Massage Education:
I graduated National Holistic Institute's School of Massage Therapy 900 hour Core program in March 2015. The Core is broken into two 450 hour segments. In these two segments we were taught 25+ different massage modalities including, but not limited to, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, Myofacial Therapies, Reflexology, Energy, Sports massage, as well as various spa treatments. I graduated with Honors and Attendance awards in each segment, and was also awarded a Bon Vital scholarship, voted upon by the staff members of the school, that covered the cost of my entire certification.
After graduating Core I was honored to then be asked by the school to become a Massage Therapy Ambassador, who essentially is a representative of the school that is able to recruit new students and raise awareness that massage is not a luxury, but something very necessary to feel well and heal. After the 900 hour Core, I chose to attend the 450 hour Advanced Neuromuscular Therapy Program, where the primary focus was learning Trigger Point Therapy, Neuromuscular techniques, and many orthopedic tests to determine if it is safe for a client to receive a massage or if they should see a doctor first, as well as how to collaborate with doctors and other health care professionals on a treatment plan for clients with an injury present. I graduated from the Neuromuscular program in October 2015 with Honors and Attendance awards as well, and was lucky enough to have been invited back to the school to act as a teacher's assistant for both the Core and the ANMT programs. While establishing my private practice, I volunteered over 125 hours in the classroom as a TA and received a teaching certificate for my effort.
A few months later I was offered and accepted a position as an administrative assistant working under the Student Life and Career Coordinator at NHI. After 3 months I made a transition to associate teacher, which is essentially a floating teacher there to assist the Mentor of the group with lecture and bodywork. I stayed in that position for another few months until I was offered a position as the Student Life and Career Coordinator for the school. For all intents and purposes, the SLCC is the guidance counselor of the school as well as the career placement administrator, insuring graduates find work or can successfully run their own business. I remained in the SLCC position for about 9 months before a position to become a lead teacher of the Advanced Neuromuscular Program opened up. I was blessed enough to be offered the position, which I jumped on. There I taught the medical modalities of massage as well as guided the students on how to collaborate with other healthcare professionals during a client's recovery from an injury or surgery. I absolutely LOVED teaching, but unfortunately there is a lot more that comes with the job than just getting to teach. After 2 years of teaching the Advanced Program, I found myself consistently having to work at home and was too exhausted after finishing to see much private clientele, so I made the extremely hard decision to leave the teaching position and go strictly back to private practice.