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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 17, 2004 Students heal with their hands By John Darling Tidings Correspondent Nurse Teri Martinez nailed it - stress is the underlying cause of most disease and massage is one of the best ways to beat stress. So she quit her job as a nurse, took the intensive, six-month training at Ashland Institute of Massage and this month opens her new practice as a massage therapist. John Vessels of Eagle Point practices massage on classmate Rebecca Duff who makes the drive up from Mt. Shasta to the Ashland Institute of Massage as many as five times a week. Photo by Andrew Mariman | Ashland Daily Tidings "I got tired of pushing paper and pills at people," said Martinez, 51. "The cause of 60 to 80 percent of illness is stress, which means anything that calls on the body's defenses and tenses muscles. Massage undoes stress and allows unhealthy toxins to leave the body." About 40 people a year agree with her and are launching careers in massage by attending a 10-month, part-time or six-month, full-time course of study in all facets of massage, including anatomy-physiology, kinesiology, pathology, soft tissue work, Swedish massage, communication skills and ethics, said AIM Director Genna Southworth. "It's rigorous. It's college-level science," she said. "You really have to learn the human body - and you have to develop communications skills, so you're clear and confident and can tell clients what you're going to do - and do it within strict ethical boundaries." AIM, started in 1988 by Ashlanders Beth Hoffman and Shari Sunshine and bought in 2003 by Southworth and her husband David Fredrickson, is small but considered one of the top three massage schools in Oregon. It boasts a 95 percent passage rate on the state licensing exam, compared to 87 percent statewide. In a nation with widely varying laws on licensing and ethics of massage therapists (California has no requirements for licensing), the standards of AIM and the state of Oregon are considered tops, said Southworth, thus accounting for its enrollment of about a third of students from out-of-state. As massage becomes more accepted as a wellness and prevention tool, graduates are able to more readily find work in places like hospitals, pain clinics, chiropractic offices, extended care facilities, osteopathic clinics and outcall work - going on-site to businesses to do chair massage for stressed-out workers, said Fredrickson Although a lot of people go into massage work, there's a high turnover in the first three to five years, said Southworth, because therapists must resolve "underlying issues of self" to be good at their work. "In massage, you are selling the Self or Soul with a capital S," said Southworth. "Your hands are integrally connected to your heart. Many therapists have to leave the field because of unresolved issues of the self." "These issues are ripe for transference (projection) and cause you to limit yourself in your practice," said Fredrickson, "so you become less perceptive and less helpful." AIM teaches a curriculum grounded in awareness-integrity-mastery, said Fredrickson. This is practiced starting with an intake interview that identifies any medical or psychological problems that would warn against massage - and oblige the massage therapist to refer the person to medical, chiropractic or mental health help. "Most people seek massage, not to feel good, but because something's gone wrong and the therapist has to become aware of that and make the judgment if they can help," said Southworth. "If they proceed with massage, the therapist's emphasis will be on rehabilitation and injury prevention and that takes a lot of learning and experience." Ethics are a huge issue in massage - a profession that carries a stigma from its shady beginnings in "massage parlors," where it was sometimes mixed with the sex trade, said Southworth. "It's a relational business, and we teach our students to maintain awareness of their own, and the clients', feelings, to communicate, to look at boundaries and trust, especially the clients' trust in the therapist's skills," she said. Is it a good life - and a good living? Yes, if you realize you can't do it eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. It's too demanding, physically and psychologically, said Fredrickson. "Many students are older people who want control of their time and are willing to work part-time, making an income they can live on, usually $40 to $75 an hour, depending on skill and experience." For Ashland, the nice thing about AIM is that you if you're OK being massaged by students, you can call 482-5134 and make an appointment for a very affordable massage - $15 for seniors, $25 for others. To be massaged by a licensed graduate, it's $40 or three for $95 or five for $150. Gift certificates are available. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Isotoner Slippers Dsw Shoes Ceramic Piggy Banks Fanny Mae Eloans Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Citibank Student Loans Acs Loan Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation helzberg diamonds Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams