professional massage therapy courses

CPD - Continuing Professional Development

Intermediate workshops
These workshops help the working therapist complement their existing skill set and develop new skills which will enhance their practice. They include:

Mind Your Own Business - practice management workshop.
A simple but highly-effective overview of the basic techniques of developing and managing a successful complementary practice. This weekend course covers a range of management skills - each one essential to building, running and developing a good practice.
Just as importantly though, great emphasis is placed on setting the correct personal and business goals and strategies. The day is geared to the therapist who wants to focus on client care while running and growing their business both dynamically and ethically.

Topics covered on the workshop include.....

  • Defining the business you want
  • Personal/business balance
  • Goal-setting and strategies
  • Business planning
  • Getting clients & keeping them
  • Promotion & advertising
  • Practice management
  • Record-keeping
  • Taxation & VAT
  • Managing time
  • Assessing your business
  • Working more effectively

Duration: One weekend (Sat & Sun)

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Speak Up for Yourself - presentation skills workshop.
Good communication skills are essential in most areas of life. That's OK when we're talking to one or two people but talk to a group????

Scary stuff…and most people don't do it because they're too nervous - and that's a pity because ANYONE - given a few simple tools - can do it…………..and do it effectively!

In fact, giving talks to groups is recognised as one of the most effective ways known to grow a practice or a business - or even just to get a message across.

The atmosphere at the workshop is one of friendly motivation and encouragement. Participants are given plenty of opportunity to practice and hone their skills in a safe and positive environment.

Topics covered on the workshop include.....

  • Overcoming nervousness
  • Structuring the talk
  • Avoiding mistakes
  • Types of presentations
  • Making powerful impressions
  • Using different media
  • Setting up the room
  • Handling the audience
  • Remembering the lines

Duration: One weekend (Sat & Sun)

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Back to Basics - Swedish massage skills & additional techniques.
This is a refresher workshop for Swedish Massage therapists who wish to review and brush up on their practical techniques. They may have graduated some years ago and taken a break or they may be more recently qualified and wish to consolidate and add to their skill base without necessarily enrolling on another full course.

It consists of a one weekend workshop for therapists to reassess their goals, to review and refine the practical elements they have learned and to expand their repertoire with the addition of some new techniques. Therapists are encouraged to indicate which particular aspects they wish to focus on at the time of registration so that individual requirements may be met.

Duration: One weekend (Sat & Sun)

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Review of Sports & Remedial Massage.
This workshop is designed specifically for therapists who already have a qualification in Remedial and/or Sports massage and would like to brush up or extend their skills. The weekend is spent reviewing the fundamentals of Remedial and Sports therapy beginning with a review of the remedial treatment protocol and then moving on to.....

  • trigger point therapy
  • muscle energy (MET)
  • PNF stretching
  • neuromuscular methods
  • myofascial techniques
  • spinal mobilisation
  • peripheral joint mobilisation
  • traction

Specific treatment protocols are reviewed for conditions such as.....

  • tennis elbow
  • ankle sprain
  • low back pain & pelvic issues
  • muscle impingement sciatica
  • frozen shoulder
  • psoas tension disorders
  • selected sports injuries

Duration: One weekend (Sat & Sun)

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Emergency First Aid Course.
A First Aid qualification is an essential part of the therapist's toolkit so that they can effectively deal with life-threatening situations.

Many professional bodies are now insisting on a First Aid certification as a condition of membership.

The course at Western School is presented by St. Andrew's Ambulance and includes the award of a formal First Aid Certificate.

Duration: One afternoon

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Sports Event Massage Workshop.
This workshop is one of the modules of the Diploma in Remedial & Sports Massage diploma course but can be attended as an individual workshop.

The treatment of sports injuries and conditions relating to the sporting environment has many similarities to remedial treatment.

However sports event massage - covering the support of athletes during training, pre-event, inter-event and post-event - is a specialised field with focused techniques which specifically help to.....

  • Enhance athletic performance
  • Minimise effect of injury
  • Reduce risk of re-injury
  • Prevent muscular & tendinous injuries
  • Reduce the strain & discomfort of training
  • Aid consistency in training
  • Help heal acute injuries properly
  • Restore normal muscular function, reduced by muscle spasm
  • Restore lost mobility
  • Lengthen the career of an athlete
  • Speed recovery time during training
  • Eliminate stress and tension

Topics covered on the workshop include.....

  • History of sports massage
  • The role of massage in sport
  • 10 Commandments of sports massage
  • Variables in sports massage
  • Contraindications to sports massage
  • Timing and goals
  • Sports massage techniques
  • Typical sequences
  • Physiological effects of sports massage
  • Psychology and sports massage
  • Sources of training injuries
  • Overtraining
  • Thalamotherapy - relaxing the athlete
  • Rehabilitation stages
  • Muscle cramp
  • Sports massage goals - summary
  • Rehab ladders
  • See course dates page for scheduled workshops.

Duration: One weekend (Sat & Sun)

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