Massage Therapy Program Course Description

This course focuses on standard ethical practices and hygiene for individuals engaged in the fields of manual therapy or rehabilitation.

Ethical practices taught include informed consent, right of refusal, confidentiality and personal, professional and legal boundaries.

Hygiene practices include universal precautions, preventing the spread of pathogens, and ensuring the safety of patients and staff in the clinical setting.

In this course, the student will be introduced to the general concepts of human anatomy and physiology and how structure relates to function.

The overall study of cells, tissues, and an overview of the body systems and broad anatomical and physiological concepts will be covered. Additionally, the student will gain a general understanding of the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems in this course.

Terminology related to diagnosis and treatment, as well as identifying and understanding medical terms in general will be part of the course material. The student will gain an understanding of the relationship between the anatomy and physiology concepts and systems covered in this course with the practice of massage therapy.

In this course, the student will gain an anatomical and physiological understanding of the integumentary, endocrine, cardiovascular and lymphatic/immune systems of the body.

The student will gain an understanding of the relationship between the anatomy and physiology of the systems covered in this course with the practice of massage therapy.

In this course, the student will gain an anatomical and physiological understanding of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, urinary, and reproductive systems of the body.

The student will gain an understanding of the relationship between the anatomy and physiology of the systems covered in this course with the practice of massage therapy.

This course provides basic business strategies every entrepreneur needs to know. In this course, the therapist will learn customer service, “soft skills”, how to start a new practice and how to develop an existing practice.

Additionally, the student will learn how to develop better marketing strategies as well as strengthen his or her management skills. Additionally, this course is designed to provide students with the readiness to seek employment as manual therapists in clinical rehabilitative settings.

Job-seeking skills are taught including developing an effective resume, interviewing skills and overall professionalism. Additionally, in order to maximize business profitability the student is introduced to the concepts of insurance billing and coding for reimbursement of manual therapy services.

Topics include, scope of practice, billing codes, understanding types of insurance cases, handling reimbursement issues and claims filing, dealing with denials, reductions or errors, accurate tax reporting and filing, proper documentation for submitting claims, as well as issues of patient confidentiality and overall business practices for the manual therapist as it relates to the issues of billing, reimbursement and collections.covered in this course with the practice of massage therapy.

This course introduces the student to the discipline of kinesiology and the study of movement.

The student examines the physiological and biomechanical theories of dimensional massage in the rehabilitation of the physically active individual.

Presents principles and techniques of and dimensional massage commonly integrated into the treatment/rehabilitation plan for the major joints and spine.

This course introduces the student to the basic skills and practice of massage therapy and healing through massage. Topics covered are professional boundaries, standards of hygiene, contraindications, Swedish massage, massage palpation fundamentals, deep muscle techniques and an introduction to the human anatomy as it relates to the massage session.

Skills include basic massage techniques, kneading techniques, palpation, timing, sequencing and body mechanics. Additionally, this course covers topics in history of therapeutic massage, the history of Russian medical massage, the history of Swedish massage, and the developments of each as they evolved as a healing modality.

The student will also learn about the massage equipment, environment, and creating that “total” massage experience. Also, the importance of safety in any massage environment will be emphasized.

Specifics are included to illustrate how one should be diligent in protecting the client and oneself at all times: obtain the knowledge required to enable you to practice safely.

Upon successful completion of MT100, students will have the opportunity to practice the full body therapeutic massage routine they have learned in MT100 on clients in the massage clinic.

This will provide the student with an invaluable opportunity for experiential learning and they will be able to receive client feedback and gain confidence as therapists and develop their communication and professionalism as student therapists under the supervision of the clinic coordinator.

Clients will complete written evaluations of the students and the students will be expected to maintain records and perform client intake and document soap notes in accordance with clinic policy.

In this course the student is introduced to the techniques which comprise cranial sacral spinal therapy, as it exists in the Russian medical massage paradigm.

The course focuses on cervical, thoracic, and lumbar paravertebral massage, regional massage for injuries, segmental spinal mobilization, manual spinal discharge and manual traction of the spine.

This course focuses on the development of knowledge and massage techniques to affect deep layers of tissues and specific muscular structures.

Topics include the use of pressure and monitoring pain. Physical skills focus on body mechanics, palpation skills, stretching techniques and deep tissue massage techniques.

Upon successful completion of MT102, students will have the opportunity to practice the deep tissue therapeutic massage routine they have learned in MT102 on clients in the massage clinic.

This will provide the student with additional opportunities for experiential learning. The student will be able to receive client feedback and gain further confidence in his/her therapeutic skills.

Additionally, the student is able to further develop their communication skills and professional demeanor as student therapists under the supervision of the clinic coordinator.

Clients will complete written evaluation of the student’s deep tissue massage skills and the students will maintain records and client intake and document soap notes in accordance with clinic policy.

This course introduces the student to specialized massage modalities such as chair massage, carpal tunnel relief, pregnancy massage, acupressure for tension headaches and massage for the elderly.

This course introduces the student to forms of energy bodywork including, shiatsu, Thai massage and reflexology.

This course includes theory, basic techniques, routines and integration into massage sessions.

This course is an introduction to aromatherapy, hot stone therapy and facial massage, including the benefits, contraindications, and proper application of each in a massage environment.

This course introduces the student to the basic skills and practice of pre and post athletic event rehabilitative massage therapy. Emphasis is placed on applying Russian sports massage to areas of the body to be exerted before an athletic event, as well as, therapeutic massage after athletic activities. Topics covered include Theory, application, benefits and contraindications to Russian sports massage therapy, as well as specific application methods of pre and post event rehabilitative massage.

Furthermore, the student will be introduced to the theory and application of various stretching techniques employed in the rehabilitative and bodywork disciplines. The methods covered will instruct the student on the benefits, contraindications, and applications of facilitated and active stretches, including straincounterstrain, proprioceptive neurological facilitation, and range-of-motion stretching and how they may be employed to improve a patient’s mobility, balance, functional capacity, and overall performance.

This course helps prepare the student to take the M-BLEX exam in order to become certified as a massage therapist with the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC).

opics covered will include the application process, study skills, an overview of study aids and how to use them, a review of the topics that may be encountered on the exams and opportunities to take practice exams to help the student with test-taking skills.

This course concentrates on recognition and treatment of common musculoskeletal pathologies; covers identification of dysfunctions, creation of specific treatment plans, and ways that manual therapy affects both the diseases themselves and their consequences.

Additionally, the course provides the student with an overview of the contraindications involved when providing patient care across a variety of clinical settings.

The focus will be on contraindications to manual and rehabilitative treatment protocols with instruction on how these can be extrapolated to additional clinical environments.

Students will be working as a student therapist in the public massage clinic. Under the supervision of the student clinic coordinator, the student will gain confidence by acquiring additional hands-on massage experience with the benefit of receiving client feedback.

The student will have the opportunity to develop and refine their client interaction skills, professional demeanor, and documentation and record-keeping habits.

Additionally, the student learns how to interface with actual clients in a real world setting and better understand the benefit and physiological effects of medical massage as a healing modality.