I’m Mary Adams and I’m the director at Body in Mind Massage Institute here in Toms River New Jersey. We hope that you and your family are all safe and healthy and well during this unprecedented Covid 19 pandemic.
We have a lot of people asking “Is it a good time to begin training to become a massage therapist?”
We hosted an open house last evening and we had a great discussion with several of our enrollees as well as several of our graduates who came back to help us with our open house. Two of whom are already working at spas. One is a spa attendant while he’s waiting for his license because you just graduated in July and the other who is working as a massage therapist.
One of the things that we got to have a conversation about was how well trained they are and have been from day one here in our training program to meet the current Covid-19 policies procedures and protocols.
Most people don’t know that massage therapy is really a medical profession and so the training to become a massage therapist begins with understanding universal precautions, best practices in sanitary and safe conditions and safety and well being with sanitation and cleanliness for both the massage therapist as well as client.
So from the beginning of our program and the beginning of most every massage therapy training program students should learn how to keep its spot clean. They should learn how to how to make sure that they are being safe from clients to might be presenting with symptoms that they might not even be aware of.
During this pandemic while we were teaching our classes via Zoom we were helping to develop the protocols and procedures the policies that we’re all putting into place now in the spa industry in the personal care services profession here in New Jersey and throughout the country as well. Our school is really on the cutting edge of putting those policies procedures and protocols together.
You can visit our our website where you’ll find our restart plan for Covid-19 policies which we had to submit to the Department of Education for the state of New Jersey in order to be approved to reopen on July 1st. Here you’ll find our complete and total documentation of how we are keeping the school clean, how we are disinfecting and preventing the spread of disease, you will learn all about disease control, infection control, physical distancing, cloth face coverings which are worn by all of us here including me while we teach, including each and every student when they come for training, including each and every client when they come for student clinics. We all are wearing face coverings that are protecting each and every one of us.
Cleanliness and disinfection practices are standard in our facility. Hand hygiene is standard in our facility. Education and Training about all of these policies and procedures is standard in our facility. Our ventilation is impeccable. We have doors that we open each and every day, several times a day, for fresh air and circulation. In addition to that each room has a HEPA quality air filter running at all times of the day.
We collaborate with health officials. If there is anyone that does present with any symptoms we do cooperate with the board of health and the state officials for contact tracing purposes.
There are special guidelines for labs and clinicals when we’re working together in the classroom where we make sure the distance for each set of students working together on the massage tables is separated by 6 feet. They are wearing that except when they are face down on the massage table.
When you arrive at school you must wait outside with the mask on until your temperature is taken by one of the supervisors or the teachers. That is noted with your attendance. If you leave at lunch time and go out to lunch which we highly encourage and have actually set up a tent outside our facility so that our students could take their lunch and their brakes outside. When you reenter the building your temperature is taken and the same thing for clients when they come for clinics. We take temperatures, we make sure everyone has masks on, and we have hand sanitizer in each and every room. The majority of the rooms here have contactless hand sanitizer machines.
We are taking all the necessary safety precautions that are being transferred to us by the CDC, by the National Institute of Health, by the Departments of education and the Department of Health of the state of New Jersey. We’re following all of those standards. So when you ask yourself “Is this a safe time for me to try to go through massage therapy training?” I say “Yes it is!”
When you’re working in a facility that follows all the best practices and is attempting to set the standards for how we should move forward in our profession, I think this is a safe place. I think this is a safe profession. I think now is a great time, especially if you are out of work or underemployed looking to fulfill your life’s purpose. If you are looking to answer the calling to be a healing artist, massage therapist. There’s no greater power than the healing power of touch. Now is a great time to come to massage school, despite covidity insanity.
We hope that you’ll investigate further and if this is your calling, we hope that you answer it. Have a blessed, beautiful and healthy day.