Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72195
W Add to that the challenge of e know the massage profession has changed drastically in the last 10 years, both in the number of people who utilize massage for health and relaxation purposes and the professional therapists who offer them that service. What has also changed is the number of U.S. massage programs to train those therapists, growing from 637 to 1,668 since 1998.1 " We believe this has led to a shortage of seasoned massage instructors," says Anne Williams, education program director at Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), with the subsequent result being an instructor pool spread desperately thin. teaching complex material to a vibrant group of students who have a variety of generational, cultural, social, and economic differences, and there are signifi cant educational obstacles at play. In an attempt to support and facilitate an often challenging teaching process for massage educators, ABMP partnered with Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) and developed a new teacher training manual that utilizes the experience and insight of 17 leaders in the massage profession. Released in August, Teaching Massage: Fundamental Principles in Adult Education for Massage Program Instructors helps educators identify their teaching style, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, understand their students' various styles of learning, fi nd ways to motivate students and manage classrooms, and design and present lessons. The 320-page textbook is accompanied by an online training program. Instructors who utilize the online program work through the textbook content with audio PowerPoint presentations, offl ine activities that help instructors bring new skills into the classroom, and quizzes to check comprehension. Instructors can earn 20 hours of continuing education credit while honing their teaching skills. Williams explained that massage instructors don't typically receive teacher training, but instead are content experts trained in how to massagetherapy.com—for you and your clients 67 Photography by Rick Giase