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Program
We offer a 510-hour program. Our curriculum has been carefully crafted over the past 20+ years to provide a comprehensive, broad-based approach that is designed to be challenging, fun, and exciting.
Our teaching staff's dedication ensures quality delivery of this curriculum. Our students develop technique-specific skills through many hours of hands-on, classroom practice under close instructor supervision.
Students learn several styles of massage and bodywork used to serve the needs of a wide variety of clientele. In learning these various modalities, students are encouraged to unify the underlying principles among them. This will enable the therapist to develop and implement a treatment plan that is appropriate for the individual needs of each and every client.
Our biological sciences are presented in a way that is massage focused. This approach develops essential critical thinking skills needed during the treatment planning process. Class time is divided between lecture and hands-on lab time, enabling the student to integrate class material.
Below you can click on the links to see a description of most of our course offerings and the approximate hours of instruction.
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The Institute is dedicated to each student receiving caring attention and closely supervised instruction. Generally, only one instructor lectures at a time. In all massage lab classes; the ratio of faculty to students does not exceed 1:10 (one instructor for 5 massage tables).
Training is primarily hands-on, with an emphasis on the learning experience. Our instructors teach that one of the most important aspects of massage therapy is the connection between the therapist and client. The skill of accepting a client and their condition is taught and reinforced throughout the program, as students practice on each other, on their friends, family members, and the public during internship. Such acceptance creates an environment of safety, which promotes a climate of self-acceptance and ultimately, of healing for the client.
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This course covers an array to topics such as massage strokes, their variations, body mechanics, and professional draping techniques. It also includes Swedish gymnastics, which is a system of passive, active, and resisted stretches and joint mobilizations. This section also teaches foot reflexology, seated massage, side-lying massage, pregnancy and infant massage, geriatric massage, clinical massage, sports massage, and massage adaptations for special populations.
Included in this module are client assessment, treatment planning, and documentation. The instructors act as coaches, evaluate the students, and give feedback based upon technique application and body mechanics. Additionally, students will give a short presentation to the class on a massage modality.
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This part of the curriculum includes sanitation and cleanliness, types of diseases, agents of disease, modes of transmission, the host/pathogen relationship, and risk factors for disease. Diseases of each body system are discussed along with how to adapt the massage to these conditions. Over 100 pathologies are discussed as well as general contraindications, and precautions.
An introduction to basic pharmacology is also taught as many clients use medications to treat or manage disease. An entire lecture is spent exploring mental disorder, diabetes, as well as cancer, anticancer treatments, and their side effects.
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Under the direction of an instructor, students perform client-centered sessions to members of the community. Internship, in the form of student clinics, provides invaluable opportunities for students to exercise creativity while practicing the modalities they have learned in class. Clinic practice also fosters the evolution of skills that will be utilized in future careers.
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A complete exploration of client treatment using various forms of water is incudes in our curriculum. This section covers: the use of water as a healing agent, contraindications, procedural guidelines, specific applications of heat and cold including packs, compresses, hot and cold stones, body wraps, saunas, steam baths, whirlpools, Vichy showers, paraffin baths, body shampoos, dry brush massages, polishes and scrubs, cold towel frictions, salt glows, and the use of aromatherapy. It includes a field trip to either: a day spa, an aquatic therapy center, or a chiropractic clinic.
Current textbooks include:
• Salvo, SG. Massage Therapy: Principles and Practice, 7e,
W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 2023.
•Salvo, SG. Mosby's Pathology for Massage Therapists, 5e,
Elsevier, St. Louis, 2022
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This section explores various requirements for establishing a massage practice from a practical point of view. Included are: licensing, permits and zoning, networking with other professionals, accounting principles, business reports, marketing, and strategic planning. This section also explores the process of establishing, developing, and maintaining therapist-client relationships through the development of professional communication and interviewing skills.
These skills will help establish an atmosphere of safety in order to build client trust and rapport. This section features information on professional standards, scope of practice, code of ethics, professional conduct, and confidentiality, dual relationships, boundary management, Louisiana and Texas state law, and HIPAA regulations.
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Our anatomy class examines the structure of the various systems of the human body and includes the following: integumentary system, muscular system, skeletal system, nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, lymphatic and immune systems, endocrine system, digestive system, reproductive system, and urinary system. Medical terminology is also discussed.
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The class covers the functions of the various systems of the human body and how each is affected by massage. Body systems covered are integumentary system, muscular system, skeletal system, nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, lymphatic and immune systems, endocrine system, digestive system, reproductive system, and urinary system. Tissue injury and repair are also addressed.
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Kinesiology focuses on the study of human movement and includes lectures and lab time on the names of skeletal muscles, their locations, attachment sites, actions, and fiber direction. Types of muscular contractions, joint structures, types of range of motion, palpation of important body landmarks are also discussed.
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Part of our curriculum delves into what constitutes good heath, professional hygiene, and proper nutrition. This section also covers sanitation of linens and equipment, hand washing procedures, glove usage, and Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) review. Thera are also discussions regarding procedural and facility safety as well as therapist self-care and injury prevention. This section includes a guest lecture from a local nutritionist.