Health Maintenance - Body & Mind

This brief program will provide insights into:

• How to apply healthy, professional boundaries with clients and ways to deal with countertransference.
• Causes and symptoms of burnout and strategies for staying healthy - both body and mind.
• Avoiding emotional traps.
• Safety precautions during outcall massage appointments.
• Whether the level of compassion you have for your clients is healthy.
• Improving the health of your client's mind and body.

In the Health Maintenance - Body & Mind program we've combined articles written especially for the Institute's Massage Professionals Update. These articles include:

• End Burnout Today - Tips for Taking Care of Self - Burnout is the state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by our inability to continue to cope with our environment as a result of the ongoing demands of our lives. Strong boundaries - along with personal and professional goal setting - go a long way toward balancing our lives.
• 6 Tips for Bodyworkers to Prevent Bad Breath - No matter how strong your business and massage skills are, having bad breath is likely to hurt your massage practice.
• Three Emotional Traps Bodyworkers Can Fall Victim To - Bodyworkers who desire a long, successful and rewarding career must be able to recognize and undo these three, common, emotional pitfalls.
• Brain Games: Improving the Mind as Well as the Body - Just like in doctor's offices or any waiting room, there are times a client comes early and must wait for his or her appointment. Learn how to improve the health of a client by filling in that time with games.
• Staying Safe During House Calls - While house calls, or out calls as they are sometimes called, can be convenient for the client, they have the potential for being quite dangerous for the massage therapist.
• OMG - I Think I've Got It!: You probably have a few clients like this. They come in with all kinds of aches and pains and are sure they have something serious. Why? Because they researched their symptoms on the Internet, checked out various medical websites and ultimately self-diagnosed themselves as having some rare form of ailment. Read how cyberchondria is on the rise and how it may affect both you and your massage clients.
• Seven Self-Care Tips for Clients with Neck Pain - Using massage therapy to ease cervical pain is just one part of the path towards helping clients find freedom from neck pain.
• Is Your Compassion for Clients Healthy? - A requisite for embarking on the career path of massage therapy is the innate desire to help people. While compassion is necessary to be a bodyworker, there is an important distinction between healthful and unhealthful compassion.
• Tips for Managing Difficult Clients - All kinds of people receive bodywork, including those with personalities that might rub you the wrong way. By taking stock of yourself and following several helpful guidelines, you can prevent a challenging client from marring your day.

You can either read the articles by clicking on any of the titles above or upon enrollment you'll be able to access these articles and your online test through your online course account.