Over the past 10 years I have been hearing the same thing coming from a high profile school in London and that is, intensive courses dont work.
Over the past 15 years I have run or taught/assessed on courses in the following format, intensive (worked), evening (didnt work), one weekend a month (worked), every weekend (didnt work), one 5 week block per month (worked), so I think I am qualified enough to say that I have tried most formats, and know which have been successful and those which havent.
I seem to remember when I was at school/college/uni that I attended Monday to Friday:rolleyes:
Of course people are entitled to their opinions, but when those opinions are baseless, then how can they be valid? Just because one school has never run intensive courses how can they say they dont work? I suppose it does help to run weekday intensive courses when you have your own premises and dont have to rely on renting space in colleges which obviously becomes a problem in term time, but if that is the case, dont knock what you dont know:rolleyes:
People learn in different ways, some need short bursts, some need to take longer, a good teacher can adapt their teaching to accommodate different needs, and a good school can adapt their schedules to accommodate those differing needs too.
Lots of people say you need to go away and practice your skills, true, and my motto is practice practice practice, unfortunately though, if you dont have a tutor there, you dont know if you are doing it right or not, and if you arent, then on a month by month course, you do have to wait weeks to find that out.
So if you are looking at learning any therapies, dont always believe the hype about intensive courses not working, because with the right teachers and the right school, they do.
Hi ST
Like yourself, I've studied in different formats and quite easily go with what you have said. Sometimes I'm amazed at the posts on Hp by people who think they have some god given right to be a therapist with most incredibly weak qualifications. Then will argue to the teeth their selfish attitudes. Reading between the lines, some are just naive and some are plain bonkers! The same mentality you often see in the X-Factor, lol :p
As a practitioner of many different styles of bodywork, a comprehensive systematically constructed course with a deep underpinning theory and attitude (ie Western A&P or Traditional Chinese Med etc etc) provides the best results. But a short course can never provide this. There is no time in digesting the skills and knowledge necessary to provide a good quality treatment.
Some people will get on with an intensive course as they may have talent. But in my experience in this industry, palpation skills for most students need to be developed. We all have different sensitivities when it comes to touch, and a few unfortunately don't have the necessary kinesthetic(sp) touch to practice. This is where regular tuition/assessment is necessary, and like many other pursuits in life it does come down to the regularity of practice. If this can be achieved by intensive study, then I don't see it as a problem.
Best wishes
RP
Hi RP,
Totally agree about palpation, it does take intuition and lots of practice, which I don't think any course gives you. We can show the 'technical' side of it, but to hone the sensitivities in your fingers, knuckles, elbows and even feet in some cases takes time.
I remember when I was pretty newly qualified thinking how good I was, then a physio I was shadowing asked me to feel a micro tear in a muscle, and I couldn't, I was actually devastated lol.
I also think though, and Ive said it time and again, you can't teach people how to massage properly if they aren't intuitive. They can go through the process, and it may feel ok, but a massage from an intuitive therapist can't be beaten
Do agree with you ST. Prehaps there is a greater need for some apprenticeship style training to hone those all important skills. Don't though ask me how that can be done. You are in a must better position than I am to develop such an idea, lol.
Cheers
RP
Do agree with you ST. Prehaps there is a greater need for some apprenticeship style training to hone those all important skills. Don't though ask me how that can be done. You are in a must better position than I am to develop such an idea, lol.
Cheers
RP
You are right, and I did actually used to run apprenticeships and got some good therapists out of it, who went on to do pretty good stuff. Haven't really thought about it for a while, so maybe it's something to look into again 😀