We have collaborated with the ASIS staff and merged the ethics of massage therapy with healthy practices for health professionals. The intent is to create ethical therapists by assisting them in not only learning concrete communication skills to deal with their clients, but to guide students in personal growth and development. It has been our experience that our interpersonal issues have a great deal of impact on our ability to confront biases, projections, belief systems, transference and other blocks to becoming a skilled therapist. The exercises are designed to encourage each student to take personal responsibility by evoking self-awareness and increasing personal relationship skills. We are dedicated to the path of world peace, compassion to all living beings, and to honesty. We believe that it is essential that our work be nonviolent in nature, and that the goals of learning and therapy be those of the student rather than the teacher. In keeping with this belief, it is the school’s philosophy that there is a direct correlation between how we view ourselves and how we view others. So as we increase the awareness and kindness with which we meet ourselves, physically and psychologically, we enhance the sensitivity and kindness with which we meet our families, our communities, and our clients.
The methods we use are: guided imagery, poetry, artwork, music, journaling etc., all are designed to increase awareness, still the mind, create insight to patterns, and behavioral change. It is all educational in nature and offers choices of language, metaphor and personal guidance. We are very intentional about this being part of our strong curriculum that deepens the student’s educational experience. Teachers in the program bring decades of experience in both bodywork and facilitation to their students, and every effort is made on the part of the faculty to provide students with a rich and diverse learning environment. It is our belief that when various dimensions of personal experience are allowed expression, personal and collective development are enhanced. So, we are all each other’s teachers and students. This intentional approach to communications and ethics is one part of our multi-faceted curriculum that sets ASIS apart from other massage schools.
We are not healers, we are therapists who pay close attention, who invite an awareness for our clients.
