Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 06:30 AM
In August 2010, Lauterstein-Conway Massage School is offering a new massage continuing education opportunity - a three-hour anatomy review workshop paired with a three-hour MTI-guided tour of Our Body: The Universe Within. The exhibit is showing at UT's Stark Center. TLCschool believes this exhibit will be invaluable to any massage therapist who attends.
Check out what this Vimeo video from Exploration Place in Wichita says about Our Body:
View or share this video Our Body, The Universe Within from Travis Heying on Vimeo with others! The Austin Massage Blog will be posting more Our Body related content leading up to the workshop, so subscribe to the blog now! Register online for Anatomy Review: Our Body Exhibit massage ce workshop.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Thu, Jul 22, 2010 @ 03:00 PM
Tristana "Tana" Rogers is a graduate of the 2007 Advanced Clinical Training/Semester 2 program.
Why were you interested in massage therapy? I was a teacher for over 20 years from elementary to adult education. I was ready for a change that would more closely fit my personality and lifestyle. I knew I wanted to do something with exercise and health and I couldn't imagine myself forcing people to exercise so I thought- why not help them recover and stay healthy? Massage was a perfect fit. As a runner and exercise nut I knew that a good massage would keep me injury free and training hard.
Why did you choose Lauterstein-Conway Massage School? I contacted all of the local schools and none of them impressed me. When I visited Lauterstein-Conway David was conducting a class and invited me in to watch. As a teacher I saw the focus, respect and attention being given to the students. It was a very welcoming atmosphere. The other schools focused on how much money I could make as a therapist and how their program was cheaper and would bring me more bang for my bucks. I phoned some of the spas etc to see who they were hiring and Lauterstein-Conway kept popping up as the answer.
What do you do now? I have my own practice downtown. 1-2 Saturdays a month I work with Austin Fit offering massage to the marathon training groups May through February. I also work two mornings with Dr. Sylvia Deily DC at the Spine Rehab Center doing exercise training and massage. Certification Candidate with Advanced-Trainings in Myo-fascial Release.
What was the impact of massage school on your life? I have always had an active life as far as exercise is concerned. Massage school gave me the chance to balance my overactive lifestyle. I had a lot of time to contemplate what I wanted in my future. i now practice yoga, meditate, and take the time to observe where I am and where I want to be. It's very refreshing.
What was your favorite massage school class? I loved anatomy/physiology class- maybe because on some level I knew how much I would use it in my practice. It was thrilling to learn how the body does what it does and then apply that knowledge to alleviate a painful area through massage. I have to say though - the business class on goals really changed my life.
What was hardest about massage school? I wanted to get every question right. It was hard to have missed a question when I knew the answer.
Tell us about your fondest memory or "ah-ha" moment. I was receiving a massage from Keith after my practical. I had a shoulder issue at the time. He was working on the deltoid when I said "you can go deeper if you need to" and he replied. "No need" and gently the pain and stiffness at the attachment melted a way. THAT is something I use to this day.
Tana Rogers Massage features Deep Tissue, Sports, Myo-Fascial Release,Therapeutic and Reiki services.
Want to be a featured graduate? Share your story! We'd love to hear what you, as a licensed massage therapist, are doing these days.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:00 PM
By Rima Star MA, LMT, Employment Consultant. (This article is part of the series Got a Massage Job: Key Points for Creating Successful Employment.)
What are employers looking for? What are you looking for? How to navigate the world of employment more successfully is the focus of this class. This series of articles addresses the key points that will be addressed in Rima Star and David Lauterstein's upcoming employment success workshop.
KEY POINT #1: Know what is important to you.
A good place to start is to know what core vision or reason for becoming a professional massage therapist motivated you in the first place. Is it from an experience you had as a client? Is it from a desire to help people? Do you see being a massage therapist as a compatible way for you to earn a living? If you are in touch with your primary motivations for becoming a Licensed Massage Therapist, then you are in a better position to judge whether a given work environment will be supportive for your goals or not.
I can assure you that an employer is looking at those very same questions from their perspective as a business owner. Knowing where you are coming from and then asking an employer what their vision/mission statement is will give you the beginning of understanding your compatibility.
When considering the compatibility of what is important to you and a specific employer, you can look at the type of business model, environment, what client populations they serve, what their menu of services includes etc. Filling in the details for your vision of an employment environment will help you find that job sooner!
Rima Star, formerly of Massage Envy, has interviewed, hired and trained over 400 massage therapists. You can subscribe to the Austin Massage Blog to get more of her employment "key points," which will be published regularly until her massage continuing education workshop, Successful Employment, in September 2010.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 04:59 PM
In August 2010, Lauterstein-Conway Massage School is offering a new massage continuing education opportunity - a three-hour anatomy review workshop paired with a three-hour MTI-guided tour of Our Body: The Universe Within. The exhibit is showing at UT's Stark Center. TLCschool believes this exhibit will be invaluable to any massage therapist who attends. Check out what others have said about the exhibit:
"When I first entered the exhibit peaceful music played in the background. Before me were a number of showcases containing various body parts. The full body displays were not enclosed so we could get as close as we wanted as long as we didn't touch the displays. At first I thought I would get squeamish, but I did just fine. The exhibit has more of an educational feel. It wasn't gross or gory at all. Because of the sensitive nature of the exhibit it is recommended for audiences ages 13 and up. Those with children can use their own discretion when decided whether or not they'll take their children to see the exhibit."
Read the full review, Our Body: The Universe Within Exhibit Offers Rare Look Inside Real Human Bodies by Candace W., Associated Content. The Austin Massage Blog will be posting more interesting reviews leading up to the workshop, so subscribe to the blog now! Register online for Anatomy Review: Our Body Exhibit massage ce workshop.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 04:58 PM
The networking event was a success, didn't you think? Thank you to everyone who attended Tapas & Techniques, this year's networking event!
Marketing Director Jennifer Shaw getting "placed with pillows" by Jan Hutchinson, BS, LMT, MTI, CNMT, CZB, who presented Pillow Placement for Positioning. (Jen says, "Try the buckwheat pillow under your neck and you'll never go back.")
Attendees watch Dr. Fan from the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin demonstrate Tuina for the abdomen.
TLCschool graduate and owner of Seize the Day Chair Massage Tom Darilek, guides attendees in a palpation of the occiptal ridge before demonstrating a release technique his massage therapists use during professional chair massage.
A view of the event from the lymphatic drainage table where Ariana Vincent instructed attendees on lymph drainage techniques for the face.
Special thanks to TLCschool's neighbor Simplicity Eats for the tapas. The croquettas were the clear favorite.
Thanks to our wonderful TLCschool staff - especially Student Administrator Kourtnee Kovacs, Customer Service Guru Dara Allen-Trainer and Admissions Director Heidi Grant - for helping with the details of event!
How about those presenters - Rolfing, Tuina, Lymph, Chair, "Pillow-play" and Deep Massage all in one place?
Thank you to our very special attendees for whom TLCschool hosted the event! The School wouldn't be where it is today without your support. Please take a few minutes to leave your feedback about the event below! We'd love to hear what you think first-hand - pun intended - about this year's event and what you'd like to see happen next year.
Don't forget Lauterstein-Conway Massage School's annual massage Job Fair for Austin-area LMTs. Mark your calendars for October 20th, 2010.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
By Hjalmar Perez, January 2010 Intensive Massage School Student
Can you hear me now?
A couple of weeks ago, Keith Vencill, one of our massage therapy instructors, took us through a practical massage exercise where he had some of us lie on massage tables while another student placed their hands in a resting stroke on the person lying on the table. Keith then displayed a series of situations on the wall so that the person performing the resting stroke could see them and try to embody the feeling that would normally accompany such situation - situations like "you lost your car keys" or "this person on the table is one of your favorite clients."
After every three scenarios the person lying on the table would attempt to describe how each of the three strokes "felt." What this exercise was trying to help us realize is that even though we may not be talking to our client and they cannot see us, there is still plenty of communication going on through our touch.
This exercise led me to a story in a recent exercise magazine that alluded to a Feb. 22, 2010 article in The New York Times entitled "Evidence That Little Touches Do Mean So Much." One of the experiments described in the article had volunteers trying to communicate a list of distinct emotions ranging from gratitude to love to disgust by merely touching a stranger who was blindfolded. Organizers found that the person being touched was able to decode eight of the intended emotions at greater than chance levels, some with about 70 percent accuracy!
I am excited to see studies and articles such as this on a diverse set of media publications - especially as we are less than 100 hours away from completing out intensive 500-hour professional massage therapy training and look forward to building our massage therapy practices. Very exciting.
Interested in impacting people with your touch? You can! Lauterstein-Conway is currently enrolling for its 500-hour professional massage training program.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
By Ted Kennet, MTI, LMT
"Trigger points dictate sports.” -Al Miller, NFL Head Strength Coach for the New York Giants
Have you ever seen the person on the sidelines frantically working on the tight end or running back that just got hurt in the big game?
When that player got injured from the 300 pound lineman that fell on him, it probably took your breath away and you thought, “I wouldn’t have even gotten up, let alone thought about returning to the game in a play or two."
The massage therapist on the sidelines was probably using trigger point therapy in his repertoire of massage techniques.
Trigger points will form in muscles that have been overused or injured due to an accident. Trigger points are accumulations of waste products around a nerve receptor. Often times they feel like nodules or taut bands of fibers within the soft tissues. Common characteristics are increased muscle tension and muscle shortening. Increased muscle tension is the primary side effect of trigger points and pain is the most common secondary effect. Trigger points can be the cause of muscle pain, joint pain, headaches, stiffness, jaw pain, symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, chest pain, and when multiple trigger points are involved Fybromyalgia may even be diagnosed.
Trigger points can exist in two states, either active or latent. Active trigger points are those that cause discomfort. Latent trigger points wait silently in the muscle for a future stress to activate them. Aches and pains, which began in the past, become more frequent and severe in intensity as we age. It is common to attribute this discomfort to arthritis instead of our tight muscles, which harbor trigger points.
Pain management doctors that are skilled at detecting trigger points have found that trigger points may be responsible for roughly 75% of the pain problems or at least very closely related. Doctors have even found a link to Fybromyalgia when a series of trigger points are active and their patients experience relief when trigger point therapy is systematically used.
Dr. Janet Travell M.D. and Dr. David Simons M.D. documented and describe trigger point locations, how to locate trigger points, and how to treat them in a two volume set of books called; Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual. Dr. David Simons has called the muscle an orphan organ, it seems that no medical specialty claims it.
Why not lay claim to trigger point therapy and start using a tried and true method for easing the discomfort of tight muscles and muscle dysfunction?
Want to learn more about trigger points in two of the body's most problematic areas? Join Lauterstein-Conway Massage School for its upcoming massage continuing education workshop Trigger Point Therapy for the Low Back and Shoulder, Sunday, July 18th.
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Thu, Jul 01, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
From The Book of Shiatsu by Paul Lundberg, available for purchase at the TLCschool Store.
"All your shiatsu treatments will produce changes in the Hara.
Simple Hara diagnosis distinguishes two main regions of the Hara, the upper and lower. The upper region, between the ribs and the navel, should feel soft, flexible, but lively. The lower region, below the navel and including the pubic region, should feel firm and strong.
Hara diagnosis depends on the breath reaching the Tanden [or lower abdomen]. If tension blocks the movement of the ribs and diaphragm the breath is shallow and restricted and Ki [or energy] from the lungs will not circulate or descend.
Palpating the Hara
To palpate the Hara, keep your fingers extended but relaxed, and use perpendicular pressure from the weight of your relaxed arm. No further leaning is necessary. Don't push or press. Encourage your partner to relax, heed their breathing, and 'listen' with your fingers.
(At the start of this video, Cindy Anderson connects with her client's Hara before beginning the session.)
An Exercise: Changes in the Hara
Hara work provides a focus for self-awareness and change in the receiver while helping you, the giver to integrate your shiatsu routines. Aware of limitations, you can develop your skill and sensitivity gradually, noting the changes in breathing.
As an exercise, try treating the three Yin Channels in the arm [see The Book of Shiatsu for details], which strongly influence the breath and emotional energy. You can treat them all with your partner in the supine position...While practicing this sequence, you will be able to feel the subtle relationship between breath and Hara.
You can monitor changes in your partner by feeling the condition of the Hara before and after treatment, also noting changes over time between treatments."
Cindy Anderson, LMT, MTI is offering a new massage CE called Shiatsu: Working with Hara & Heart. This course will teach you how to connect with your client's Hara - even if you are performing a Swedish massage routine!
Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Tue, Jun 22, 2010 @ 09:00 AM
By Hjalmar Perez, January 2010 Intensive Massage School Student
We completed our first 25 hours of internship at the school's
massage clinic in late May. Incredible and valuable experience applying our Swedish and Sports Massage techniques to actual clients. Learned a lot from the clients as well as fellow students working at the clinic. One particular lesson that has stayed with me came up one afternoon after a couple of us wrapped our scheduled sessions for the day. The conversation revolved around how we often got a little frustrated when we felt we knew what the client needed in order to address a particular area or issue (for example, a given combination of strokes, stretches and releases). However, when actually conducting the session we sometimes felt like we were not able to deliver our techniques and intent effectively. It is as if we wanted to convey a message to the client but felt we had failed to "pass" this message.
What surprised us was how often in these situations the massage client provided us feedback after the session that made us realize that the message had in fact been "received!"
This got me thinking that perhaps the body has a wider "listening" spectrum that we give it credit for. I also remembered an advice that one of our instructors (Cindy) shared with us - that I understand came from David Lauterstein. It was that we need to "respect the ability of our clients' bodies to 'get it' " (without feeling we need to repeat the same technique multiple times).
As I think more about this, this is not the first time I hear this advice. How often we hear that "Less Is More." So maybe it is not about adding more to our sessions, but to make them as simple as they need to be. Take the minimalist approach. Or as Bruce Lee is quoted as saying, "in building a statue, a sculptor doesn't keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions. It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential."
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Posted by Jennifer Shaw on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 @ 05:20 PM
What is hara? According to Wikipedia, hara can mean many things...
Hara is a Biblical name, a species of Iranian mangrove, a legendary mountain in Persian mythology a Romanian pop-band and a Greek word and name meaning joy. In Maltese, Hara is the word used for feces. Hara is a synonym of the fish genus Erethistes. In French, the plural form of hara means stud farm. Hara refers to greens as coriander leaves in Hindi. In Latin, it means pen, coop or pigsty. Hara, Nagano is a village in Japan. There is also a Hara in Estonia.
Hara is also a Japanese martial art term for the "center of being."
According to
Barry Kapke, A.C.S.T., C.I., the hara is "our abdominal center...quite literally our physical and energetic core." He says, the first three three chakras are located here and are focused on grounding us. "Our legs extend the hara in connection with the earth, establishing rootedness as well as enabling mobility."
(Above: Video about hara. When researching hara online, make sure you take pointers from credible sources. Expert Village is one of the better resources.)
Western culture devalues "the gut" - brutalizes it, even. Our "centers of being" are often sucked in, hidden and contained or considered unruly objects of shame. With a deeper understanding of hara, you can change your attitude about your stomach - from pudge to powerhouse - but you'll have to dig deeper than Wikipedia. TLCschool suggests you try exploring hara and loving your belly with bodywork, of course, but we're biased.
While each of Lauterstein-Conway's Shiatsu massage CE courses incorporate hara work, our new course, Shiatsu: Hara and Heart is the first offering that centers around this element of Asian Bodywork.