Toronto, Canada

by Barbara Cunningham, BA, RMT

Paul Lewis, R.M.T., kept forty eager students at the end of their seats quite literally at his alma mater. They absorbed his Therapeutic In-Chair Massage instruction as part of their intense curriculum at Sutherland-Chan Massage School, Toronto.

In-Chair Massage is not typically a component of undergraduate massage programs. Most Registered Massage Therapists would not gather specific In-Chair Massage training unless they enrolled in a continuing education workshop prior to graduation. Some schools will spend a brief amount of time showing students how to massage a client who is sitting in a regular chair or if they are lucky, they may learn a few basic techniques appropriate for corporate chair massage events. Grace Chan and Debra Curtis, owners of the highly reputable Sutherland-Chan private massage school are considering adding Chair Massage to their ongoing curriculum and who better to call upon for the trial run than their very own, Paul Lewis, R.M.T.?

Paul Lewis, indebted to Sutherland-Chan for his comprehensive graduate experience, was happy to ‘bring it all together’ for the second year students in their Advanced Therapeutic Technique class. Paul incorporated the various treatment techniques that they have learned so far and made them applicable to seated massage and wheelchairs. The students were enriched with Paul’s demonstration and discussion of joint mobilizations, dynamic petrissage, and isolated muscle stretching with differing client positions and accounting for conditional modifications such as pregnancy. They were also shown how to integrate the chair and table modalities during a treatment. The students were openly receptive to the demonstration of ‘Lewis Circles’- a remedial exercise used for clients of all ages and abilities and employed by therapists and the general public for self-care.

Not just ‘the chair guy’, Paul is a releasing a new instructional table massage DVD this Fall to partner with his Multi-lingual In-Chair Massage Instructional DVD now being distributed worldwide. He is off to Japan again this summer, to two teach fitness classes and treatment based massage workshops using both the chair and table modalities. Instructing all in Japanese.

Paul Lewis is a Registered Massage Therapist, Reflexologist, International presenter and Educator. He is a Certified CanPro Fitness Specialist. He knows Japanese and has achieved a Black Belt in Aikido. He is an accredited approved provider of the CMTO (Canada), NCBTMB (USA), and FHT (Europe) enabling him to treat and teach workshops worldwide. www.paullewis.ca