Adrian School of Massage

  Practice hours are, understandably, a large part of your schooling. We have already discussed getting over the awkward phase of working on your classmates. The 30 hours of practice you will do on your friends and family. Now we have worked our way up the food chain ;-) to the professionals. As part of the program at the Adrian School of massage you be giving 6 hours per trimester of massage on professionals. These are either your instructors, or those that have passed through the halls before us and graduated from ASM.     Does the thought of putting your new found skills to work on the body of practicing professionals make the butterflies in your belly dance? Or is it just me? I mean, we have learned I'm an anxious person with a touch of perfectionism. If that is even a word. SO before setting up these meetings you better believe I formulated a mental check list.       #1 What is Expected? There are paper your professional will be filling out for you after their massage that

    Are you the person who can't keep scrolling when you see the videos of black heads wiggling their way out of a pore? Puss filled abscesses exploding after a slight push? Do you get a strangely satisfying sensation from pulling the burnt layers of your skin off after a sunburn? It's gross stuff but you just CAN'T look away right! Well I have great news for you.... you will LOVE your pathology unit.     Pathology is the study of disease, their causes and how they affect the body. As massage therapists we need to know enough about these conditions so we can keep our clients safe by not exacerbating the condition. As well as keeping ourselves safe from catching contagious conditions. Before we can go any further, you will need a quick vocabulary lesson.   Contraindicated : Describing an intervention that may have a negative outcome in a given condition Indication : The basis for an intervention that is likely to have a positive outcome in a given condition Local : De

     When it comes to professional ethics there are some fairly obvious facts. Like the importance of keeping a clean, healthy and safe work environment. Knowing it's not a good idea to make passes at your client or take it upon yourself to get them caught up on the latest gossip around town. There are some things that make you think "well duh" but there is also a large gray area that makes things a little trickier. For example, is it ethically appropriate to take on your children's teachers as clients? Is it appropriate to give a big smile and "hey how are you" when you run into a client at the store? How do you approach charging family after your schooling is complete? See.....tricky.      Through our business and ethics unit we are going to work through the hard facts and talk through some of these trickier gray areas. Christy compared professional boundaries to driving. We want to stay on the road with in our lane. In order to do so we are constantly ha