Trainings
Our unique certificate program in seated massage and social responsibility focuses on developing skills to engage and empower homeless and marginally housed people through touch.
Upcoming Training: January – May 2012.
5-Month Certificate Program: Seated Massage Therapy, Social Responsibility and Spiritual Practice
The 180-hour training program consists of 6 modules over a 5 month period. Classes for each module are held over a weekend (Friday – Sunday). Between modules participants engage in a minimum of 10 hours of supervised service work in San Francisco, do assigned readings and reflect on their experiences through written field-site reflection reports. No previous massage experience is required.
- Students will be trained in:
- Seated Massage Therapy
- Advocacy and Empowerment Skills
- Wellness Education
- Spiritual Reflection on the Issues of Homelessness and Poverty
- Self-care Practices
Supervised work in the community is an essential part of the program.
CTI’s training in seated massage therapy is a practice of wise, skillful love and exquisite presence. In addition to focusing on the techniques of seated massage therapy and the intricacies of the human body, students use their practice sessions in the same way that Zen meditators use the practice of zazen to discipline their awareness into the finest of arts. Such refined awareness of self and the other constitutes a relationship pregnant with healing for both practitioner and recipient.
Through the development of awareness of the enormous injustices equated with the scourge of homelessness, combined with repeated encounters with homeless people through internship, the student’s armor that so often cloaks the heart is gradually worn away. Since attentiveness to the suffering of others is the core ethical principle of human life and fathoming the meaning of suffering is the core of all spiritual practice, these trainings are not for the weak hearted, but for those who feel called to embark on a humble, simple and profound spiritual quest with the poorest of the poor as one’s spiritual teachers.
Training Content and Dates
Classes are held on Saturdays, 9:30am – 5:30pm and Sundays, 10:00am – 4:00pm. For modules with a Friday evening class, we will meet from 5:00pm – 8:00pm.
January 14-15, 2011
Caring Through Touch: Examining Our Intentions; Introduction to Massage Therapy as Care Through Touch (Hand Massage); Introduction to Meditation
January 28-29, 2011
Getting to Know the Homeless Community; Neck/Shoulder Massage; Care Through Touch as Spiritual Practice
February 17-19, 2011
Compassionate Awareness – Health Care for Homeless People; Being GLBQ or T; Back/Arm Massage
March 16-18, 2011
Caring for Self While Caring for Others; Addiction and Mental Illness; Leg/foot Massage
April 20-22, 2011
Engaged Spirituality; Traumatic Life Experiences (Veterans of War, Victims of Domestic Violence, Incarceration and Re-Entry); Head/Face Massage; Massage with Seriously Ill People
May 11-13, 2011
Next Steps; Introduction to Reiki; Celebration
Tuition
Tuition for the training program is $900. This includes classes, materials, and community supervision. Payment plans are available.
For additional information or to register, call us at (415) 345-9265
or email caringtouchinst@aol.com
Opting for the poor is not a project or an assignment.
It is a call, a vocation, a way of life!
Is it yours?
Home | What We Do | Trainings