The Massage Collegiate

625 8th Avenue Greeley Colorado

Volume 1 Issue 9

Academy of Natural Therapy Newsletter

Welcome to

The Beach
May 2011
Welcome to the beach
The picture on the front cover was no
accident; it really is a combination of dif-
ferent images that I think about when I
think of massage education. Right there
on the sand, is where I put my students.
Every decision I make I think to myself
how is this decision going to get my
students out there on that sandy beach.
I just returned from the ABMP confer-
ence for massage educators, this con-
ference surprisingly gave me enough
material to fill about a thousand news-
letters, and I am sure you will get sick of
me referencing it. The reason why we
went was to answer the question “are we
really alone?” The answer is complicated
but it is yes, unfortunately we are alone.
I was surprised to meet a lot of very nice
school administrators and they had a
lot of very good excuses why they have
shortened their programs and offering
less to their students, but at the end
of the day, all I can think of is: did their
student get to the sandy beach?
The best thing about meeting up with
your colleagues is that you have a
sympathetic ear to the difficulties of
your profession. It is nice to see so many
people who were as stressed out as I
was, and it interesting to hear that we all
had the same challenges. The difference
was how they reacted to the challenges.
For example, if one of
their students misses
a class, they would
deter that student by
charging a fee. If a
student was failing a
class, they would find
the student some
tutoring and charge
a fee. If the student
needed to retake a test, they would be
charged a fee. I understand where
decisions like this come from, I have 5
accountants that prepare different parts
of the books, and believe I should be
sure, except the” supposedly not so cool”
guy writing this article. I sat back in my
chair thinking about my student on the
James Mongan beach saying “I got my degree online.”
I love technology, I am so grateful for
this computer to write this rant on, how-
ever I don’t want to massage it.
James Mongan
charging the students a multitude of
fees to make financial gains, but, that’s
not what this profession is about and
undermines my values.
The worst part of my trip was undergo-
ing a two hour lecture about online
education. Everyone else loved this lec- Things not to
ture and was really sold on being able to
make money off of students from other run with
states and were not using their facilities
and parking. The entire lecture focused Scissors
on all the problems of trying to make an
online class equal to a real life campus
High heels
class. There were tremendous problems
with technology, cheating, and cost.
To me the answer was pretty obvious My grandmother
that online education was a terrible
idea, especially for massage for all Sulfuric acid
the apparent reasons that are going
through your head right now. To make
the argument even more dramatic, it is Your mouth
illegal in most states, non
transferable to anyone Hot coffee
and not recognized by
most employers. The
Bad ideas
person (salesman) giving
the talk then said to the
audience that they were Full stomach
going to be left behind,
that it was the way of the
Broken foot
future and they were going to miss out
on a lot of money. He might as well said
“and you won’t be cool”. A taco
Everyone was sold on the idea after he
said that, and gladly gave into peer pres-
 UPCOMING EVENTS
~Spring Has Sprung~ Shelly’s Thompson Valley High School
College/Career Fair, Loveland
Welcome back everyone, we hope Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
you had a restful spring break. If you
utilized this time to get your practicum
Community 8:00am-12:00pm

hours kudos to you! Humane Society

This time of year our thoughts turn to
May flowers and the renewal of the
beauty that our earth has to offer. The
birds are singing, the grass is greening,
the sun is shinning, oh so brightly and
everything is being revived. It is time
to revive ourselves as well. I don’t know
about you, but there is nothing more
refreshing then to be able take a walk
on a beautiful spring day and breathe
in all the beauty that nature offers to
our world.
Maybe this should be the time to
refresh our goals, dreams and expecta-
tions as well. Take some time to look
at where you are in this program and
where you wanted to be at this time. If
you are not meeting your own expec-
tations, possibly this is the time to set
new goals to achieve
Corner
those expectations. Our instructors,
mentors and staff are all here to help
you succeed. Please just ask for our
help. You are the reason we are all here,
so we thank you for giving us the op-
portunity to be a part of your success.
- Shelly
Chair Event, Evans
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Thursday, May 18th, 2011
1:00pm-3:00pm
New Vision Charter School
Teacher Appreciation, Loveland
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
10:00am-3:20pm
Windsor High School
Teacher Appreciation, Windsor
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
8:00am-3:10pm
Garden Square at Westlake
Chair Event, Greeley
Chair Event
Friday, May 13th, 2011
10:00am-1:00pm

Looking Forward
Welcome back students, I hope you all enjoyed your break. I bet you are all curious about and noticing
the many new staff members roaming around campus including myself. Let me introduce myself, my name
is Kirra Knox, I’m a Colorado native with experience in multiple professional disciplines and fields of work
which stems from my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I enjoy natu-
ral hot springs, hiking, snow shoeing, reading, farmers markets, and holistic health along with multitudes of
other hobbies.

I just recently arrived back to Colorado from a year abroad on the beautiful island of Guam. The climate has
certainly changed, at most times for the better. Family and a love for the outdoors have brought me back to
Colorado and I am excited to share my future time with the Academy of Natural Therapy community. Along
with travel to Guam, I have been lucky enough to travel to many other very exciting regions of the world
including Hawaii, Australia, and Japan.

I truly believe we have an exciting future ahead of us all and the Academy is just a head start to many amaz-
ing endeavors for you all. I am looking forwarding to getting to know each and every one of you. After all,
life is mostly an awesomely jumbled mess of experiences and never ending learning, which are just two of
the many things that you will gain from the Academy of Natural Therapy.

So some of you have stopped by my office already which is great, and I encourage all of you to stop by from
time to time to say hello as well as express any questions, comments, or concerns you may have. My door is
always open and I would appreciate the chance to learn more about all of you and if interested answer more
questions about myself and how the Academy of Natural Therapy can broaden your horizons and create a
better future for you in furthering your career as a registered massage therapist.

I can’t wait there are very exciting times ahead for us all; so please allow me to help make your experience at
the Academy of Natural Therapy an ultimate success.
- Kirra Knox, Director of Students
 Building Update
As I write this we are curently puting up
some trim that will cover the wood the
enitre length of the building. We have
just completed the 7th street side and
will start on the 8th avenue side this
thursday. The looks of this has been a
dramatic improvement covering up an
ugly detail.
for the 100th aniversery this year.
Happy birthday building!
Student
Council
Thanks students for taking part in
elections for this quarter. Sorry that the
students that where running did not get
a chance to come and meet everyone.
Student council is here for the students
we welcome any suggestions, ideas, and
thoughts. Some projected ideas are pos-
sibly a family study nigh; students can
bring families, food, and your books, so it
will be like a family study group. This will
save every one a night of cooking and
cleaning and give us a chance to study
and get to know every one.
Elections are in:
Vice president: Rachel Holgren,
Treasurer: Karina Saenz,
Secretary: Eddie Chavez.
Class Representatives: Laura Syring,
Brandi James, Andrea Young, Kristina
Karns, Kiani Shank.
Thank you to every one that signed up.
- Kelly Waters

We hope when this is

completed to put up EARLY HOT STONE MASSAGE
new signage for the
school. The sign will
be in gold letters
and should be a big
improvement over
the curent window
decal.

We are still working

on the bricks and
have completed two
courses. This portion
is alot harder than it
looks and is taking a
little time.

We have all the bricks

to complete the
enrence and look
forward to having a
prety building ready
 Financial Aid Corner
For those of you who have not
met me, I am your new Director of
Financial Aid. I am a 2008 gradu-
ate from the University of Northern
Colorado with a Bachelor’s De-
gree in Psychology and a minor in
Biological Sciences. I was born in
Manhattan, NY and lived in Bronx,
NY and Queens, NY, but moved to
Colorado when I was seven. I have
been dancing since I was three
years old and began singing from
the moment I spoke my first words.
I love trying new activities and have
recently started to appreciate all of
the outdoor activities that Colorado
has to offer. But most of my time is
spent as a mother to a wonderful
two-year old little girl who is the joy
in my life.
I am pleased to join the staff here
at the Academy and I look forward
to getting to know each of the stu-
dents, faculty and staff even better
than I already have. Based on the
short time I have experienced, I ap-
preciate the tight-knit group of indi-
viduals the Academy employs and
enrolls. This environment is one
that I enjoy coming to work for each
Academy Of Natural Therapy
day, especially the assignment I spe-
cialize in; to ensure student enroll-
ment by assisting with an affordable
tuition. Having a college education
is fundamental to a successful fu-
ture, along with hard work, dedica-
tion and passion for excellence. But
of course, we must all pay for that
achievement. Financial Aid is a
great resource to utilize toward this
accomplishment. Myself, and the
Student of The Month
Clara Santillion
Massage achievement award winner
rest of the staff are here to assist in
making this endeavor to be a Regis-
tered Massage Therapist a certainty. I
am currently working on outsourcing
several lending institutions that may
provide further financial aid, in the
form of grants, scholarships and loans
for current and prospective students.
By researching what other forms of
aid may be accessible to students;
this will potentially eliminate the gap
of tuition costs. Thus, the students
may fully enjoy their time here at the
Academy and focus on their studies
as opposed to their payments while
enrolled. Please see me anytime, as I
have an open door policy, regarding
financial aid questions, payments,
or anything at all really. I am here to
help in any way that I can. Thank you
for having me here at the Academy
and I look forward to watching our
students thrive with their professional
career.
Director of Financial Aid,
Tiffany Rodriguez
THE
POWER
IS IN
YOUR
HANDS
- Dorthy Mongan
Employee of The Month
Norma Perez
Number of Massages
The Front Desk
I hope everyone
enjoyed the break!
I want to start by welcoming Kirra and
Tiffany to our team. In the two weeks
they have been here, I have already
seen great improvements and look
forward to our growth together. I
would also like to welcome Jessica
Zamora and Brandi Notter to our staff,
as they will be the new Kinesiology
and Neuromuscular instructors. They
are both graduates of the Academy
and are ready to share their knowl-
edge and experience as Massage
Therapists with all of you. Another
unfamiliar face you might have seen
around the building is Christie Adams.
She is one of the new AAOS program
instructors. She currently teaches the
Business Writing class on Thursdays
and will begin teaching the Marketing
class on Tuesdays in August. As the
advanced program progresses you
might also see Van Wetzig, as he will
be the Clinical Management instructor
starting next month.
Please see me if you have not already
picked up your new books. Yes, they
are in Tiffany’s office, but the Financial
Aid person no longer is in charge of
that. I won’t be the go to person for
GAP payments/payment plans how-
ever. Tiffany will be helping you with
that now.
Final grade reports are completed and
ready to be picked up. Unfortunately,
this is something that has been over
looked the past few months but will
be done on a regular basis from here
on out. I will also be handing out a
mid-term report after mid-terms to
help you stay on track and/or get im-
mediate help with classes if needed.
If you have any questions please feel
free to stop by my desk.
Danielle
From The Clinic
It’s that time again, MENTORS NOTE
spring is here and so are our
new students in the clinic. Welcome back!
Student massage prices have I hope you all had a wonderful break.
changed to $30 no matter Some of you took advantage and got
what level! So you can start in- a lot of hours done while classes were
forming your clientele. We are out. You all are a level closer to gradu-
ating and you need to make sure you
also starting our spring clean- are on track to graduate. If you are not,
ing by beginning to refurbish please come see me so I can help. I al-
the outside of the building so ways can find things for you to do, and
there may be loud noises from people to trade with. Level 2 ,3, and 4
time to time. students, you must give 10 massages
to the general public in the Natural
Last but not least, laun- Therapy Health Center. If you have
dry always needs to be done. not, you need to get your schedules
It’s good to get caught up with in and start as soon as possible. Also,
the clinic is an excellent place to get
that if you are scheduled in the real world experience with real clients,
clinic and don’t have appoint- and you get hours for doing laundry
ments. Please try to do your or helping Sarah out with tasks. Level
share. Thank you for all your 4 students, you only have 10 weeks
hard work! You have been do- left! They are going to go by way faster
than you expect. You need to be do-
ing a great job! ing hours every week. Please come
see me to find out just how many per
weekyou need in order to finish by
Sarah - NTHC your graduation date. For some of you
it may be a bigger number than you
expect.
Remember, everyone needs to be

A.N.T The Academy of Natural Therapy

doing laundry every time you do a
massage. It is not fair for the same few
people to do everyone else's laundry.

WE (ANT)
Official Facebook Website
So please, respect your fellow class-
mates and clean up after yourselves.
There have also been some complaints

ARE about negativity in the student clinic,

again have respect for the students
doing massages and stay quiet put

Now
cellphones on silent, and remember
everyone can hear your conversations.
Come see me with any questions.

On
Thanks,
Kelly

FACEBOOK

Things to do and be involved with downtown
The Community
Free Live Music
Sat, May 7, 8:30pm – 10:30pm
Where: Kress Cinema & Lounge
Enjoy live music in the lounge every
Friday & Saturday night.
Mother's Day Skate
Sun, May 8, 12:30pm – 1:00pm
Where: Greeley Ice Hause
Preschool Storytime
Thu, May 12, 10:00am – 10:30am
Where: Lincoln Park Library
Farmer's Market
Sat, May 14, 7:30am – 12:00pm
Where: Union Pacific Depot, 902 7th
Free Live Music
Fri, May 20, 8:30pm – 10:30pm
Where: Kress Cinema & Lounge
Language Cafe
Sat, May 21, 2pm – 3pm
Where: Lincoln Park Library
Farmer's Market
Sat, May 21, 7:30am – 12:00pm
Where: Union Pacific Depot, 902 7th Ave
Skill Builders Watercolor Painting
Mon, May 16, 3pm – 5pm
Where: Showcase Art Center Wii Rock
Preschool Storytime
Thu, May 19, 10:00am – 10:30am
Where: Lincoln Park Library
Free Live Music
Sat, May 27, 8:30pm – 10:30pm
Where: Kress Cinema & Lounge
Enjoy live music in the lounge every
Friday & Saturday night. No cover
charge!
Farmer's Market
Sat, May , 7:30am – 12:00pm
Where: Union Pacific Depot, 902 7th
Cosmic Skating
Sat, May 28, 7:15pm – 8:45pm
Where: Greeley Ice Hause
MASSAGE
NEWS
ABMP estimates 293,531 trained therapists
provide massage and bodywork in the
United States.
Consumers in 2009 had a positive response
to a massage, with 80 percent reporting
favorable feelings about their most recent
experience.
Research has shown massage reduces carpal
tunnel syndrome symptoms. The Journal of
Bodywork and Movement Therapies.
Premature infant massage in the NICU was
reported in Neonatal Network to be effective
in increasing weight gain, improving devel-
opmental scores, shortening hospital stays
and improving parent-baby bonding.
Forty-eight percent of respondents to a
consumer Reports survey rated massage
therapy as “very helpful” in relieving back
pain. The survey revealed pain relief was a
top motivator for those seeking massage.
Touch may help alleviate symptoms of de-
pression according to the American Journal
of Psychiatry. Researchers suggested the
release of oxytocin and relaxing aspects of
massage help improve this condition.
A study in the Journal of Clinical Nursing
indicates weekly hand and foot massage is
helpful to the bereaved in resolving grief.
A recent study published in Depression
and Anxiety showed patients halved their
anxiety symptoms and stress after a series of
10 massages.
There are as many as 250 known types
of massage and bodywork, with new mas-
sage modalities emerging every year.
Spas employ an estimated 303,700
people in the United States
www.natural-therapy.com
970-352-1181