Villegas says a friend kept urging her to go to massage school because she helped relieve the pain he had from kidney stones. Villegas has just taken her turn on the massage table - eyes closed and body relaxed - while students Maria Corral and Cara Vigil get instruction from Lynne Ross, massage program chairwoman and instructor.
Since I'm right here Villegas' shoulders , I'll do some work on the pecs. I like to finish up with a little rocking. Everybody's talking - the neck to the shoulders, the shoulders to the arms; everything's starting to communicate. But she's really excited about the information-technology devices - including a camera and three screens - being installed and their possible teaching applications.
We can broadcast to off-site locations. We can address all kinds of learners - visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile. They get to touch them and see them. When I was in massage school, there were seven of us crowded around one skeleton. Ross says it's good to be in the new building.
The massage program formerly was allotted space in the medical arts and technology building on campus. The program is three semesters long. Students must complete prerequisites that include medical terminology, human anatomy and physiology, and the ethics of touch, and during the program they learn basic massage, clinical massage, acupressure, reflexology and other techniques, as well as business practices.
They earn a certificate for the credit-hour program and they complete contact-hours of massage and body work, which is considerably more than what's required for registration with the State of Colorado and to take the national certification exam.
