Category — Community Outreach

NHI Teacher Nancy Gouge schedules appointments for the Encino Haiti Fundraiser.

A giant THANK YOU to all the National Holistic Institute clients, students and staff who have participated so far in raising money to aid the Haiti Relief efforts!!

With 4 of 5 fundraising clinics complete, NHI has accumulated over $5,700!  And we’re not done yet…

You still have the opportunity to participate in one last fundraising clinic:

Petaluma              Wed, February 10     1:30p, 2:45p, 4:00p

Living in California, we all have some notion of how devastating an earthquake can be, even for a better prepared community.  In the past, NHI has shared the power of positive touch with both the victims and emergency workers of California’s disasters.  While our hands may not reach all the way to Haiti, with your generosity our touch there can still be felt. 

Some of the Encino student and graduate volunteers celebrate the evening's success.

San Jose became the first National Holistic Institute campus to hold a Haiti Disaster Relief Fundraiser this past Saturday.   With massages booked every available session and donations still coming in, the San Jose Campus has already raised over $1200!

Campus Manager Beth McNeill massaged alongside 10 student therapists, 2 graduates and 3 teachers for donations to go to Haiti victims.  Beth wasn’t looking to massage all three sessions when she came in to lend a hand, “but was excited just like [NHI teachers] Phil, Gena, and Darlene to help out where needed.”

Thanks to the staff and students of National Holistic Institute who are donating their time, skills and supplies so that all the proceeds of our special clinics can go to the people who need them.

Want to participate in one of our Haiti Disaster Relief Fundraiser Clinics?  You still have 4 more opportunities.

Click on your preferred campus below to book an appointment.  If your campus appears unavailable at the moment, please try again at a later date.  Additional massage volunteers will allow more sessions to come available.   

• Encino                   Wed, January 27        6:15p, 7:30p, 8:45p
• San Francisco   Thu, January 28         1:30p, 2:45p, 4:00p
• Emeryville          Thu, January 28         6:15p, 7:30p, 8:45p
• Petaluma              Wed, February 10     1:30p, 2:45p, 4:00p

Simply book and attend a designated massage clinic at one of our campuses and pay at least the minimum massage fee*.  You’ll receive a 50-minute student massage and your entire fee plus any contribution will be donated to USAid.

With your help, we can touch the world!

*Massage fees vary from $20-$35 depending on campus.  No gift cards accepted.  Cash only.

NHI Graduate Jenn Taylor with “American Idiot” cast members Tony Vincent ("St. Jimmy") and Christina Sajous ("Extraordinary Girl").

Jenn Taylor, a student of National Holistic Institute, is very excited about providing massage to the cast of American Idiot, a new musical based on the eponymous Green Day album.  She is completing her externship through the Saint Francis Center for Sports Medicine in Walnut Creek, under the supervision of DPT Patricia Commer.  NHI Student Life & Career Coordinator Aviana Lynn recently had the opportunity to visit with Jenn about the experience.

Jenn has extensive background in theatre and dance, including work with the famous Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat production years ago.  However, the opportunity to massage with American Idiot was [Read more →]

The Festival of Socks held at the National Holistic Institute San Francisco Campus was a huge success, according to Student Life & Career Coordinator Emily Devenny.

The collection box overflowed with more than 100 pairs of socks which will be delivered to the nearby homeless population to warm their feet and hearts during our cold winter months.

The students had blast! They decorated socks, danced in socks, and paraded their socks to the delight of the judges. We had two winners – Jen Butler took the morning prize for her ninja socks and high kicks. The evening prize went to Jim Schmidt who was wearing [Read more →]

For the holidays this year, the National Holistic Institute Emeryville Campus again invited seniors from the Emeryville Senior Center to come and enjoy a free massage from our students during our Holiday Senior Center Day.  Group 16 students provided relaxing and therapeutic Swedish massages to 30 senior attendees!  Lisa Mendiola-Flores supervised clinic again this year, and she made everything go wonderfully smoothly.

Student Life & Career Coordinator Aviana Lynn heard from many seniors that the students did [Read more →]

Petaluma accepting a food donation.

At National Holistic Institute, helping people is part of our mission statement.  So, the holidays are an extra special time for us, a time when our students and staff do even more for our communities.  Here is a sampling of what some of the NHI campuses are doing this holiday season…

San Francisco will have a “Sock Hop.”  Clinic clients will get $5.00 off a massage for donating a new pair of socks throughout December.  All donations will be distributed to local homeless shelters where socks are a high priority.  On December 14, an extra clinic will be held with all proceeds going to charity.  Students and clients are encouraged to wear their most creative socks!

Encino is currently in the midst of their 4^th Annual Food Drive.  By donating at least 2 non-perishable food items, clinic clients can get a 50-minute massage for the rock-bottom price [Read more →]

Recently, a group of four enthusiastic National Holistic Institute students volunteered in the annual Emery Bay Coastal Cleanup in Emeryville. Along with NHI Student Life and Career Coordinator Aviana Lynn, the students spent 2 hours walking the local coastline picking up trash and debris.

Afterwards, the students [Read more →]

National Holistic Institute teacher Lucas Nevarez coordinated our largest volunteer sports massage event so far this year.  Here is his report from the field.

The NHI Sports Massage Team at the 2009 Nike Women’s Marathon did a fantastic job!  Over 110 students, graduates, and staff from all 4 Northern California campuses came together to provide over 1,350 massages to these exhausted runners.   

It was a success by many measures – [Read more →]

New NHI Advanced Program Coordinator Cynthia Ribeiro

National Holistic Institute welcomes Cynthia Ribeiro, a Vice-President of the American Massage Therapy Association, to the NHI family!  The above photo shows Cynthia participating in a lively Massage Therapy Body of Knowledge forum at the recent AMTA National Convention in Orlando.  The MTBOK is “a living, single source for consistent, integrated information” about massage therapy.  This important work, currently in its first draft, will begin to standardize the language, definitions, and scope of the massage therapy profession.  It will benefit and impact the future of all massage therapists, so I encourage you to check it out and provide your input at http://www.mtbok.org/.

In addition to her many years of service with the AMTA, Cynthia is a respected teacher of massage therapy as well as the founder of the Western Institute of Neuromuscular (WIN) Therapy.  Cynthia will use her role of NHI Advanced Program Coordinator to develop – what else? – a new advanced massage therapy curriculum that will expand and build upon NHI’s nationally accredited 720-hour program.  Watch for details on this new course soon!

MTF President-Elect Ruth Werner & NHI San Jose Campus Manager Beth McNeill

It was an honor for National Holistic Institute to be recognized by the Massage Therapy Foundation at this year’s American Massage Therapy Association National Convention in Orlando.

Only a short year ago at the Phoenix convention, I attended the MTF’s reception for the first time.  Watching so many people within the massage community support the MTF inspired me to do something.  I brought that inspiration back to the Encino campus teachers, which resulted in a “faculty clinic” that raised both awareness and money for the MTF.

During this year’s reception, I presented [Read more →]