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.

    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.

     Over the past three  years, no one has entered the student body at The Healing Arts Center without the help and encouragement of Rocela Ginther.  Not only has she been part of a management team that has increased enrollment at HAC by nearly 31% since 2014, she has greeted prospective students with openness and ease, allowing them to find an educational path that fits them.  The Healing Arts Center does not "sell" its education.  Because its unique and highly transformative program requires students to be ready and willing to learn and change, it is important that students find and choose HAC rather than the other way around.  The school has a long standing policy of refraining from talking prospective students into enrollment.  Rocela is well known among our students for giving them the space and the encouragement that they needed to choose and begin a life-changing journey.

    The Order of Twin Hearts (OTH) takes its name from the Meditation on Twin Hearts for World Peace originally taught by Pranic Healing Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.  Master Choa was one of the most important teachers of HAC Headmaster, Tom Tessereau.  Tom was a member of Master Choa's inner circle of disciples and it is the teaching on Twin Hearts that has become the foundation of the spirit of The Healing Arts Center.  The Twin Hearts meditation links the crown and heart chakras (the Twin Hearts) to draw down divine energy into a human being to empower compassion and healing on a global level.

     The Healing Arts Center is launching a new series of workshops designed to provide advanced level training in a format that supports the working therapist.  The idea behind Pro Tracks is to broaden the therapeutic reach of massage therapists to expand client wellness services so as to reach a larger client base or improve employability at a higher wage rate. 
    The Healing Arts Center takes the view that massage therapists are underused in the arena of wellness and promoting health in our culture.  HAC does not teach pamper massage, but rather focuses its knowledge, experience and skill toward developing the massage therapist as a "first responder" in the quest for health and wellness.  For this reason our primary massage therapy training program is directed on pure healing modalities that alleviate stress and anxiety, treats acute and chronic pain at its source and provides the myriad of other benefits that therapeutic massage is known to provide.  In fact, "therapy" is the whole point of this healing art.

     Five years ago, The Healing Arts Center relocated from its former location on Big Bend Boulevard in Maplewood to its current location on Manchester Avenue in Warson Woods.  At one time the old location had been a house and had a very homey feel to it, but the property owner sold critical parking space to the City of Maplewood and the building could no longer be used as a school.  The new location is centrally located and, while not in the most picturesque building ever seen, has two very important features - it is very quiet and there is plenty of parking.

     2017 is in the past (whew) and it is time to hit the reset button to launch 2018.  The Winter Session starts on January 8th which means that our "healers in progress" will be returning and approximately twenty-five new students will be joining this very special community.   The administrative team has been in the office all this week preparing to make 2018 the best year at HAC ever.