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."
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