Who is the typical massage therapist? Massage Therapists are compassionate, intuitive people who work with their hands and knowledge of the human body to relieve stress, promote relaxation and healing, among other benefits. The students and graduates of the Healing Arts Center reflect many of the national trends.  If you want to know more about who the typical massage therapist is, by the numbers, view the infographic below for a snapshot of the average Massage Therapist in the United States.

      We have rounded up data about massage therapists in the United States from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and through the AMTA 2018 Massage Profession Research Report, which draws information from the Census Bureau as well as polls and surveys they conducted about the massage industry and profession.

      HAC's 600-hour massage therapy training program also includes 80 hours of student clinic where students practice their skills in a real clinic setting with actual clients from the public.

The faculty has selected four of the MTTP students to be inducted into the Order of Twin Hearts, HAC's elite honor society.   The Order takes its name from the Meditation on Twin Hearts for World Peace originally taught by Pranic Healing Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.

by Terrie Yardley-Nohr, LMT

    Massage therapists are faced with clients every day that have been injured in some way and are seeking help from pain and dysfunction.  A therapist is faced with figuring out what is wrong and what to do about it.  One of the biggest challenges for new therapists in the field is how to address the client’s needs and provide relief.   This boils down to two specific skills: assessment and appropriate therapeutic response.  Obviously, skills are developed over time and through experience.  Additional training, however, can radically accelerate the development of a skill set.

     Over the past year, Lama Lobsang Palden has delivered a series of workshops that teach participants elements of various Tibetan breath yogas.  Included in his workshop series has been an introduction to "Tummo", the yoga of generating internal heat made famous by the Mahasiddha Naropa in the 10th Century.  Tsa Lung is the name for a variety of practices that teach practitioners how to develop vital energy (lung), or prana, in the energy channels (tsa) of the body.  

   For years, The Healing Arts Center has taught its massage therapy students basic transformational breathwork.  Two years ago, the school started teaching this breath practice to the public by offering its Introduction to Transformational Breathwork workshop three times a year.  HAC has been steadily building up a body of people who are trained to practice this intensive healing practice.  Some students have found that transformational breathwork has allowed them to completely recover from depression, panic attack disorder and other debilitating conditions often associated with past trauma.   It is not unusual for a breathwork client to say that a single session of transformational breathwork can do what years of talk therapy cannot.
     In the past century, several modern western traditions of breathwork have emerged:

• Dr. ​Stanislav Grof's Holotropic Breathwork
• Judith Kravitz's Transformational Breath
• Leonard Orr's Rebirthing Therapy

While the HAC basic breath training is inspired by all three of these schools of thought, its basic program is primarily based on the Kravitz and Transformational Breath model.

    Massage Therapy offers many benefits for cancer patients.  It can greatly reduce the stress and anxiety that often arises from having cancer and can reduce or eliminate the pain of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.   Student therapists who participate in the clinic are among HAC's best, in fact, being chosen to participate in the HAC Free Cancer Clinic is considered honors status at graduation.  Being of service is part of the HAC mission and our students and graduates deliver care through Reiki and light-touch massage to clients who truly can use healing touch.  HAC has developed considerable expertise in restoring quality of life to cancer patients.

    This past Friday the Healing Arts Center graduated a group of outstanding students from the Massage Therapy Training Program.  Among them, one student stood out for his excellence.  Matthew Tarrillion received every award that the Healing Arts Center offers, plus a student scholarship from Massage Envy.

     The Healing Arts Center is proud to announce the newest inductees into The Order of Twin Hearts. Five students who have met the requirements to be eligible for this honor have been chosen. It is HAC’s highest acknowledgement of a student.  Order of Twin Hearts members embody the spirit of the Healing Arts Center in their being, their skills, and their passion for healing. Eligible students are nominated by faculty and also must meet minimum requirements for attendance.