Acupressure Institute:
Career Opportunities In Healing Touch
By Michael Reed Gach, PhD

After working seventeen years in the corporate world and raising two children as a single parent, Janet was burnt-out, exhausted, and suffered from backaches and occasional headaches. She was depressed from working in a corporate environment. Since western medicine was not helping her, Janet tried bodywork. Acupressure helped her tremendously and Janet decided to enroll in classes to explore bodywork more fully. To Janet's surprise, her healing experiences lead to a new, healthy career.

After two months of taking classes at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, she resolved her severe back problems and headaches. She was greatly impressed by the training and the healing she experienced and was excited to work in this field. Janet said, "I think the Acupressure Institute's program offers so much more than a massage therapy school — not that massage therapy training is not wonderful, it is — but not as comprehensive or holistic as acupressure and shiatsu."

Janet's training at the Acupressure Institute offered her rewarding career opportunities. She works in a chiropractor's office and offers bodywork at a day spa. Janet also works with older women who suffer from menopause and osteoporosis. She gives acupressure sessions to various people in recovery: a woman with cancer, a retired secretary in an alcohol recovery program, and a soccer player who had a knee replacement. Janet also participates in various women's retreats where she gives bodywork and leads yoga-stretching classes she learned at the Acupressure Institute, which combines yoga with acupressure.

Acupressure is an ancient healing art developed in Asia over 5,000 years ago using the power and sensitivity of the hand instead of needles. Effective in relieving stress, acupressure strengthens the immune system and promotes wellness for self-treatment and in preventive health care.

Acupressure uses the fingers to press key points to stimulate the body's natural self-curative abilities. When these points are pressed properly, muscular tension releases, increasing the circulation of blood and the body's life force to aid healing. Acupressure can relieve common ailments such as headaches, backache, pain, insomnia, nausea, carpel tunnel, and more.

Different kinds of acupressure are practiced, although the same points are used. Varying rhythms, pressures, and techniques create the various styles of acupressure and Asia bodywork such as Shiatsu, Thai Massage, Chinese Massage, Hawaiian Massage, Reflexology, and Reiki.

Over the last 20 years alternative medicine and complementary health care have flourished in the U.S. Along with this growth in public awareness, national certification for Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology has established the professional stature of these healing arts. Wider public acceptance of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology has also contributed to the greater recognition of Acupressure & Shiatsu Therapy.

The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), the organization that created the national certifications for Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology, now offers national certification for Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT). The Acupressure Institute provides training to prepare students to take the ABT Exam. This exam establishes national recognition of a practitioner's training, competency via testing, and makes ABT Certification the most powerful credential in the field of Asian Bodywork.

For massage therapists, Acupressure can be the next step to use the principles and techniques of these ancient healing arts in bodywork. When acupressure points are stimulated in massage, greater effectiveness results. Thus, Acupressure Therapy can further a massage therapist's professional growth. Massage Therapists can receive CEUs from the Acupressure Institute, approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork.

A recent graduate of the Acupressure Institute said, "I first learned acupressure while studying biology at UC Berkeley. A friend who was taking classes at the Acupressure Institute gave me a series of acupressure sessions that deeply relaxed me and changed my outlook. I have been on a path to become an allopathic physician for nearly my entire life, however it was not until I took classes at the Acupressure Institute that I began to feel like a healer. I am grateful the Acupressure Institute is making this healing art so accessible. In pursuing my life's dream, I will begin medical school at UCSF. I feel incredibly blessed, especially at this impressionable stage in my development as a physician, to have had exposure to this traditional approach of Chinese medicine."