Autumn 2004
Integrative Education
Most practitioners love what they do. How could one not love a job where you can help people reduce stress, improve their health, get in touch with themselves and feel better so quickly? What is often not talked about is the high percentage of graduates who fail to become successful in their careers. Many of these failures could be prevented if the students had been adequately trained in the nuts and bolts of business. Becoming a successful practitioner requires more than having technical skills. It also requires skills such as: building relationships; having a soothing and inspiring manner with clients; understanding how to develop and manage a business; developing awareness of and adhering to high standards of ethics and professionalism. In talking with people around the country, we have heard from numerous schools that if business is taught in the initial semesters of a program, the students are not very receptive and have little retention. The major focus is on teaching the foundation principles and basic techniques, and putting topics such as business and ethics into separate modules (if they are taught at all). With only cursory training in these areas, students are often unprepared to face "the real world" at graduation.
Most practitioners work for themselves and must know how to attract and maintain a client base. In a competitive world, mastering business is as equally important as mastering the nuance of touch. One way of preparing students adequately uses Integrative Education where discussions of business, boundaries, ethics and professionalism are part of the core curriculum. Many traditional subjects are taught linearly, step-by-step, with each block building upon the next. While this may be easier for the instructor, this is not the optimal method for learning. Learning is holographic; students grasp ideas in wholes (what the scientist Arthur Koestler called "holons"). Students are much more intelligent than we often give them credit for, capable of easily absorbing and assimilating complex chunks of material. Masterful teaching is symphonic, where a theme (with its sub-themes and supporting material) is introduced, and then the teaching shifts to another theme, and the original theme is re-introduced and re-played over again, adding new pieces each time, in subtle variations. When information is taught this way, students more easily put all the pieces together because they have been taught together.
Integrative Education is not only a more natural way of presenting information, it enhances students' abilities to assimilate, integrate and utilize these ideas in their practical applications. While it may require more of an effort initially, business and ethics can be integrated and woven into other classes, which enhances real learning. Ethical and professional issues, such as maintaining boundaries, building relationships and communication skills can be presented to students in all phases of their training as an integral part of regularly covered subject matter. Touching someone is not just a technical skill: it involves creating rapport, building a relationship, setting boundaries, developing sensitivity and creating a safe space. These issues are important and can be presented right from the beginning, and re-presented thematically again and again, rather than treating them as footnotes to technique.
Integrative teaching offers a richer learning experience for the student, and it can be more fun for the teacher as well. Having introduced major concepts and themes early on, instructors can creatively re-combine and re-emphasize these ideas in different ways, while adding new ideas, nuances and subtleties as each course progresses. Repetition and creating a web of learning experiences are two keys to successful teaching.
Please e-mail us with the methods you use to integrate business and ethics into your curriculum. We will post your suggestions on our website.
Classroom Caper
TOPIC: Integrative Education
Objective: Learners develop creative ideas for integrating business and ethics into the curriculum.
Preparation: Go through your school catalog and make a master list of the required courses. Copy this list onto a piece of flipchart paper or overhead transparency. Cut a copy of the master list into individual strips of paper (one course per strip). Prepare two handouts: a list of the major topics dealing with ethics and another for business topics.
Procedure: Discuss the concept of Integrative Education. Arrange the class into dyads or triads. Divide the course strips evenly among the groups. Give each group both handouts. Direct the learners to identify which of the ethics and business topics could pertain to each course. If time allows, have students create specific ways to teach those topics in the specific courses (e.g., role-plays, discussions, research projects). Each groups presents to the whole class.
Variation: Use only one topic list (business or ethics).
Discussion: How have these topics been presented in other courses? How do you see business relating to your other courses? How do you see ethics relating to your other courses? How has this activity changed the way you view your courses? What suggestions do you have for integrating ethics throughout the curriculum? What suggestions do you have for integrating business throughout the curriculum?
Teacher's Note: Assemble the suggestions and present them to the school curriculum coordinator or discuss them at your next faculty meeting.
Materials Required: Handouts, required course list on flip chart or transparency, course list strips.
Time Required: 60-180 minutes (depending upon the number of people in the class, the number of courses and the depth of responses desired).
Website Resources
Holons / Koestler
Integrative Education
E-mail Us Your Capers!
Please use the format:
- Topic
- Objective
- Procedure
- Discussion
- Materials Required
- Time Required
- Source
Send to: sma.info@sohnen-moe.com
"If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, educate people."
"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."
Rave Review
The Psychology of the Body
by Elliot Greene and Barbara Goodrich-Dunn
We are pleased to announce that we now carry The Psychology of the Body in our catalog. Filling a gap in the knowledge base of massage therapists, this timely book addresses topics of great interest to both therapists and students, for a topic which little information is currently available. Nearly every somatic educator, bodyworker or massage therapist eventually encounters a client who has an emotional release during a session. The Psychology of the Body explains what an emotional release is, what causes emotional release and how to respond to emotional release in a responsible and effective way.
This book is written for practitioners whose professional methods involve working with the body, but who are not psychotherapists. They discover ways for choosing methods and techniques that are both physically and psychologically suited for each client, and examine factors that may indicate when to refer to an outside counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist.
Highlights and Useful Features Include:
- Content written specifically for massage therapists and bodyworkers makes this book highly relevant.
- Reader-friendly format. Discussions of conceptual issues are expansive, but managed for efficient reading and understanding.
- Suggestions for applying concepts of practical issues through actual practice and self-directed exercises.
- Discussions of chronic tension patterns that have psychological bases, and how to treat them.
- Case Studies at the conclusion of each chapter bring to life the concepts and methods just discussed.
- Definitions and lists of resources in each chapter serve as a useful reference tool.
Practitioners who work with the body through touch and want to enhance their understanding of how to psychologically and emotionally support their clients will find The Psychology of the Body to be an essential resource.
Mission Statement
Teacher's Aide is a cooperative venture among all of us who teach business: a support system to make our job easier, more effective and fun. This newsletter is a forum for exchanging creative techniques on teaching business as well as a resource for exercises, handouts, quotes and tools for use in class. We welcome contributions, so please send them today.
Upcoming Workshops
| Jan 13-17 | AOBTA Conference
The Miyako Hotel, San Francisco, CA 856-782-1616 |
| Jan 13 | Council of Schools
(4-hr) Does Anyone Know You're There? (If your school is bursting with students this workshop isn't for you!) |
| Jan 14 | AOBTA
(3-hr) Marketing From Your Heart |
| Feb 25-26 | Annual Massage Therapy Symposium:
Northwestern Health Sciences University Bloomington, MN Dale Healey 800-888-4777 x348 |
| Apr 29- May 1 |
Body Mind Spirit
Santa Clara, CA 888-499-1600 |
| Apr 30 | (3-hr) The Ethics of Touch
(3-hr) Creative Teaching Techniques |
| May 1 | (3-hr) The Ethics of Touch |
YourWebPro
We have received wonderful reception to YourWebPro and everything this exciting new service has to offer. Help your students market themselves better by easily and inexpensively increasing their visibility on the internet.
- Go to the Sohnen-Moe website
- Click on "Build Your Own Website"
- Go to the link at the bottom of the page
- Begin creating a website (it only takes 30 minutes)
- Have fun!
10 Years!
Celebrating our 10th year of the Teacher's Aide Newsletter!!
We appreciate your loyal support. We have enjoyed aiding you for the past ten years.
Thank you, from all of us.
Seasonal Cheer Tips
- Hold an appreciation circle where each learner tells someone what they appreciate about that person. Start with a volunteer. Then the person chosen picks someone of their choice and shares. Continue the process as long as it is fun. End with a group hug.
- Organize a holiday bake exchange. Everyone (including the instructor) bakes three batches of their favorite goody and brings it in to class. Divide each person's goodies into the number of people attending. This way everyone gets an assortment of goodies to take home (and of course, nibble on a little bit during the class celebration). Make sure everyone brings tins, plastic bags or baskets to carry home their shared baked goods.
- Learners choose a "holiday spirit" good deed and complete them before the class breaks for the holiday. In an informal setting, possibly with background music and hot cider, the class shares their good deeds and how they felt these acts changed their views, made them feel or added to someone's joy.
- Gift exchange:
Each learner brings in a wrapped gift that costs no more than $10. The gifts should be non-gender based and must relate in some way to their future profession. Pass around a basket that has numbered slips of paper (with as many people as are in the class). The person with #1 gets to pick any present and unwraps it. The person with #2 has the choice of taking the present from #1 or getting an unopened one. If #2 takes the gift from #1 then #1 gets to choose another present. Then #3 gets to pick either a new present or any of the opened presents. This continues untill everyone receives a present. - Class concert:
Everyone brings in a percussion or small musical instrument such as a hand drum, bongo, flute, rain stick, tambourine, maraca, kazoo or triangle. (Note: the instructor should bring extra instruments in case some people forget.) Lay the instruments on a table. Each person takes an instrument and the group plays for two minutes. Then switch instruments and play for another two minutes. Continue these rounds several times. Audiotape it for later laughs.