Posts from — September 2008

Over 100 big name spas on the West Coast will be opening their doors this week, September 15-21, for – get this – $50 spa treatments!

Many of our graduates massage at these spas, especially in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, and we’d like to support them by encouraging you to try them out.

Check out www.spaweek.org for details and make sure to request a National Holistic Institute-trained massage therapist when you book your appointment.

Of course you can get a great deal every week at the NHI student clinic where a relaxing Swedish or shiatsu massage is always just $35!

While I’ve been here blogging for over a month already, it’s been a somewhat hidden, and thus lonely, blog.  Only those close to me and some internet die-hards had the link…until now.  With the launch of our new website, all that’s changed.  This blog is now a featured and integral part of our online presence.

Hopefully, you’ll take some time to explore the new NHI website.  There’s a lot of information.  Our goal is to personalize the experience to show that we’re more than “just a school.”  NHI is an extended family full of many wonderful personalities all striving together to help people have work they love.  We do believe we’re the best massage school around.  But ultimately that title is determined by the students, graduates and employers we serve.

We trust this website will help you get to know us as people and not just an institution.  While many contributors have dedicated much of the summer to this project, I’d like to especially thank Max Fancher, John Caugin and Tim Veitzer for their outstanding work.

Now, to help you get started, here are some of my favorite parts of the new website:   

Meet our faculty and staff:
http://www.nhi.edu/about/people/index.html

Students and graduates tell why they love massage:
http://www.nhi.edu/why_massage/index.html

Hear what’s great about NHI from students and graduates:
http://www.nhi.edu/massage_school/why_nhi.html

A few alumni write about their success stories:
http://www.nhi.edu/about/people/alumni/index.html

See all the support our graduates get:
http://www.nhi.edu/alumni/index.html

“Visit” our 5 California campuses:
http://www.nhi.edu/campuses/index.html

NHI in the news:
http://www.nhi.edu/news/pressroom/index.html

Of course you’re currently reading my personal favorite new page – the blog!  Website pages are too difficult and time-consuming to update frequently.  Yet, every day exciting things occur at our campuses and in the world of massage.  To keep you up-to-date on these happenings and paint a more complete picture of life at NHI (as well myself), I’ll be blogging about recent activities, massage news, and other informative tidbits.  Please let me know what you think!

Hard to believe it’s been 7 years since the twin towers fell.  Yet, recent election polls rank terrorism as way down on the list of voters’ concerns.  Perhaps that’s because nothing has happened on American soil since.  Seems like we take a lot for granted when something’s not currently a problem.  It goes to show how short-sighted our memory can be and how near-sighted our future planning is.

As Americans, we should celebrate our freedom every day, not just on 9/11 or the 4^th of July.  This doesn’t mean we have to wear red, white & blue all the time.   Rather, we should wake up every morning and chase our dreams!  In so many parts of the world, people don’t get to choose where they live, who they marry, where they work, what job they have, and so on.  We have all those choices and more!  Still, we too often act like we’re stuck in our own lives that we’ve created.

If there’s something you’ve really wanted to do – whether it is big or small – I say do it now!  Do it for the spirit of 9/11!  Do it for all those who’ve died over the last 232 years so that we could live free!

Do it because you can.

Here is an interpretive video of the NHI experience from one of our graduates, Giovan Medrano.

Giovan now works at the Remede Spa in San Francisco where he has gained quite a following.  Check out some of his client reviews on Yelp by clicking here.

Curious about the California state massage certification bill?  Having fully passed out of the legislature after many years, it is currently awaiting the Governor’s signature.  Unfortunately, he has vowed to sign no bills until the state budget has passed.  We’re crossing our fingers that the budget and subsequently the massage bill are signed soon.  Assuming that happens, we could have a state certification as soon as September 1, 2009.

While this bill does not solve all problems, it’s a good start.  Of course, some opposition remains.  Mainly, those opposed prefer little to no regulation and/or training hour requirements below 500 hours.  Without debating the merits of those arguments, that doesn’t seem to be a realistic option.

Let’s look at a couple of examples to demonstrate my point.  I could make a case that there are advantages to driving on the left-hand side of the road as they do in England.  But, since the rest of our country drives on the right-hand side of the road, it would be costly, time-consuming, difficult, and dangerous to convert everyone to my line of thinking.  Similarly, Betamax and VHS once fought it out to be the standard for videotapes.  By all accounts, Betamax was the better technology.  But for better or worse, the people went with VHS.

Thirty-nine states regulate massage, with more doing so each year.  The national standard for training in those states is 500 hours, but that too is increasing.  New York and Nebraska are already at 1,000 hours.  Additionally, the federal government requires a minimum of 600 hours to receive federal student loans and even more training hours to be eligible for federal grants.  So, regardless of whether you like the idea of regulating massage or agree with the 500-hour minimum, that’s where the tide is going.

Massage in California is already regulated, just not uniformly.  Every city or county decides and enforces its own rules.  This practice continues even as we look toward a future with state certification.  Just this week I was interviewed on the subject by a reporter for the San Bernardino County Sun.  He was researching an article about the city of Fontana recently upgrading their massage requirements to 600 hours.  You can read about it below:

http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_10394126

While state regulation may not solve all problems (and may even create a few new ones), the current regulation patchwork is a disaster for the vast majority of massage therapists across the state.  Paying for multiple licenses, meeting different requirements, and increased competition from better trained therapists are just three of the many issues faced now by therapists.  Let’s hope the state bill becomes effective soon for the benefit of all!

Guest blogger Melissa Wheeler writes…

So Laura Miner (now Laura Repetto, recently married to Roger!) and I taught 15 Yoga Teachers-in-Training a 12-hour anatomy course!  This was in conjunction with the company YogaWorks, and NHI‘s 3^rd time doing this!

It is so much fun and also very different to teach Yoga Teachers vs. Massage Therapists.  I am hoping that some of the yoga students would like to become massage therapists and vice versa!  They could do both, massage & yoga being so closely related, right?

Here are a couple of pictures, one with all of us after class (including one of our students “Deltoid Dave”).

Striking a Pose!

The other picture is of me, Melissa, with the leg muscles drawn on my own leg!  My 2 favorite leg muscles:  Peroneus Longus and Tibialis Posterior.  Look for a future blog to find out why those are my favorites.  If any of you NHI graduates are looking at this, you may remember me drawing on myself in your Kinesiology classes! 

Melissa's Artwork

For those who had Laura Miner as a teacher, I thought you’d enjoy seeing her as Laura Repetto with her new husband Roger!

Laura Repetto and Roger

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here are 199,000 words!

After Wednesday’s blog about the SF Marathon, several participants emailed wanting to see more than the one lone picture of the tent I posted.  So, thanks to Marz Jaffe’s efforts, here’s a link to 199 more pictures…

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/29680023@N03/

 As any good marathoner would say, “Pace yourself!”

On Friday, one of our teachers, Jan Takeshita, made her final visit with a group of students to BodyWorlds 3 at the California Science Center before it closed this weekend.  Here are her thoughts.

I’m aiming to set an NHI record for the most visits to BodyWorlds 3!  Last Friday, I attended this amazing exhibit for the third time when I took a few students from Group 56, my mentor group, and one escapee from Group 51.  We all had a great time exploring with the occasional “Oooh” and “Aaah” and comments like “Hey…there’s the sternocleidomastoid!”  I never tired of the students’ request, “Hey Jan, what’s that?!”

Personally, it’s like watching a well-crafted mystery movie.  I learn something new each time I go.  Viewing the bodies and seeing the muscles we work on was the most intriguing the first time.  Seeing an actual hip or knee replacement was amazing!  My second visit (with all the NHI teachers) was a review of the posing bodies.  Also, I paid more attention to the organs.  Viewing the organs with various pathologies was sobering (cirrhosis of the liver, smoker’s lung, cancerous breast, hardening of the arteries).  This time I paid special attention to the nervous system.

The body is so fascinating and, while it’s complex enough to always be somewhat mysterious, it has become less and less mystifying each time I go.

Some Group 56 students at BodyWorlds 3.

Lastly, I feel compelled to comment about the concern that many of these bodies might have been from individuals who didn’t give consent to be plastinated.  I, too, have read these news reports.  Speaking only for myself, I visited the exhibit on all occasions with a tuned sensitivity to the energy that might come from a lost spirit.  I have never “felt” that something was amiss.  Whoever these people were, they have given me and many others the amazing gift of insight and information…and I thank them all.

When I last blogged about BodyWorlds, I mentioned a related, if unflattering, German movie called Anatomie.  Well, it so happens that Monday I saw yet another movie featuring the actual BodyWorlds exhibit – Casino Royale, the latest James Bond movie.  It doesn’t have much to do with the plot (what plot?), but it looks good while Bond runs through.  Talk about product placement.

If you compete at a sporting event in San Francisco or Los Angeles, you may have experienced a massage by some of our students or alumni.  We volunteer many hours to these great causes.  Last month was one of the largest – the San Francisco Marathon – where we were proud once again to be recognized as the official massage therapists.

It was a successful event by every measure!  Much gratitude goes out to Lucas Nevarez for coordinating this operation and providing us with the follow-up report.

We had 103 volunteers, 80 tables, and massaged approximately 1200 runners in just a few short hours. The students did an amazing job, taking care of many strained, overworked, and often cramping muscles. NHI was well received and appreciated by these aching athletes.  

San Francisco Marathon NHI Massage Tent

Something this size doesn’t happen without a lot of help.  Well-deserved shout-outs go to Nick Lanoza, Beth McNeill, Conrad Santos, Jaime Montenegro, Shoshana Friedens, Giselle Griffin, and Marz Jaffe.  Also, thanks to the staff and teachers who helped pump up the anticipation and excitement.

Being a part of a multi-campus, 100+ person “Whoosh!” is enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine!

My favorite place in L.A. is the Hollywood Bowl.  I first visited it the summer I moved to California – to see John Williams conduct.  As a starry-eyed kid from Texas, I couldn’t believe I was getting to see the composer of Star Wars, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, and so much more in-person at this gorgeous amphitheater.  Little did I know that as a tradition John Williams appeared at the Bowl every summer.  So, I’ve fortunately seen him several times since, including this past weekend for my birthday.

Instead of some big shindig or trip over the long weekend, I thought I would spend my birthday doing the things I like most about L.A.: eating at a nice restaurant (Pizzeria Mozza), watching USC beat Virginia in Hi-Def (a birthday gift from my girlfriend), and going to the Bowl (not once, but twice!).

Going to the Hollywood Bowl twice in one weekend may seem excessive, but then I usually go about 6-8 times during most summers.  Aside from the amazing shows and refreshing atmosphere, the Bowl is equally about the people.  All walks of life, some 18,000 a performance, trek up that famous hill, including this delightful group below:

Potluck at the Bowl

For a staff outing, some of us NHI Encino folks went to a Chris Isaak show back in July.  None of us were huge Chris Isaak fans, though he did put on a really entertaining show, but we welcomed the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company outside of work.  We shared some delicious food and many laughs – the highlight being when the obnoxious woman by us threw her wine on the guy in front of her!  So many of our memories as a team involve laughter.  That’s why, even though my birthday and the holiday weekend are over, the fun never really ends.  I always look forward to coming in to work and spending time with my other family.

Fireworks at the Bowl