Ethics & Athletics 

2 or 3 CE 

This class will examine the specific ethical issues surrounding the dynamic world of sports medicine, from dealing with athletic personalities regarding injury and codependency, understanding hierarchy in the training room, teamwork among the sports medicine team to considerations including NCCA compliance and appropriate referrals. This is a great course for Massage Therapists who currently practice sports massage, or want to investigate the panorama of massage in the athletic realm. Lecture and discussion.

Pain Management: A Person-Centered Approach 

                (3 or 4 CE)

 Providing therapeutic massage to individuals who identify (or are identified) as have a pain diagnosis can be challenging.

In this course, we will be exploring the particular ethical challenges to working with people who are in pain, have a chronic pain diagnosis, report experiencing pain constantly, frequently or situationally due to pathologies, injuries, during and after cancer treatment as well as pre and post-surgical.

Massage Therapists are compassionate and individually focused on helping people resolve the issues that brought them to our tables. In our deep desire to help we may fall in to a pattern, and resort to ‘protocols’ when dealing with specific issues, or refer to individuals as ‘archetypes’. As we all know – each session with each person is a unique moment – and we need to understand it as such and honor creating a therapeutic relationship that supports the efficacy of our manual treatments.

This class is about adapting to a ‘person centered approach’ when interacting with individuals. When we consider the word patients we may be thinking of their diagnosis or identify them as their condition. When we consider the word clients we may be talking about a financial commitment. When we talk about humans, individuals as a person-centered approach we want to bring this to the level of addressing their needs, recognizing vulnerability, engaging boundaries, expressing empathy, actively listening, being authentic, having respect for them, staying focused on the session and therapeutic goals and sometimes admitting you may not be the best therapist for them. The flip side to this is making sure that we are very aware of our scope of practice, and as many massage therapists can confirm, we sometimes get ‘too much information’ and have our roles unintentionally challenged by clients wanting us to be more of a psychotherapist than a massage therapist.

Grasping Green Ethics 

2 or 3 CE 

“Green”, “organic” and “natural” are quite popular words today. But many of us are conscious that even the small efforts to decrease our carbon footprint do actually decrease our carbon footprint. In our experience, there is an ethical mindset that oversees our communication, directly and indirectly. This class will examine and propose definitions of common “green” concepts and offer easy and affordable ideas for Massage Therapists to change and/or improve their practices or change their language. Being “sustainable” is also a key concept and is very marketable – but unless we do a thorough self-assessment, honestly examining ourselves and our practices, and continue to engage our immediate community ethically and honestly, we could be out of integrity. It may not be easy, being green, but it is not that difficult, either.

Ethical Awareness in the Small World: Sensitivity Training for Massage Therapists

2, 3, or 4 CE 

Letting a stray seemingly harmless comment slip from your tongue can be harmful to your reputation and your practice. Learning how to get along and work within our increasingly diverse community isn’t just good marketing it is great customer service and ethical treatment of Massage Clients and other Massage Therapists in our community.   Lecture and discussion.

Ethics in the Sandbox: Learning to Play Well with Others

2,3 or 4 CE 

Getting along with other therapists can be crucial to your well-being, volunteer experiences and your practice. Participants will learn about conflict management, effective communication methods and creating understanding even if you do not agree with others decisions and practices. Taking the time to learn to Co-pete instead Competing and how to create a referral network among therapists in your community.   Lecture and discussion.