Big news from National Holistic Institute Encino … we’re moving!  After an exhaustive search and over a year of planning, NHI’s Los Angeles campus will relocate on September 10, 2010, to 10969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Look for the real sign soon!

 The new campus – in the Ralph’s shopping center at Ventura & Vineland – can be accessed conveniently by car or metro.  Parking is free, plentiful, and underground so your car stays cool.  Also, we’re an easy ten-minute walk from the Universal City metro red line station.

Our first classes and public clinics will begin [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 →]

International Students Ella Bleeker & Kim Forgham.

National Holistic Institute may have to change to International Holistic Institute as more and more students from other countries come to us for massage therapy training.

Beth Fisher coordinates the International and National Outreach for both Northern and Southern California NHI campuses.  She ensures that international students have all questions regarding our program answered and provides them with requirements for the M-1 visa.  Beth tracks our international students from admissions to completion.  She really enjoys this challenging yet rewarding process!

Recently, teacher Jen Moore interviewed two of Beth’s international students – Kim Forgham of London, England, and Ella Bleeker of the Netherlands – who both attend NHI Encino.  Here are Kim and Ella’s thoughts on NHI, massage therapy, and living in Los Angeles.

NHI: When searching for schools in the States what were your priorities?

KF: I was looking for a school with a good reputation in teaching massage therapy and where I knew I would receive thorough and high quality training in both Eastern and Western modalities. I knew that I wanted to continue this as my main career following graduation and that the only way to be successful would be to get a top quality education in this field.

EB: The quality of the school. I already have an education in massage therapy and was looking to extend my knowledge. So it had to be a school that could teach me more than I already knew. The curriculum was great at NHI. It was a plus that there are different styles of massage so I could taste a little bit of everything and in the end choose which technique caught my attention most, and I can specialize in that even further. [Read more →]

While National Holistic Institute offers class starts year-round, we experience the most enrollment excitement during the back-to-school time of August and September.  So, with great delight, our campuses recently threw open their doors to the many new prospective students with several Open House events.

From San Jose to Encino, prospective students, friends, and family members snacked on cheese & crackers, cookies, and assorted fruit while mixing with members of the faculty, admissions, current students, and graduates.  Attendees visited an anatomy-rich science room; received sports massage treatments; participated in [Read more →]

Our first continuing education class of the year, Gayle MacDonald’s Massage for People Living with Cancer, comes to the Encino campus Feb 6, 7 & 8.  This class is a must for massage therapists specializing in the medical community.  When we last hosted Gayle back in 2007, participants raved at the chance to learn from this oncology massage expert and renowned author.

Comfort-oriented massage or touch can be administered to people with cancer regardless of the severity of their condition.  The purpose of this class is to train touch therapists in the basics of oncology massage.  The experience derived from this training creates new-found confidence in bodyworkers about working with clients, particularly private practice clients, who have cancer or are recovering from it.  Therapists who focus on hospice and hospital work also find this course to be valuable for their special needs patients.

Participants must be a professional massage therapist or other touch practitioner, a student who has completed the basic Swedish massage course, or be licensed in another health care field, such as nursing or chiropractic, that involves touch therapy, or by permission of the instructor.

This course will take place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – February 6, 7 & 8, 2009 – from 9am-6pm.  Students will receive 24 NCBTMB approved CE hours.  The cost is $495.  Enrollees who sign up before January 16 will save $25.  Call Denise at 818-788-0824 x 354 to register.

Gayle MacDonald, MS, LMT, is the author of Medicine Hands: Massage Therapy for People with Cancer, 2nd Ed. (Findhorn Press) and Massage for the Hospital Patient and Medically Frail Client (Lippincott Williams and Wilkin).  Her expertise comes from more than 13 years of work with oncology patients at Oregon Health and Science University.  She has also supervised massage students and therapists in the oncology unit, in chemo infusion, radiation oncology, and the bone marrow transplant unit. Find out more at http://www.medicinehands.com/.

Leisha Anders has been a teaching fixture at NHI for the last 7 years.  This Friday she leaves us to be closer to her family in Texas.  If only NHI had a campus in Dallas!

Today at our weekly faculty meeting, we presented Leisha with a framed collage of her time here.  Leisha spent her first 5 years at the Emeryville campus.  Then 2 years ago she moved to Los Angeles to help open the Encino campus.  At the time, it was more of a happy accident than some sort of master plan on our part.  But oh how fortunate we were!  I truly can’t imagine the Encino campus without her.

Leisha has been a source of knowledge and inspiration to students and staff alike.  She inhabits the NHI curriculum and culture like few others.  NHI Director of Education Linda Rikli recently said,

“We greet her news with a sad heart, but with the knowledge that we, NHI, are better in so many ways because of her time with us.”

While we will truly miss your presence, Leisha, we will never forget the spirit you’ve left behind.

In 5^th Place with a combined 8%…the disparate team of Liat & Jenelle…

Enough voters mistook Leisha & Craig’s pumpkin for an Obama look-alike giving them 4^th Place with 10%…

The talents of John & Jen overcame the subject matter (yes, that’s my face on a pumpkin) to achieve 18% and 3^rd Place…

Jan & pinch-hitter Joe Bob drove Nancy’s idea home with 30% and a very close 2^nd Place…

And in 1^st Place…

(drum roll, please…)

With the help of props…

(drum roll, continues…)

And electric lighting…

(drum roll, a little more intense…)

Denise and Vanessa claim a 1^st Place victory with 33%!!

Congratulations to everyone!!

On Monday, it seemed like NHI popped up wherever you looked.  For the early risers in Los Angeles, we appeared on KNBC’s Today in L.A. discussing the California state massage certification bill that currently awaits the Governor’s signature.  It was a very nice segment that we hope to have up on the website soon.  (You’ll be the first to know, of course!)

Later in the day, we made our way onto YouTube courtesy of Mahalo Daily.  Leah D’Emilio visited us in Encino to learn some tips on how to give a 15 minute relaxation massage.  Over 25,000 people have viewed it so far!  You can add to those numbers by clicking below.

Who knows where we’ll pop up next!

Saturday marked the 2nd anniversary of NHI classes at Encino.  On one hand, it seems like yesterday; on the other, it feels like forever ago.

Prior to that, there was a smaller massage school in the same location, Touch Therapy Institute.  TTI had existed since 1989 – a good while, but ten years shy of NHI’s founding in 1979.  Though TTI had a stellar reputation, it lacked the national accreditation, federal financial aid, and program length needed to continue supporting its students and graduates.  Finding that they shared similar cultures, TTI merged with NHI in May 2006.  That summer we remodeled the campus and added more space necessary to accommodate NHI’s larger program.

I’m not a big fan of construction.  It’s dirty, disruptive and always takes more time and money than estimated.  But time has a way of erasing those trialing days, and instead I prefer to happily remember August 23^rd when Group 57 kicked off the NHI era in Encino.

Time doesn’t erase pictures, though.  Here are a couple of pictures of the campus transformation 2 years ago.

The New Rolf Classroom Takes Shape.

TTI Remnants from Six Floors Up.

As a side note, I spent Saturday back in Texas celebrating my parents’ 50^th anniversary.  A coincidence that my school and parents have the same anniversary?  Maybe.  At the very least, I hope it foretells of many successful years to come.

Attending massage school was one of my greatest ideas.  I fell head over heals for massage.  This “hobby” was becoming a huge part of my life.  Now I was the one massaging my marathon friends!  Wouldn’t it be great if I could make a living doing something I enjoyed so much?  One of my classmates, Ed, had the same idea.  Together we started doing our sports massage gigs.  Then the school we had attended came up for sale.

We both knew what a treasure TTI was to the L.A. massage community.  While TTI had come highly referred to me, Ed actually attended another school for a short while.  It was so bad that all of his classmates dropped out and the school cancelled his class.  So, against the advice of our accountants, lawyers, families, friends, astrologers and the voice of reason, we bought Touch Therapy. 

Ed would never let down.

With plenty of blood, sweat, tears, a whole lot of our savings, and much laughter, we turned the school around financially while maintaining its quality of education.  Enrollment rose; completion rates soared; and all was good.  But feedback from graduates and employers told us that TTI’s main 200-hour program was no longer adequate.  Therapists needed more training to compete in today’s market.  Exploring how to extend our curriculum, I met Mason Myers, President of National Holistic Institute.

Over tacos in San Diego, Mason told me how great NHI is.  I countered by telling him how amazing TTI was.  He invited me up to San Francisco to see his campus and arm wrestle over the matter.  When I stepped foot into NHI, I felt like I was at Touch Therapy – only bigger.  So impressed was I, that I let him win the arm wrestling match (but don’t tell him that).  Talks of a merge began.  TTI needed a longer program and NHI wanted to expand to Southern California.  It was a match made in heaven.  I stayed on to manage the Los Angeles campus in Encino.

Now 2 years later, I massage paperwork more than people, but I wouldn’t trade my NHI experiences for the world.  I look forward to sharing these adventures with you as we go along.