What is FSM?
Faculty
Student Library
Why Learn
FOR MEDICAL & HEALTH-PROFESSION STUDENTS
- From the team that has trained 4000+ practitioners worldwide since 1997.
Who This Is For
Built for students entering the healing professions.
FSM is taught to physicians, chiropractors, naturopaths, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and other licensed providers. This portal gives students a foundation while you're still in school.
Medical Students
MD & DO students seeking evidence-informed tools beyond the standard curriculum.
Chiro, ND & PT Students
Chiropractic, naturopathic, and physical therapy students adding a manual-medicine modality.
Acupuncture & Allied Health
Acupuncture, OT, and allied-health students curious about resonance-based therapy.
Functional Medicine Clubs
Student clubs and cohorts at partner schools — starting with NWHSU's Functional Medicine Club.
What Is FSM?
A gentle current, tuned to specific frequencies.
Frequency Specific Microcurrent uses an extremely low-level electrical current — around one-thousandth the intensity of a TENS unit, measured in microamps — paired with specific frequencies that practitioners match to particular tissues and conditions.
The working model is one of resonance: like two tuning forks, where one set to a frequency causes another tuned to the same frequency to respond. The current is so gentle that most people feel nothing at all.
FSM is a 510(k) microcurrent modality used by licensed healthcare practitioners. Published research has documented measurable reductions in inflammatory markers such as IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α, and Substance P during treatment.
FSM is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. We make no medical claims; the exact mechanisms remain under active research.
The tuning-fork principle
Every tissue has natural bioelectrical properties. FSM works with the idea that tissues may respond to matching frequency combinations — and that treatment works best when the frequency matches the actual cause of the problem.
Who You'll Learn From
The faculty behind the program.
This program brings together the founder of FSM and a nationally recognized leader in functional medicine education.
Dr. Carolyn McMakin
Dr. McMakin developed Frequency Specific Microcurrent in 1997 and has spent the decades since teaching it around the world, training more than 4,000 practitioners.
A chiropractor who began her medical path at 40, she first taught on fibromyalgia and myofascial pain at Portland State University before reviving a set of frequencies from the 1920s and documenting their reproducible clinical effects. She is the author of two Elsevier texts — Frequency Specific Microcurrent in Pain Management (2010) and The Resonance Effect (2017) — and maintains a practice in Portland, Oregon. The Student Library draws from her curriculum, and she records the program's welcome video.
Dr. Kristi J. Hughes
Dr. Hughes is a naturopathic physician and nationally recognized leader in functional medicine education, dedicated to root-cause medicine.
She served for a decade as Director of Medical Education at the Institute for Functional Medicine and is a foundational developer, faculty member, and original Advisory Board member of the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Through her practice, DocereVita, she focuses on naturopathic, nutrient-oriented functional medicine. Dr. Hughes is our collaborating faculty partner — working with Northwestern Health Sciences University's Functional Medicine Club to bring FSM to students.
The Student Library
A growing library, built for students.
The Student Library is an evolving collection of FSM learning resources — recorded talks, session videos, and references. New topics are added over time. Here's what we're starting with:
The Vagus Nerve & FSM
The vagus nerve's central role in autonomic regulation, vagal tone, and the parasympathetic system — and how FSM practitioners approach it.
Coming soonConnective Tissue & Hypermobility (hEDS)
Connective tissue, fascia, and the hypermobility spectrum — including hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome — and the clinical challenges these patients present.
Coming soonVestibular Injuries
The vestibular system, balance, and the assessment of vestibular injury — including presentations that follow concussion and head trauma.
Coming soonDysautonomia
Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system — such as POTS — and how it can present across multiple body systems at once.
Coming soonEverything in the Student Library lives inside your account once you're registered.
Why Learn FSM Now
Most practitioners wish they'd found this in school.
Discovering FSM early changes how you think about tissue, pain, and healing — long before you're set in your clinical habits.
A head start on a real clinical tool
Enter residency or practice already familiar with a modality your peers won't meet for years.
A different way of thinking
FSM trains you to look beyond diagnostic labels to what's actually happening in the tissue.
Learn from the source
Resources drawn from Dr. McMakin's own curriculum — the same clinical depth taught to licensed practitioners.
Fits a student schedule
A growing library you can work through at your own pace, around rotations, classes, and exams.
Half-price Core training
Program students qualify for full FSM Core training at half price — a natural next step once you're licensed and in practice.
Join a global community
Step into a worldwide network of FSM practitioners, faculty, and researchers.
How It Works
From sign-up to your first lesson in three steps.
Create your student account
Register with your school email and verify your student status. There's no cost to participate.
Open the Student Library
Log in to find Dr. McMakin's welcome video and the growing library of resources in your account.
Learn, then continue
Work through the library at your pace, and step into full FSM Core training when you're ready.
Partner With Us
Bring FSM to your campus.
We launched this free program with Northwestern Health Sciences University's Functional Medicine Club — and we're expanding. If you lead a student club or program, or you're a student who'd like to bring FSM to your school, we'd love to talk.
Start a School PartnershipStudent Voices
What students are saying.
[Real student quote goes here once collected — a sentence or two on what learning FSM early meant to them.]
[Real student quote goes here once collected — what surprised them, or how it changed their thinking.]
[Real student quote goes here once collected — why they'd recommend it to a classmate.]
Get Started
Create your free student account.
Registration uses your existing FSM account system. Sign up once, then log in any time to reach the Student Library.
- Free for verified students
- A growing library of FSM resources
- Half price on full FSM Core training later
Create student account
Use your school email if you have one.
Create Account & ContinueThis form routes into your existing FSM account/registration system. Accounts and Student Library access are managed in your member dashboard.
Start learning FSM while you're still in school.
Join the next generation of practitioners getting a head start on a modality that's changing how clinicians think about healing.