Bristol Dec '22 - Mar '23: Advanced Hands Free Massage Training Course (8 days)

NEXT TRAINING DATE: 2023/24 TBC >

An essential training that helps you acquire new skills to protect your massage career and ensure its longevity.

YOU WILL LEARN
– How to replace the use of your hands for just about any massage you do during table, chair and side-lying massage
– How to skilfully and sensitively apply firm pressure with your forearms and elbows
– Dynamic bodyuse to support you

WHY LEARN THIS?
– Prevent overuse and strain of your hands, wrist and shoulders
– Protect your body from the long term effects of your profession thereby extending your career
– Expand your repertoire

“Best thing you’ll ever do! My practice is transformed and clients are delighted. Love it! The course has given me the confidence in both my skills and stamina and it’s showing in bookings, which is amazing!!!” – Jessie Docherty

“I’ve decided to take the plunge and quit my NHS job. I’m so excited to be a full-time massage therapist.” – Helen Johnstone

“The 8 Day Training really does change your practice. The course itself is well paced with plenty of time between classes to practice and develop the skills. There are plenty of follow up videos and a well illustrated manual. Stop thinking about it and take that leap of faith. You will not regret it.” – Carmen Zahra

“Thank you for the beautiful course.
It has changed my working life and will keep me going for many more years!” – Maya van der Galien

You have invested in learning massage and now it’s time to take it to the next level and invest in the longevity of your career.

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This 8 Day Training (FHT Accredited) is designed to save your fingers, thumbs and wrists … and the rest of your body too!

Learn new tools to replace the use of your hands for just about anything you do in a massage! Say ‘bye bye’ to using your hands for effleurage, petrissage, stretches, mobilisations and seated massage. Expand your repertoire and freshen your approach.

You’ll learn how to skillfully and sensitively apply firm pressure with your forearms and elbows, which is more effective and safer than using your hands

Posture plays a major role in this and we therefore instil correct and dynamic body use to support you, thereby further helping you to maintain your career.

You will become skillful, sensitive, dynamic, adaptive and effective with these new techniques!

For your clients, this results in receiving a better and more effective treatment.

The course assumes and builds upon a developed feeling for pacing and fluidity in massage, and monitoring and adapting to the client’s build, comfort and responses.

Clients are often amazed at how deep you can work without it hurting.

Who is this course for and group size

CPD Workshop for Qualified Massage Practitioners, Aromatherapists etc
Mostly people who attend this training are experiencing pain in their backs, wrists and hands
Others are wanting to learn new skills and learn how to work on more deeply without causing their body any harm
Anyone who wants to expand their massage repertoire and learn over 60 new techniques to incorporate into massage
You must have a minimum nationally recognised Level 3 Body Massage qualification such as Swedish Massage, Sports, Aromatherapy – also open to Osteopaths, Chiropractors etc. This is a Level 3 Advanced Massage course.
There are only 12 places available on the training which ensures individual attention for all attendees

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“Thank you again for the most wonderful course, it’s the best training I’ve done in years! Yesterday I gave two 90 minute sessions back-to-back, and I hardly had any back ache and actually felt energised rather than exhausted. It’s a miracle! “
– Sarah

Advanced Hands Free Massage Training covers

A range of forearm and elbow techniques that can substitute for and extend ‘classic’ massage techniques with varied pressure for table, chair and side-lying massage
The soft forearm (the fleshy inner forearm) for effleurage, petrissage and applying widespread general pressure. The soft forearm is firmer and uses less effort than using your hand
The hard forearm (the ulna) and the bony areas around the elbow for applying focused pressure in an appropriate, skillful and sensitive way in order to save your fingers, thumb, knuckles, wrist, lower back and shoulders
Using the whole forearm for mobilising parts of the body, for applying stretches
All of these ‘tools’ for oil, non-oil massage and seated massage (on an ordinary chair, which can be adapted for massage chair)
How and where to best use these new ‘tools’
How to moderate the pressure applied
How to monitor and adapt to different client builds, tensions and their responses
How to blend Hands Free Massage techniques smoothly into massage sessions
How to support all of the above with dynamic bodyuse, rather than working too hard with your arms and shoulders

“I now feel totally competent as a massage therapist, love hands free and I no longer have the worry that I’m going to have to give up, as I no longer have wrist, thumb and finger pain which was a real worry for me.
Leora was fabulous! She is so enthused by what she is teaching. She was wonderfully attentive to our use of Hands Free and I felt confident from day 1 that it would be a great course. For me now there is no other way to massage, it has changed my life completely, I feel confident I can deliver a good massage and know I do from client feedback. I also love that I get a lot closer to clients in a way.
And thank you to Darien Pritchard, my original teacher, BCMB for all my CPD courses last year and Leora Sharp for the life transforming Hands Free training I’ve just completed.”
– Helen Watkins

Basic outline of the training

Below is the basic outline of what you will learn. There are opportunities on all days to:

Warm up
Learn new techniques or adapt previous learning to other parts of the body
Adapt movements/techniques according to client’s build, tensions and responses to the techniques
Add these movements/techniques to your familiar massage style (consolidated and integrate)
Monitor bodyuse and change it as necessary to prevent overuse and strain
Self, peer and tutor assessment/feedback
Recap learning

Session 1 – Using the ‘soft forearm’ (fleshy part) for broad, sweeping movements

Day 1 & 2
– Reflections on where you are at in your practice and how your body responds to giving massage (reflective practice)
– Introduction to the principles of Hands Free Massage, including body dynamics/bodyuse – Part 1
– Exploration of techniques/ideas (no oil, seated partner work)
– Soft forearm on the back, shoulders, gluteals (oil, on table) for broad, sweeping movements.
– Learning to become skillful and sensitive with the soft forearm and to begin sensing with it – feeling for structures and tensions and monitoring and adapting to the client’s responses
– Introduction to the principles of Hands Free Massage, including body dynamics/bodyuse – Part 2
– Soft forearm on the back, shoulders, gluteals + arms and hands (oil, on table)
– Soft forearm on the legs and feet (oil, on table)

Session 2 – Using the ‘hard forearm’ (ulna) for broad focused and sliding pressure

Day 3 & 4
– Revision of day 1 and 2 and reflective practice
– Introduction to principles of using the ulna for massaging (no oil, seated partner work)
– Stationary and sliding pressure on the back (oil, on table)
– Muscle review
– Cross-fibre sliding pressure on back, arms and legs (oil and no oil, on table)
– Broad focused pressure for specific muscles and areas of tension on back, arms and legs (oil and no oil, on table)

Session 3 – Using ‘precision Hands Free tools’ (elbow and surrounding bones) for very skillful and focused pressure

Day 5 & 6
– Review course content to date (as much as is possible, depending on the group needs)
– Introduction to the principles of the ‘precision tools’ – Part 1 (seated with partners, no oil)
– Introduction to the principles of the ‘precision tools’ – Part 2 (seated with partners, no oil)
– Fine tuning the precision tools for very specific work on ‘knots’/points of tension on legs and back (oil, on table)

Session 4 – Stretches, Mobilisations, Side-lying

Day 7 & 8
– Revision of principles of the ‘precision tools’ (seated with partners, no oil)
– Stretches and mobilisations (seated no oil and on table with and without oil) including a revisions session later in the day
– Client side-lying with and without oil, including stretches and mobilisations
– Course review

… and all the way through the training you learn correct body dynamics/posture to support your movement AND Hands Free Massage techniques for seated clients. PLUS you’ll receive lots of massage throughout the training.

Other information

No ‘gung-ho’ manner: These are strong, powerful tools, which can deliver bruising pressure to clients if they are used without care. Therefore, using them skillfully and learning how to adapt each technique to a range of builds, tolerances and reactions is a core part of the training. The tutors reserve the right to dismiss students from the course who consistently use these tools in an unnecessarily ‘gung-ho’ manner.
This course does NOT cover: using the knees, legs and feet, because these work best when the client is lying on a low table or a futon on the floor (as is done in many Eastern massage traditions).
Class size: This will vary depending on where the course is run. Participants receive satisfactory individual instruction, and also have a range of fellow students to practice on, under supervision of the tutor. Average class size is 8 – 16 students.
Class times: In general, each training day is from 10am – 5.30pm (which might vary depending on location) with morning and afternoon tea breaks and 1 hour for lunch.
FHT Accredited Short Course

Who can attend?

To attend you must have a minimum nationally recognised Level 3 Body Massage qualification such as Swedish Massage, Sports, Aromatherapy – also open to Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Physiotherapist etc.

Dates, fees, payment scheme and booking terms

Duration, dates, times, location

4 sessions of 2 days each, over several months = 60 hours / 40 CPD points.

2023/2024 dates TBC

10am – 5.30pm each day
Location TBC
There are only16 places available on the training which ensures individual attention for all attendees

Course fees & inclusions

£970

8 days of tuition (excluding catch up sessions if you have to miss any learning time)
Training manual
Session related handouts
Moderate student support and supervision throughout the course. Extra support is available for which tuition fees apply
Access to online videos during and 2 months after the course
FHT Accredited Short Course

Paying for your transformational training

Pay the full amount upfront

£970
£15 deduction if you’ve done the 3.5hour taster, on the lead up to this training.

Payment scheme – incurs an administrative surcharge of £40.

Deposit on booking – non refundable £250 + admin fee £40 = £290
(£15 deduction if you’ve done the 3.5hour taster)
Payment 2 – £240
Payment 3 – £240
Payment 4 – £240

Tutors

Tutor: Leora Sharp
Co-tutor: Darien Pritchard – if the course fills with more than 8 people, Darien will co-teach.

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