At ASIS Massage Education we feel that our teacher’s are our greatest asset. They are face of the school, the holders of our mission, and the cultivators of the next generation of body centered massage therapists. We encourage all schools within the business of teaching massage to take the time and thoroughly train and support their teachers with some kind of teacher training program. At ASIS, what we ask from our teachers often does not come with the knowledge of being a good therapist, but instead requires the instructor to uphold so much more.
At ASIS our mission of hope and support for a better planet, and more conscientious therapists is in everything we do.
The way we achieve this is by:
• Drawing forth and nourishing each individual’s innate wholeness, sense of intelligence, confidence and potential, while nurturing a desire and excitement to learn.
• Providing excellence in education in an atmosphere of joy, curiosity, respect and discovery.
• Honoring scientific and intuitive approaches to the learning of the human form, and the art of massage therapy.
• Creating a culture through staff meetings, and group emails, which invites exploration of meaning, support for care of self and others, and awareness through education.
• Motivating students to acquire and enhance skills, thus developing capable graduates to meet the demands of the professional massage community.
By integrating a variety of modalities, ASIS believes that the student is then free from dogma, and is more able to access their own inner voice in the therapeutic process. The more tools therapists bring to their tables, the more capable they are of truly supporting their clients. Throughout the program, students are encouraged to explore their own truths and preferences as they experience a variety of educated instructors who specialize in a variety of modalities. What may at first appear as many perspectives, from several determined instructors, will later become an integral part of the individual’s repertoire for creative expression and healing.
It is the desire of the staff to graduate competent, creative therapists who have developed their own abilities to visualize and understand anatomy, coupled with a sensitivity to palpate the whole person, all while listening deeply.
At our Arizona Massage Schools, we have put together some facets of what we call good teaching and good therapy, which we feel is essential to achieve our mission:
*The client is the expert of their own body and experience.
*The most profound things we offer as body workers are presence, focus, and compassion.
*Good technique is important but next-to-useless without presence, focus, and compassion.
*Therapeutic touch should feel good to the client.
*We need to be aware of judgment in a session and in the classroom.
*Language, draping, and other details of a session can support or undermine a safe,
therapeutic environment, and has the same effect in the classroom.
*Respect for the wisdom of the client’s and student’s own body/ mind/ spirit is essential to create healing/ learning.
*We need to respect patterns of tension and resistance.
*Our goal is not to “fix problems” but to assist in awareness.
*Tracking and appropriate response are essential in both the classroom and the clinic room.
*We can create an atmosphere which encourages the client/student to express anything they would like us to change in the session and in the classroom.
*Regardless of the gorgeous plan with which we might begin a session, we should let the
client’s body (and the client’s feedback) shift the course of things.
*Listening literally and metaphorically, in a session and in the classroom, are powerful tools.
*Comfort or tension in our body/ mind as a therapist or teacher is communicated to the client or student by the quality of our touch, & in the tone of our teaching.
*It is an honor that another person makes themselves available to our touch and to our teachings- we must have their permission to begin, and to continue.
*The therapist holds the container of the session, creating a safe place for the client to have their experiences of the work, as the teacher holds the container of the classroom.
*The teaching of massage parallels, and therefore should model, the behaviors important to the therapist-client experience.
*Kindness can open many doors in the body and the mind.
For a recommendation for a teacher training course, ASIS recommends you visit The Massage Outlet
At ASIS Massage Education throughout Arizona, are dedicated to the path of world peace, compassion to all living beings, and to honesty. We believe that it is essential that our work be nonviolent in nature, and that the goals of learning and therapy be those of the student rather than the teacher. In keeping with this belief, it is the school’s philosophy that there is a direct correlation between how we view ourselves and how we view others. So as we increase the awareness and kindness with which we meet ourselves, physically and psycho- logically, we enhance the sensitivity and kindness with which we meet our families, our communities, and our clients.
