On Friday, December 21st, The Healing Arts Center is honored to graduate 20 people from the Massage Therapy Training Program, and 21 from the Energy Medicine Master Track.  In recent years, HAC graduations have become substantially larger than in past years due to a substantial growth in enrollment in the school's Massage Therapy Training Program (MTTP) and the popularity of the school's advanced level training in the Master Tracks program.
    Students graduating from the massage program have completed  600 hours of training to be eligible for state licensing in either Missouri or Illinois.  In order to be inducted into the Order of Twin Hearts from the Massage Therapy Training Program, students must meet the following requirements:

• 90% original attendance or higher
• Be focused on compassionately causing well-being in others
• Represent the standards and character indicative of a member of the Order
• Be nominated by at least 2 faculty members

    At the Red Robe Ceremony on December 21st, 21 students will graduate from the Energy Medicine Master Track.  This twenty-week intensive course trains wellness workers in all three levels of Reiki and three levels of Pranic Healing.  Energy Medicine Master Track inductees into the Order of Twin Hearts are chosen by the Headmaster based on excellence in training and dedication to healing.

    Once inducted, members of the Order of Twin Hearts are members for life. There are no fees to be a member, and no action is required of members to stay in the Order. Inductees are selected from HAC's Massage Therapy Training Program,  Transformational Breathwork Master Track, or Energy Medicine Master Track.  Next  year, The Order of Twin Hearts will become a not-for-profit philanthropic organization that will promote healing in various forms, advocate for human wellness and raise money to help students make it through wellness training programs for the benefit of the community.  Members already volunteer in HAC's Free Cancer Clinic to give Reiki and/or Pranic Healing sessions to clients undergoing cancer treatment.

    Twin Hearts members embody the spirit of the Healing Arts Center. The term "twin hearts" refers to the union of the heart and crown chakras in the Pranic Healing system as used in the Meditation on Twin  Hearts for World Peace developed by Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.  Joining these two chakras creates profound healing power that can be directed at the earth itself.  Every student at the Healing Arts Center is taught the Meditation on Twin Hearts and it is the foundation of the school's entire educational philosophy.  

    OTH Inductees are recognized at the graduation ceremony with a framed certificate and additional medallion on the necklace that graduates receive. Their photos are displayed alongside existing members of the Order on our website.

founder of The Healing Arts Center and mentor to HAC Headmaster, Tom Tessereau.  She had never felt like she did after the massage and decided to pursue professional massage therapy training.  Terrie graduated from The Kaleidoscope School of Massage in 1991.

     After school, Terrie immediately became involved with Missouri Chapter of The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and eventually became President of that organization.  During her tenure with AMTA, she worked with a small group of therapists to promote the passage of a law requiring testing and state licensure massage therapists in Missouri.  It was during this lobbying effort that she first met Tom Tessereau. 

is actively involved in planning their Congress in Philadelphia in 2019. ​Terrie was approached by the editors of Lippencott, Wilkins and Williams to write a book on ethics.  Ethics for Massage Therapists was published in 2007 and has been used by many schools since that time.

   Terrie has worked in a variety of massage environments over her lengthy career including private practice, spas, hospital-based (injury recovery) clinics and chiropractic offices.  She has also worked at several schools in the St. Louis area including Missouri College and Anthem College.  At Anthem, she was Director of Programming and Curriculum Coordinator over 14 schools. 

    For the last four years, Terrie has been the Director of Accreditation and Compliance as well as the Business instructor at The Healing Arts Center.  She also has helped develop and supervises HAC's Cancer Clinic and trains student cancer clinicians.

    The cancer clinic was initiated two and half years ago with the idea that the Healing Arts Center would provide community service by providing free massages for clients that are undergoing cancer treatment. This clinic would provide training for students of HAC to treat clients with the hope that they would continue this type of work after they graduate. Terrie trains and supervises the students in what is considered an honors clinic. "We are privileged to work with such special clients. The students move into a whole new level of compassion and caring for the clients while learning a great deal about working with medical conditions.  I will truly miss working with the students and clients in this clinic."

   In April of 2019, Terrie will retire.  She has plans to travel in her RV, with her dog and cats and visit many friends that she has gotten to know through the massage profession.  To date, she has had over 30 invitations to come and visit.  She also plans to spend more time with her children and grandchildren. 

     Someone once asked Terrie what she was most proud of with her career in massage.  Her answer was, “Each client that felt better after I worked on them, made me feel better, my book, and 2 of the awards that I received -  my National Humanitarian Award from the AMTA for working with muscular dystrophy patients and the award for Top 5 Massage Schools in 2014.  I don’t like a lot of attention, but these two awards really made me feel that maybe what I had been doing made a difference."

     When asked what advice she would give to our graduates and future students, her response was, “find the place where your heart feels good every day when you go home.  No one can tell you where that will be except you.  Follow your heart.  Each client is brought to you to teach you something new.  Be open to hearing or feeling the new lessons that are there for you.”

       Terrie's administrative duties will be assigned to other members of HAC's Core Administrative Group.   HAC has begun the search for a replacement for Terrie on the faculty.   "This is an ominous task", says HAC President, Dave Kenyon. "Terrie has been a major player in the evolution of modern massage therapy training on a national level.  She literally wrote the book on ethics and has vast knowledge and influence over the various organizations that come together to shape the massage therapy industry.   There are very few people out there that can even come close to her credentials skill sets.  She is leaving behind some very large shoes to fill.  The truth is that we will not likely find someone like her.  She is really quite unique and her wisdom and experience will be surely missed."

    Maybe you've heard the buzz... for a limited time, The Healing Arts Center's clinic is asking for volunteers to receive energy medicine sessions in our Master Track Clinic at no cost. Students of the Energy Medicine Master Track are gaining their clinical experience as part of their training to become Energy Medicine practitioners.
    Led by headmaster and owner of HAC, Tom Tessereau, the Master Track spans 5 months and consists of 100 hours of training in Reiki and Pranic Healing. Clinic practice allows students to interact with new people and put into real practice all that they have learned so far in their training.

    Friday, October 12, 2018, the Healing Arts Center will host the Red Robe Ceremony, honoring the achievement of 22 students who have completed the 600-hour, 52 week, massage therapy training program. Several students of this graduating class have achieved the highest honor at HAC, being inducted into the Order of Twin Hearts, HAC's Honor Society. In addition to the eight student inductees, HAC will also bestow this honor on an alumna, Deana Galloway.

      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.