It appears the trend toward noninvasive healing has grown quite a bit in the past couple decades. Perhaps one of the motivating forces in the upswing has been a general frustration about some of the limits of traditional Western medicine—the philosophy of waiting until something is “broken” to fix it, instead of proactively working to prevent more serious conditions and illnesses.
Whatever the reasons, this shift seems to have placed much greater emphasis on overall health and wellness, which in turn may have been a big motivating force behind the rise in use and acceptance of the various forms of massage therapy and bodywork. In some ways, this shift may be seen as the integration of more Eastern philosophies on health and healing into our Western world.
For massage therapists and bodyworkers who are seeking continuing education classes—whether out of necessity for license renewal or the desire for further learning and growth, or perhaps a bit of both—looking into continuing education classes with a focus on more Eastern types of techniques may be a wonderful way to improve or expand a practice on several levels.
The appeal of Eastern methods of healing appears to be rather widespread, so learning an Eastern-based technique or modality via continuing education classes may help you to bring in more clients or tap a wider range of clients in your community.
In addition, enrolling in continuing education on the topic of one of these Eastern approaches could also be a wonderful way to stoke the fires of enthusiasm for your daily work, especially if it has been a while since you integrated a new modality into your massage or bodywork practice.
One popular and fairly well-known technique that stems from a long Eastern history of healing is reiki. A class on reiki may be an especially good continuing education choice for those massage therapists and bodyworkers who would like to offer a technique that is not physically demanding on their own bodies.
For example, by completing a continuing education class on reiki techniques, you should then be able to go forward and incorporate bits and pieces of reiki into each client session and also offer whole appointments solely based around reiki. This should allow your body a break from the more demanding modalities, such as deep-tissue massage therapy.
Another popular continuing education choice when it comes to modalities from the East is shiatsu. Often described as acupuncture without needles, shiatsu uses acupressure along specific points of the body to effect healing outcomes. Look around your community, at what other massage therapists and bodyworkers are offering, and you may find that by taking continuing education classes on shiatsu, you are learning a modality that is fairly scarce.
Even in those areas where shiatsu is on quite a few spa or massage menus, taking a continuing education class on this technique can still be highly beneficial. Not only will it allow you to expand your practice menu, but such a continuing education class will also open you up to learning more about the general Eastern philosophies behind healing.