New School of Massage in London

‘Bodyology’ is the new massage and body therapy school in London run by Vicky Gaughan, massage therapist, and Dror Steiner, osteopath and naturopath. The school offers a Professional Massage Diploma course for beginners, Hot Stone Therapy and graduate courses aimed at qualified therapists wanting to increase their expertise in treating muscular dysfunction.

Both Vicky and Dror are very experienced practitioners and teachers in their own fields. Vicky Gaughan is a massage therapist and trained in body psychotherapy. She has worked with cancer patients in the NHS and combines body and mind therapy with all clients. With experience of over two decades, Vicky is highly respected in the world of massage and has been chair of the Massage Training Institute (MTI) since 2006.

In addition to osteopathy, naturopathy and acupuncture, Dror Steiner has studied many forms of massage including Swedish, Holistic, Remedial, Sports massage, Hot Stone therapy, Shiatsu and Reiki. Dror started his career as a professional dancer and has been fascinated by the body since then.

Given their different backgrounds, experiences and skills, Vicky and Dror are able to offer a unique opportunity to learn massage and develop massage skills through the quality of touch, rather than routines of massage strokes.

We asked Dror, what is ‘Bodyology’?  How does the course differ from other massage courses?

“’Bodyology’? It’s the study of the body, like biology is study of life” he exclaims. “My wife came up with the name! The students have started calling themselves ‘Bodyologists!.’”

Dror explained how in the UK “a lot of massage students finish the course but not a lot of them will go on to have a career.” He believes this is because most courses fail to prepare students for working as self employed therapists, and the courses are aimed at too low a level of detail.

“In Bodyology we do things differently”. For example, Bodyology students are required to give presentations to fellow students as well as completing a voluntary ‘placement’ with a local business. Students have to convince a local business to let them massage their employees for free to get them used to being practitioners and having to market their services.

“The school is not only about teaching, but also creating a community of graduates. For example, we have the Student Zone, an internet based chat room, forum, lesson, quizzes and library of case reports, which is available to all students at all times, even post graduation.” ‘Bodyologists’ have access to advice from their tutors and fellow practitioners all the time via the internet.

Vicky and Dror started the massage school after being surprised by the poor level of teaching in the UK. “In Canada, the course requires at least 1500 teaching hours before you can qualify as a massage therapist. In the UK, the requirement is only 160 hours”. “I believe massage is underrated in the UK and fully believe that a lot of manual therapy (osteopathy, physiotherapy etc) is drawn from massage.”

“We wanted to start a school which teaches students to learn massage through understanding what they are doing and not by performing massage routines. We started the ‘Student Zone’ because the contact hours are low (UK standard) and with the Student Zone we could increase the teaching time without additional costs for the students.”

Dror has taught many students over the years including fellow osteopaths, and physiotherapists. “Physiotherapists are really liking the course in hot stone massage since the stones work really well when combined with other soft tissue techniques” says Dror.

The next courses start in April 2008 in West Hampstead, London. The courses are accredited by the Massage Training Institute www.massagetraining.co.uk, one of the leading bodies for massage in the UK.

For more information on the courses available, go to www.bodyology.org.uk.

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Tags : acupuncture, dance, hot stone massage, muscular, nhs, physiotherapist, shiatsu, soft tissue, sports massage, training

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