Steiner North American interviews in Las Vegas 2016

It’s June 24th, 2016 and I was a guest of The Nevada School of Massage Therapy and The Steiner Education Group. It’s been a lovely experience and visit to Las Vegas. I made time recently to look up basic info on the founder, Rudolph Steiner before the meeting. Today I learned Mr. Steiner began his…

Licensure and Portability: NCB and ITEC UK team up to create international massage credential

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork announced on March 14th, 2015 that they have partnered with ITEC, a British education company specializing in international credentialing. The goal is to facilitate 'portability' and 'standardization' for the massage profession. This partnership is similar to ISPA's Spa Certifications that have been available to members and non…

Announcing Fruits, Nuts and Flakes: Massage and Bodywork Edition

Announcing Fruits, Nuts and Flakes: Massage and Bodywork Edition I have launched a kickstarter project to promote what I hope will be a welcome edition to massage publishing and education. I plan on it appealing to friends and foes of complimentary and alternative medicine and education, science and modernism. Please share your thoughts! I hope…

The Vampire Facial: An assault on science or simple race baiting?

Back in 2013, Kim Kardashian tried the newest trend in esthetics, or so it may have seemed. The Vampire Facial. The Spa world responded discreetly and quickly renamed the procedure "microneedling." Count on MTV to showcase this attempt at cultural stereotyping and shoddy science. 19 year old teen bathes in pigs blood to retain her 'youth'…

Absolute Values? Professionalism and manifestations of the individual

This is the first post of a four part series on professional development. The series will utilize the terms Massage Therapist, Masseur and Masseuse as a touchstone. Massage Therapy is a growing field of professional endeavor. As the last fifteen years have demonstrated, the creation of civic, secular infrastructure to consolidate and incorporate the profession,…

Boredom: What is it and how should we respond?

What is Boredom? Why would anyone other than someone who is bored be interested about the topic? Why write about it unless your creating solutions to a problem? Could boredom ever be healthy? Boredom is a feeling first and foremost. It lies at the root of many illnesses, so many in fact, that the modern…

Ambivalence on Valentine’s Day: Par for the course or a solipsistic excuse?

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love…

Clearing the air: scent and spa

The human sense of smell is profound. Not that long ago, the olfactory system was subject to a very different cornacoupia than we have available to us today. We are bombarded with scent, be it thru perfumes in our toiletries, in our home cleaning products, while we window shop in stores or boutiques and even…

The In’s and Out’s of Tipping Your Massage Therapist

Ashley M. Heidi Carter BS, LMT The custom of ‘tipping’ The modern understanding of the word tip itself was first documented in the English language in 1706 and is the first mention of a ‘gratuity’ being offered in exchange for a product or service. Tipping was viewed as ‘undemocratic’ in some areas of the United…

20 ‘secrets’ a massage therapist ‘knows’ about your body?

Have a look at this article and if you have a question, post it below and I will answer. 20 'secrets' a massage therapist 'knows' about your body