Dan Magro of Current TV’s Dan About Town recently visited the National Holistic Institute Encino Campus to find out what it takes to become a massage therapist.

After getting basic chair massage tips from yours truly, Dan joined a class where he received muscular realignment work from student Amber Mathieu and instructor Jan Takeshita.  By the end of his stay, Dan began to realize just how much training goes into making a professional massage treatment so therapeutic.

As with most families, at NHI the holidays are a time to gather and enjoy each other’s company…

Share laughs and memories of times past…

And wish everyone a joyous, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

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!!

Here are Melissa Wheeler’s impressions of the AMTA Convention in Phoenix last week.

Joe Bob Smith (Encino Campus Manager), Alicia Ramos (San Jose Campus Manager) and I all met up at the AMTA National Convention in Phoenix on behalf of National Holistic Institute.  NHI chooses to participate in such conferences both to learn what’s current in the larger massage community and to give our students and alumni a voice in those happenings.  This one was so big it required three of us to go!

Author Ruth Werner, NHI Grad John Lambert, & Melissa

In addition to taking classes like Integral Anatomy, Balancing the Art & Science in Massage, and Massage Therapy on Trial, we met up with teachers, NHI graduates, textbook authors, and massage therapists from all over the country.  It was so inspiring!

Just to show the variety of our experiences, I met 2 Japanese publishers who promised to send me a Japanese-language copy of the textbook we use, Trail Guide to the Body! 

Books of Discovery reception

Joe Bob found the red, white & blue table he’d always wanted from Oakworks.

Alicia won a basket full of creams and massage lotions at the Massage Envy gathering.

Massage Envy reception

We all had a wonderful time at the Massage Therapy Foundation reception, hanging out with the Trail Guide publishers and Ruth Werner who is not only the author of the beloved book Massage Therapist’s Guide to Pathology, but the leader of the MTF’s Education Committee.  What does all that mean?  Read about the MTF and their brand new e-journal that they have just launched online – propelling our industry forward.  This massage research is available free to all at the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork.