If I thought for one minute the BOK was not going to lead to something that was going to be beneficial to schools and other industry segments, rather than lead to be a burden for those looking into touching for income, I could bring myself to support it.

Unfortunately, not one Amta effort has led to an easier less expensive way for a person looking to touch for income to do so.

The BOK, I fear will be nothing more than a compilation of a WOI(wealth of information) that will be turned into a curriculum/template that will be imposed by law that folk looking to touch for income will be obliged to pay.

Your NCE passing 1000 hour HBT&HE that is not opposed to high standards but opposed to imposing those standards as law,

The Rev

When I studied Swedish I have to turn off my intuitive sensitivity because a lot of good Swedish is kinetic like dancing. Good movement starts with you and not only does it protect you form injury but client’s can feel then strokes are done properly. I found that as I moved the things I felt going on in the body were distracting and I had to learn to shut them out of my mind. The anatomy was a breeze because I knew more than my teachers but I had learn it in a different way from massage school or my courses at college. When I completed Swedish training I found that no only were my skills abated but my focus was wrong. Being aware of myself as part of the therapy open me up to taking on the client’s problems and issues. The deep tissue focus on how to go deep was also an issue because I found that if I though I knew how to fix things I would fail and my problem was learning how to back off and listen without thinking. Swedish is dynamic and my work is very static. Movement is at most stretches.

After the Swedish training it took me more than three years to unlearn it and get back on track.

I also took a course in acupressure and again felt a conflict. Yes I incorporate energy work but from a different perspective. My anatomy go in the way if seeing things from a Chinese medicine perspective. I grew up in a multicultural environment and realize that there are trade offs. I never quite fit in anywhere but I had perspectives that people immersed in a single culture could not even imagine.

I think we need different standards for different types of bodywork. Some modalities build on others and some may require mastering different sets on BOKs. If I think of a stomach do I think of a digestive organ, do I think of how to treat a hiatal hernia, do I think of yin and earth or does what I learned in high school satisfy what I need to know to do my job.