Foundation Level Students Loved the Workshop Experience

Foundation Level Students Loved the Workshop Experience

Students shared their feelings 
 
We just finished another Foundation level workshop. While all classes are great, this class was a real joy and privilege to facilitate. There were 6 students. Everyone was focused on her own intent and completely supportive and accepting of everyone else. Everyone came ready to learn PetMassage_TM and eager to return home to hone their new skills and begin a business. They were all such courteous and generous listeners to each others stories. It was like being in the presence of a clan of spiritual witnesses. During the course of the five days we were together, each of the students shared their feelings with me in private conversations. 
 
They are pictured, from left to right: Becki, Carrie, Marlene, Jennifer, Julie, Instructor Jonathan, and Alice.
This is a micro version of who they are and what they said:
 
Becki from New Orleans
 
1) Becki attended the Foundation RVT class. The hands-on workshop is the same; she just did not have the two home study courses Basic Anatomy of the Dog and Creating and Marketing Your Canine Massage Business. Becki’s veterinarian employer paid for her course and will surely get tremendous dividends from his or her investment. Becki soaked up everything with wide-eyed enthusiasm. She hadn’t realized how powerful touch and massage can be. She can see its value in pre- and post- surgery care, rehabilitation, calming dogs,and training pet parents. Becki was especially excited to learn that when dogs have increased cardiovascular circulation, increased lymphatic flow, increased flexibility, increased trust and body awareness, every protocol that the vet does will be easier to apply and be more effective. Integrating PetMassage_TM enhances the vet’s ability to optimize the quality of lives of dogs. 
 
Carrie, from South Central Michigan and soon, Sunny Florida 
 
2) Carrie is a trained dog groomer. She shared that she is not comfortable with the energy and dog handling techniques that she sees in grooming salons. The body language, dog handling awareness drills, and skills in body mechanics that Carrie learned changed the way she interacts with dogs. She now knows how to demonstrate kind and compassionate leadership through breathing, posture, and signals. Dogs are now more receptive and cooperative. Imagine that! Well, when Carrie moves to Florida she will be doing less grooming and more PetMassage_TM.
 
Marlene, from Columbus, OH 
 
3) Marlene is making powerful life choices as she and her husband recently became empty nesters and changed their career paths to be able to do what they love. She is a dynamic, charismatic team leader. Her expertise is in corporate training. She has extensive experience and obviously enjoyed her work when she developed and facilitated training programs and seminars. Marlene is a person big on personality and diminutive in stature. When we took pictures of her practicing on dogs, usually all we saw was the dog, the top of her head, and her little hands doing what they were supposed to do. On the 4^th day, I asked her how I was doing as her instructor. She winked and gave me enthusiastic double thumbs up!
 
Jennifer, from a Suburb North of Detroit 
 
4) Jennifer has an incredibly strong connection with her dog, Tank. Tank needed to see her or be with her at all times. Whenever someone else in the class would practice with him, he would spin and jump off to rejoin her. His persistence was so distracting for her she was unable to concentrate fully on learning the new language and culture of PetMassage. After 2 days, she drove him the 60 miles home and left him there with her family. When she returned she was fully present and ready to learn. Jennifer was a novice to much of the table conversation that involved chi, acupoints, meridian flows, auras, and the physical scar tissue of memories. She stayed with us though, and by the final review, she was describing intuitive energy like a veteran wiccan. Jennifer’s son is a musician; a keyboard prodigy. When she dropped off Tank, she was surprised to see a little placard on her son’s new keyboard that read “breathe.” We have a large calligraphy “Breathe” framed on the wall in the classroom. She had just learned about the role and necessity of breath in every PetMassage_TMmoment. “How’d he know about that” she wondered. And what else does her son know that relates to PetMassage_TM?
 
Julie, from Tennessee 
 
5) Julie was taking the Foundation as a Refresher. She had completed the Foundation and Advanced workshops several years ago when we were at our previous location and is a seasoned professional. She found the laws in Virginia too prohibitive; and now that she is in Tennessee, she is eager to jump back into professional PetMassage_TM. She was amazed that there is so much new material and so much she’d forgotten. Julie says, “Everyone who took the Foundation needs to take the course again.” Julie’s Refresher puts her on the track toward becoming a PetMassage_TM Licensed Instructor, if that’s what she’d like to pursue. In the meantime, she is looking forward to getting married and taking the Advanced Level Refresher.
 
Alice, from so high in the UP of Michigan, she is on the North Coast
 
6) Alice is a Massage therapist with a couple of decades of experience. Her dog is a Border Collie with big soft lab eyes. Think about that for a moment. With her experience, she had requested to just take the Advanced PetMassage_TM workshop. The Foundation is the prerequisite for the Advanced. She soon realized that the Foundation material was valuable; and really essential for her Advanced level training. Alice is already planning to attend the October Advanced Level Workshop. She was thrilled about how PetMassage_TM has many similar theories and skills to the Cranial-Sacral therapy she learned while studying at the Upledger Institute. Alice and I shared so many beliefs and perspectives about massage, horsemanship, the value of rituals, and elegance and pervasiveness of life force energy; it was as if we were kindred spirits, reuniting. My phrase for Alice was, “Of course you have!” Whenever I shared a story of a bodywork revelation I had had, she smiled and quietly nodded in knowing agreement. Alice told me she could see how she would adapt the PetMassage_TM methods of positional release to enhance her human practice. 

Do you picture yourself in a PetMassage_TM workshop? Of course you do!

There are still openings in the August 18-22, 2016 Foundation level workshop.http://petmassage.com/product/petmassage-foundation-level-workshop-full-enrollment/