Greetings From Middle Earth

Written Journal style with most recent entry coming up first:
August 13, 2013 Back on Terra Firma USA

Time flew by way too fast for this blog! Well, it looks like I’ll need to change the name of this blog from Greetings From Middle Earth to Greetings No Longer From Middle Earth. I’m back stateside and on fire for this upcoming continuing education season! I can’t wait to share my Kiwi experience with everyone. Needless-to-say, it was quite an eye opening experience. If you ever get a chance to carry our profession abroad, I say GO GO GO!

The six months I spent teaching at the New Zealand College Of Massage couldn’t have been more challenging. I carried a full teaching load, teaching three different years of students who are enrolled in the Bachelors of Science for Massage and Neuromuscular Therapy. There were a lot of nuances I needed to learn, cultural expectations, most especially, how are these Kiwis going to respond to an American’s way of teaching?

My course load consisted of teaching third year students Health Psychology with subjects ranging from chronic pain, meaning effect and perceptions and roles surrounding caregivers and disease, the role of traumatic events in the development and perpetuation of pain, and the role of massage therapists as a caregiver on a health care team. The third years also learned cranial and neck treatments, specifically internal jaw, anterior neck, the role of posture and nervous system in muscular tension relating to these complex structures.

I taught the second year students clinical therapeutics and clinical reasoning relating to neuromuscular treatment routines. They learned how to address trigger point activity, observe posture patterns, and coach clients back to neuromuscular and postural health.

And finally, I had a class of “my little ducklings”, a term of endearment that I’m sure would not have gone over well if I had shared it the first week of class. But that’s what they became to me. I feel it is an incredible privilege to inspire new students in the art and science of massage. After all, like any field, taught poorly, it can be quite a snoozer to endure. It is my hope that rather than fall sleepily onto their desktops, they eagerly ran to the table for an awesome classroom massage. Well, there were a few snooze moments but I attribute that to the time of day. Wink wink.

It’s likely I’ll be back several times to this blog as I think through my experiences teaching abroad. For now, let’s just put it down to: my jaw is still on the ground and I’m slowly winding it up toward the rest of my face.

Oh, and yeah, the other thing … it didn’t hurt to take two weeks mid term and travel the north island with my business partner Tammy and boyfriend Gary, from Auckland to Wellington, NZ. I hope you enjoy the view from the posted pictures!

January 2013
Greetings Everyone!
This past October I met the CEO of the New Zealand College of Massage, John Fiso. Next thing I know, I’ve picked up and moved to New Zealand to teach for a semester. Before I share about this adventure and it’s future impact on our NC world, let me first say that the Spring 2013 season is chock full of CE courses for your enjoyment. Over the past 5 years, we’ve truly grown into a well rounded seminar program by bringing you quality instructors and a diversity of topics. Please visit all the pages within; learn about the instructors and their associated topics. Once you’ve decided what classes you’d like to take, visit our online registration page and get started. The first courses begin in March and run through the end of May. We’d love to see you there; join our passion for this profession and all it has to offer the world.

We have three I-NMT classes, Anterior Neck & Jaw, Thigh & Lower Extremity, and Thoracic Outlet & Shoulder Mobilizers. These courses will be led by certified Neuromuscular and Myofascial therapist, Barbara Collins. Don’t hesitate to take her inspirational class. She is very hands on in her approach. You will learn so much from her and enjoy yourself at the same time. Julie Barton will continue to teach her popular Self Care class and Foam Rolling/Movement Repatterning class. Two new instructors, Dwayne Wynne and Maureen Bertolo will be leading classes related to Health Psychology and Ethics.

January 20
Professional Perspectives:

Traveling to New Zealand on sabbatical is not only phenomenal for me personally, daily I’m building a picture about how I can have an even greater impact on the profession back home in the USA. For 17 years my colleagues and I have struggled with proving ourselves; every day defending our profession with the public, the media, health care professionals. My sabbatical couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. In just two weeks at the school, the struggle is behind me. I had the opportunity to turn around, look back, and take a step away from the trenches and see things with a fresh perspective. The mere fact that a professional massage therapist was invited to teach overseas is evidence itself about how far this profession has come. Articles in The Massage Therapy Foundation’s International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork and many more throughout the internet give evidence that this profession is here to stay. We don’t have to work so hard to prove ourselves. The public is on our side.

January 27
Professional Perspectives … continued.
Despite my initial distaste for cut rate massage businesses, these businesses have done two things for all of us who practice as massage therapists: they’ve demonstrated that massage therapy can operate successfully within structured, repeatable, and well established business models. For those of you who know me, my guess is you’re saying Whaaaaat???? There’s no way that Laura is giving credit to these life sucking cretins that are destroying our professionalism, quality of life, and ability to earn a living within this profession. Bear with me a moment. Although I still hold those beliefs, I guess you could say that I’m viewing this from a different perspective because it dawned on me that before our profession could withstand the test of time, first we first needed to lay a foundation where lots of people get used to getting massage. So much so that people expect to receive massage. This groundwork has been laid and is well embedded in the American psyche.

Now it’s time to expect a higher level of sophistication from the American consumer. Let’s look at the restaurant industry as an example of what’s to come in the massage industry. Years ago, eating a meal outside the home was rare. Then McDonald’s came along. Although one could argue the nutritional value of the food, McDonald’s was affordable for everyone. People began eating some of their meals outside the home. Fast forward to today and we have sophisticated restaurants from all cultures and even some celebrity foodies bringing their personal brands to your home town. Now that I see things from this perspective, I see that the time is close for the consumer to begin to expect more than the basic massage. I welcome their sophistication; for those of us with prime skills, it’s time the American consumer pay more so more of us can thrive and more of us can be found.

January 28th
Tomorrow begins a new week at the NZ College of Massage. We’re preparing for a newly enrolled class and beginning next week and it looks like there will be a total of 60 students split between two classes. Maybe we can set up some friendly competition between the classes. I guess it wouldn’t be Touch Football but Touch Rugby. I’d better get out my rulebook. As far as where I’ll be teaching and what I’ll be teaching, your guess is as good as mine! There’s been a lot of talk around the American’s having an influence on the incoming classes and teaching at the introductory level … but there’s also talk of my skill set being used for Neuromuscular and Trigger-Point classes. All I know is I wish it were worked out already as the time is fast approaching. Good thing I’ve been doing this for a while.

Reorganization of the school is coming along but with reorganization comes a few frazzled nerves. We’re all hanging in there … it’s exciting that the group that bought the NZCM has a sports school that has operated successfully for 17 years. Over those years the school grew from one location with less than 20 students to three locations throughout the country and hundreds of students. After reorganization settles down, I have no doubt that the NZCM will thrive under their leadership. Part of my role as visiting tutor is to bring in my perspective as an expert in massage therapy, directing a school, and running a successful business. I’ve been busy blabbing my opinion about everything from organizational and structural ideas as well as educating the group about the field of massage, past-present-future.

As a consultant, I had nothing to lose by taking big risks and sharing all thoughts about how the school is presently run, pitfalls I see ahead, errors I sense in judgement. I think that’s why John Fiso, the CEO of NZCM wanted me to come. He knew I could provide a fresh perspective without any fear of losing my job. After all, if I fail, I come home sooner and reunite with my Hands On Health family. I cannot tell you how freeing it is to test and hone my business skills in an environment where there is very little risk. In a summary report to John, I even said, Are You Kidding Me? … In other words, I was saying … look at things from this perspective and you’ll see how that is not the decision you will want to make and the massage world will rebel.

Until another day cheers from Kiwiland