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 ...

    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 ...

     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 h...

    That's right folks! A short 3 months later we have already covered 78 hours of Anatomy and Physiology! We have tested our way through all the systems of the body. It is a LOT of information. *Fun fact * the life span of a highlighter is one A&P unit at the Adrian School of Massage ;-) Now it is time to sit down to the dreaded unit test where you are expected to recall ALL of the information you have been cramming into your brain for the last 3 months. Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUN ;-)      As I have already explained I have a serious case of test anxiety and I am really my own worst enemy when it comes to this kind of stuff. SO let me share with you some tips and tricks to survive this stressful time and pass with flying colors!     First things first, DO THE WORK. As you work your way through the systems in the first place make sure you are truly learning them not just remembering enough to get through that first test. Read the chapters, don't just r...

    Making the decision to go back to school wasn't done on an impulse. I'm a mom and that comes first. My husband and I sat and talked, crunched the numbers, checked and double checked the schedules and decided it would be a team effort but we could make it work. Not only do I have the USUAL mom duties but I have the opportunity to be the mother to a nuerotypical child AND a child with sever autism. It's a full time job all on it's own!     I have been a stay at home mom since the birth of our second child and I am very close with my boys. They are used to me being there for everything and I have been so thankful for that opportunity. I knew mommy being gone three nights a week for class was going to be an adjustment for my youngest. As many children with autism, he is very particular with routine. What I wasn't ready for was the wrath of my oldest.     Jude is 8 years old and has always been a very emotional little old soul. He is so patient with his li...

 We have been released to start our 30 friends and family hours! We have been working hard in class learning our anatomy and physiology. We have practiced different techniques on our classmates and now they are letting us take these new skills out of the classroom! And who better to be our guinea pigs then those that love and trust us the most.     While I am obnoxiously excited about this opportunity, I'm a little nervous about fitting it all in. This is 30 hours of work on top of work, other duties and classroom hours. For my schedule, I am finding it works best to get as many of these hours as possible scheduled on the one day off I have during the week while my boys are in school. This way I don't have to miss another evening away from my family or fill every weekend up. Fitting these hours in is a good stepping stone to finding extra hours we are going to need when we start student clinic.     By now we have our own sheets and massage products. While we a...

    I am, sadly, like the majority of the population; I can appreciate the beauty in others in all of their forms while finding nothing but flaws in my own body. I have always struggled with my weight, I have varicose veins, polycystic ovarian syndrome has left me with a plethora of embarrassing symptoms and now, two babies later and just weeks away from turning 30, things are already not where they used to be!     Despite my own body constantly letting me down, I have always been interested in the human body. How is'ts put together and functions. While I had an amazing biology and anatomy teacher in high school that ignited that initial fire, obviously the anatomy and physiology course in massage school is much more in depth. We have been working our way through the levels of organization from chemical and cellular to tissues and membranes. The integumentary system, skeletal, muscular, nervous and endocrine systems just to name a few.     If you take eve...