gua sha.
Balens are a well-established, fourth generation family business who specialise in Fitness, Health & Wellbeing, Beauty Therapy and other Health Professionals and organisations. Balens are experts in the development of insurance wordings for Health & Wellbeing Professionals. These wordings are, in our opinion, one of the widest available on market and include important features that other available, cheaper insurance packages may not include. Balens have always regarded claims support, quality cover and personal service as our main strengths.
BAF have devised a policy specifically for individuals who are registrants or student registrants of BAF member organisations. The policy will cover Professional, Public & Products Liability and includes a Legal Expenses policy. Balens policies can cover a number of different activities subject to you holding a qualification. Please note if your qualification was obtained solely online or via distance learning please contact Balens for further guidance.
Our BAF Scheme provides temporary cover to people on courses or for clinical visits in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands and France. Others will follow shortly. Balens can now also offer policies in South Africa through Balens International SA (PTY) Ltd.
If the country you require cover for is not listed they can put your details on their database and will inform you when it is ready.
Please contact Balens for more information or if you require a permanent non-UK policy as they can offer this outside of the BAF scheme.
The key features of cover and the policy conditions, extensions and exclusions can be found on our Key Points Document. Please see links below for further information:
Scheme: www.balens.co.uk/BalensKeyPointsDocumentCombinedLiability.pdf
Full policy wording: http://www.balens.co.uk/media/71964/combinedliabilitypw.pdf.
The premium for cover depends on the activities you practice. All policies provide a limit of indemnity of £6,000,000.
Auricular Acupuncture cover from £58.89 per annum
Acupuncture cover from £63.99 per annum
Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tuina and Acupuncture from £113 per annum
Student cover from £17.00 per annum
To apply for cover you are required to be a current TEMA member and can login to the members area of our website or the BAF website and complete the Balens Insurance Form.
Please note if you are not a current TEMA member and purchase the BAF Affinity discounted insurance your cover may not be valid.