Massage Therapy Blog | Massage Therapy, Massage Therapy Schools, Massage Techniques

On June 12^th, National Holistic Institute’s Petaluma Compassionate Touch Team (Instructor Shoshana Frieden and six Group 40 seniors) happily set out on the back roads of Sonoma/Marin County to Walker Creek Ranch to offer massage at Camp Challenge. 

Camp Challenge is a weekend family retreat, where everything is free for adult cancer patients (in all stages of cancer) and their families.  One student commented, “Thank you for finding this amazing event; it deeply touched and [Read more →]

Jim Charlesworth (right) responds to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The massage therapist who created what is believed to be the first team of massage therapists to provide massage to emergency-response workers has died from cancer, age 53.

In 1989, massage therapist James “Jim” Charlesworth was an admissions counselor for the National Holistic Institute in Emeryville, California, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit.

“Across the street from NHI was the horrible highway collapse,” read an obituary posted on the website of Emergency Response Massage International. “He mobilized a massage team and worked with many volunteers giving 8,000 massages to relief workers to ease those providing rescue efforts. The mayor of San Francisco [Read more →]

Courtesy of Yahoo! Finance

If you’re like thousands of other job seekers, you may dream of earning the big bucks without having to deal with the extreme stress that goes hand-in-hand with top-paying jobs. Of course, a high-salary, low-stress job sounds too good to be true. Or is it?

Believe it or not, you don’t have to take on a heart-pounding career as a brain surgeon, airline pilot or stock broker to bring home some serious bacon. As a matter of fact, some of the highest-stress jobs pay surprisingly scanty salaries. [Read more →]

Jason Daniels & Marla Aird of Financial Planning, Marz Jaffe of Placement, and Doonam LeSon of the Business Office greet visitors to the new campus at 59th & Doyle.

The National Holistic Institute campus in Emeryville has a new home.  After 23 years in its former location, NHI Emeryville is now located in its very own building just one block east.

The morning of April 23 saw the final classes at the old campus with the afternoon classes inaugurating the freshly appointed new classrooms across the street just 30 minutes later.  Students, staff, and clinic clients have expressed rave reviews!

With the new Emeryville campus and the launch of NHI’s 400-hour Advanced Neuromuscular Massage Therapist program (read article), we’ve completed [Read more →]

Melissa Wheeler addresses her peers at All-Staff Day.

The American Massage Therapy Association has awarded the 2010 Jerome Perlinski Teacher of the Year Award to Melissa Wheeler, a longtime National Holistic Institute teacher and current teacher trainer.

To the many teachers, staff, and students Melissa has touched in her 19 years at NHI, no one deserves it more.  One of the highlights of this year’s NHI All-Staff Day was Melissa’s address to her peers and receiving of a scrapbook created by co-worker Sharlene Philip, containing numerous memories, congratulations, and accolades.  While Melissa remains as humble as always about this rare honor, here are words of praise from others:

“It has been my pleasure to work with Melissa, whose input always puts the teacher first [Read more →]

Melanie Burns & Joe Bob Smith (2nd & 3rd from left) join the Food Bank's Michael Flood, Flori Schutzer & Jeanna Kindle.

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasons, several National Holistic Institute campuses run food drives, offering discounted massages for donated food.  It thrills us to see the number of people coming in for massages, dropping off bags of food to help those in need.  But, once it gets picked up, we never knew exactly what happened to all that food…until now.

This past year, the Encino Campus doubled its previous donation by turning in over 1,200 pounds of food!  As a thank you, we were invited to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank headquarters to see where all the contributions actually go. 

On a recent spring day, campus manager Joe Bob Smith and teacher Melanie Burns trekked just south of downtown Los Angeles to Food Bank central.  Upon entering the building, we [Read more →]

Cynthia Ribeiro performs a demonstration.

National Holistic Institute has officially (and proudly) launched the largest program expansion in recent history: a 400-hour Advanced Neuromuscular Massage Therapist course.

To spearhead this Herculean effort, NHI partnered with American Massage Therapy Association Vice-President and nationally renowned teacher Cynthia Ribeiro.  She worked hand-in-hand with our own Curriculum Coordinator Jim O’Hara to structure the five 80-hour modules that make up the course.  Teaching alongside Cynthia are NHI’s own Esko Homsi and Advanced Program Manager Al Carbonetti.  Special activities include cadaver lab classes, anatomical modeling, and integral anatomy work.  Click Here for the course flyer.

As a national leader, NHI has always strived to set the standard of professionalism and excellence in the massage therapy field.  “Today NHI took a step towards [Read more →]

The San Francisco Holistic Health Examiner recently featured National Holistic Institute San Jose student Anna Sallas and her personal quest to become certified in oncology massage.  Way to go, Anna!

Read the entire article here.

Waking up at 3:00am to be ready for this year’s 25^th Anniversary Los Angeles Marathon seemed impossible.  However, over 30 student and graduate therapists from National Holistic Institute were pumped up and ready to go!  A few arrived earlier than staff!

This was the inaugural year of the Marathon’s route starting at Dodger Stadium and ending at the Santa Monica Pier.  Massaging runners at the beach – how cool!  It was optimally temperate marathon-running weather, with the fog never quite dissipating at the beach.  We warmed up quickly though as the runners started finishing and the line lengthened.  Despite what seemed like a never-ending queue, the NHI therapists worked tirelessly and with few breaks so that no runner had to wait longer than 15 minutes to receive our much needed touch.

As in years past, our students were chosen to [Read more →]

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.

The Admissions Department visits the new Emeryville Campus for which they will soon be enrolling.

Students who join us in January often do so because of a New Year’s resolution they’ve made – a promise to themselves to achieve a specific goal in the coming year.  In this case, to start a new career in massage therapy.

National Holistic Institute is no exception.  Every year we make New Year’s resolutions that will benefit our students and continue our unrivaled streak as California’s best massage therapy school.  This year, our 31^st year helping people have work they love, looks to be our best yet.  Among our 2010 goals and plans:

• New Emeryville Campus – In March, the Emeryville Campus will leave its home since 1989 and move 1 block away into its own building at 5900 Doyle.  This state-of-the-art, [Read more →]

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 →]

What better way to tell someone you care than with the healing gift of massage?

Gift cards from National Holistic Institute are good for one 50-minute student massage and never expire.  In a world cluttered with “stuff,” a massage offers the perfect opportunity to de-stress.

This holiday season, NHI offers a gift card special to help you give the ideal present without spending an arm and leg.

Buy 5 Gift Cards, Get 1 FREE!
Buy 10 Gift Cards, Get 3 FREE!

CLICK HERE to Buy Online

You can also buy gift cards at your local NHI campus, which may be offering additional holiday specials.

NHI wishes you a safe and happy Holiday Season!

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 →]

With 15 events and counting in 2009, the National Holistic Institute’s San Jose Sports Massage Team looks forward to 2010 with 7 events already planned.

A whopping 140 students participated in a wide range of events including the AFM motorcycle endurance ride, I Care Classic cycling tour, Forest of Nisene Marks Trail Run, Tour de [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 →]