Animal Massage Guide » certification

Question From A Reader: How To Choose A Massage School?

cattie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:37:35 +0000

I got an email from a reader who is trying to decide on which animal massage school to attend. It is a very difficult choice to make, and we decided to post her question and my answer, hoping it would help others who are undecided as well.

Also, if you have attended a massage school and have feedback you would like to share with us, please comment on this post, or if you prefer not to share your name, send your testimonial directly to me, and I will post it anonymously.

Lisa wrote:
Hi, I have been considering going to school for pet massage for a couple months now. Your website has a lot of great information and is the best comprehensive look at schools that I have been able to find.

The main problem I am having is finding out truly how good these schools/certification courses really are and how well they prepare you to start your own business. Of course all the schools are going to say they have the best program and prepare you to be confident to start your own business and have testimonials on their websites that stand by these statements.

But what I am looking for are the students’ individual opinions of the schools who have completed the pet massage program, with maybe some good and some bad. Or an expert who has looked over several schools and their programs and has the knowledge to compare them to one another.

Without being able to physically visit the schools myself it is very hard to tell which one would be right. I was hoping that perhaps you have some knowledge of this or maybe you have connections to people who have completed pet massage courses at a variety of schools and can give you their opinions. If you could post this information on your website it would be so helpful. Not only for me but for others trying to weigh their options.

Right now I am leaning towards Pet Massage LTD in Toledo, OH but because I haven’t seen any honest, straightforward opinions of any pet massage schools, I am still undecided and unsure. I would greatly appreciate any help. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lisa

My answer:
Hi Lisa!
You’re absolutely right, it is very difficult to decide which school to choose, especially as more and more of these courses are popping up everywhere. Did you see my post comparing massage programs? It gives you a brief overview of the more comprehensive programs offered.

My advice would be to select a program at an accredited massage therapy school that is at least 200 hours total, and includes plenty of hands-on instruction. 200 hours is the minimum required to be able to take the NBCAAM exam, which I absolutely recommend for everybody who wants to practice animal massage or acupressure for a living. The laws about animal massage are very much up in the air in almost every state, but if you have a solid training and the NBCAAM certification, you are in a much better position if/when they do change.

I would also check each school’s website and contact their graduates and ask what they thought of the program(s). If there are none listed, I would call or email the school and ask for contact info. If they are not willing to give that to you, I’d pass on that school.

How well the schools prepare you to start your own business is a very good question. I think most focus the majority of the instruction on bodywork, and some have basic business classes. If I were to design the business part of one of these programs, I would make the students start on a business plan at the beginning of the program and have them work on it throughout the entire education, perhaps with weekly check-in sessions that would allow for idea-swapping and reality checking. I think many people who go into this don’t think enough about the business side of things until they have to (myself included!).

One thing I found out recently is that many colleges have Small Business Development Centers, where they help you with all aspects of starting a business. Some also have workshops and classes, so that’s another option if you find a massage program you love but feel is lacking on the business side of things.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Best
Cattie

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NBCAAM – The First National Certification For Animal Massage And Acupressure Practitioners

cattie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:49:16 +0000

The National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure and Massage (NBCAAM) was established in 2008 and is the first organization of its kind in the US. The initiative to create a national accreditation for animal massage and acupuncture was taken by Amy Snow and Nancy Zidonis (founders of Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute) in 2007. After partnering with Hocking College and putting together a team of other experts in their respective fields (instructors, practitioners, and veterinarians), they went to work to develop core competencies and a scope of practice for each field. The NBCAAM examination was launched in the spring of 2008.

The certification was created to set professional standards in these fields, to help make animal acupressure and massage more “officially accepted” careers, and to help practitioners gain credibility with both the public and other animal health professionals. We all know that animal massage and acupressure are wonderful healing modalities and perfectly valid careers of course, but many pet owners are still under the impression that these are extravagant (and unnecessary) treats for overly spoiled pets.

Hocking College (accredited by the North Central Association of colleges and known for their Equine Health Care & Complimentary Therapies associates degree programs) administers the examinations, but you don’t have to travel to the school’s campus in Ohio to take them – there are proctoring sites all over the US (and a few in Canada as well). The only thing you need to take one of these exams is a transcript or diploma from the acupressure/massage school you attended and $145. And of course, knowledge. A minimum of 200 hours of training is required, and you can combine the hours from different schools, though 50 hands-on hours have to be from supervised classes. Practitioners in other countries are also welcome to take these exams, but you have to travel to the US or Canada and take them at one of the proctoring sites.

There are four different examinations: Equine Acupressure, Equine Massage, Canine Acupressure and Canine Massage, and taking any of these exams is totally voluntary. It is not required by any state in the US in order to practice the modality in question, but you and your business will benefit from having the certification. You will stand out as a practitioner with exemplary credentials and a solid education who takes your career seriously.

I asked Karen Shaw, one of the four practitioners who have been certified so far, why she decided to take the test, and she said “I decided to take the exam because in this day and age the more certified you can get the better. In my opinion, people want that. If they were choosing between someone who has certification and someone who doesn’t, there is more of a chance they would choose the higher level of certification person. Especially if that person has continued to deepen their skills and knowledge and is more than just “book read”. Also, having this certification adds to the qualifications and courage it takes to market myself in the world.”

Passing the exam will give you a certificate, a one-year NBCAAM membership with a listing on their website (with a reciprocal hotlink), and a membership card. The NBCAAM website is constantly evolving, and future benefits will also include a directory of certified practitioners, training listings, study guides, NBCAAM approved schools and learning materials.

I think creating this certification was a great idea. I hope it will help establish animal massage and acupressure as valid healing modalities with both veterinarians and the general public, and make people aware of the fact that acupressure and massage for animals not only exist, but are powerful, non-invasive tools that can help their pets feel better.

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Animal Massage Guide Guest Post Series: Tallgrass Animal Acupressure

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:07:21 +0000

Today’s guest post comes to us from Amy Snow, founder (along with Nancy Zidonis) of Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute and co-author of Equine Acupressure: A Working Manual, The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide to Canine Acupressure and, Acu-Cat: A Guide to Feline Acupressure.

Amy is also the lead instructor for Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute Practitioner Certification Training Program, and one of the Co-Chairs of NBCAAM (I’ll be writing more about both The Well-Connected Dog and NBCAAM later this spring).

Tallgrass is acknowledged world wide as the premier educator when it comes to animal acupressure, and Amy and Nancy are true leaders in their field. They travel all over the world to teach – check out the school lists for Canada, Australia, the UK and Europe as well as the Events & Workshops lists for upcoming dates in your area.

I am thrilled that they agreed to be featured on AMG, so without further ado:

Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute:
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Over 20 years ago, Nancy Zidonis and Marie Soderberg began Equine Acupressure. They were offering acupressure to dressage riders and one day a rider asked if they could work on her horse since he needed it as much as she did. This was the beginning of research, study and the development of their first to handbook on equine acupressure and later another on canine acupressure.

In 1998, Nancy Zidonis and Amy Snow joined forces with the intention of expanding Equine Acupressure and writing new books on equine, canine and feline acupressure. Within two years three books were written and published by Tallgrass Publishers, LLC, Nancy and Amy’s publishing company: Equine Acupressure: A Working Manual, The Well-Connected Dog: A Guide To Canine Acupressure and Acu-Cat: A Guide to Feline Acupressure. They went on to create new meridian charts and DVDs for horses, dogs, and which are now offered on their website: www.animalacupressure.com

The new books and articles in publications generated a lot of interest in animal acupressure. Nancy and Amy spent the next few years developing a comprehensive acupressure training program. Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Institute offers both online and hands-on courses worldwide. Participants begin with introductory courses and build their depth of knowledge moving through the 320 hour Practitioner Certification Program. This program delves deeply into Traditional Chinese Medicine and graduates are adept at utilizing eastern assessment tools, point selection, and the acupressure session protocol.

Rather than building a “brick and mortar” training facility, Amy and Nancy decided to invest in traveling to a geographically diverse market. Hands-on courses are offered throughout the United States, England, Australia, Canada, and Israel. There are Tallgrass Animal Acupressure Practitioners all over the world. Thankfully, animals are benefiting from this ancient healing modality and the pace of people joining in this life-long learning adventure is constantly increasing.

As the pioneers in the field of animal acupressure, Nancy and Amy felt a strong commitment to providing the most in depth education possible so that the Tallgrass practitioners would be recognized as skilled and knowledgeable. Both Nancy and Amy went to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) School and have built their training program on the Chinese model of acupressure/acupuncture, not on other forms of bodywork. They felt that going back to the basics to grasp the concepts underlying acupressure would yield a well educated practitioner. The 320-hour Tallgrass program is demanding, but all participants that become practitioners are grateful for truly understanding the work that they are performing.

It has taken years to develop the Tallgrass highly interactive program. From the first Introductory level courses through the advanced Acupoint Energetics and Landmark Anatomy, Tallgrass continuously strives to provide the highest level of education for our participants. As the demand for animal acupressure continues to increase, we continue to meet the needs by offering more advanced courses in Equine and Canine Pathology, Tui Na, Acupoint Combinations and other courses in the development stages.

The Tallgrass instructors in the US, Australia, and England are actively involved in continuous education by attending TCM schools or working directly with TCM Doctors. Our instructors all need to have a teaching background as well. Furthermore, we require that all instructors are fully trained by spending a year assisting in courses, participating in a training program for instructors. Once they have attended the Instructor Training course, they spend the following year serving as an instructor-in-training to be able to teach the introductory hands-on course and then another year to be able to teach the intermediate courses. It is a rigorous program, but there is so much to learn, and we would not be serving our participants nor the animals if we did not provide a firm grounding in teaching and acupressure.

The future calls for continuous learning tools, expansion of courses, and new instructors worldwide. The founders of Tallgrass, Amy and Nancy, look forward to seeing their legacy in offering health through acupressure for animals become the legacy of many people to come.

All of the Tallgrass courses are approved for Continuing Education (CE) by the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB). The online courses are approved for CEs by the United States Dressage Federation University. Additionally, Tallgrass is an approved Higher Education Vocational School by the State of Colorado Department of Education.

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