The Educated Heart: Professional Boundaries for Massage Therapists, Bodyworkers and Movement Teachers

The Educated Heart captures the essence of optimizing tableside manner and conduct and should be required reading for every novice and veteran massage/bodyworker. It has the potential to upgrade the professional image of all manual practitioners. Immensely readable and engaging, it covers every aspect of client-practitioner interaction. An indispensable source for all of my teaching. Mark W. Dixon, NCTMB, HHP Newport Beach CA

I tell everyone to read this book. Especially massage therapist I coach. With all the drama's of life not every situation can be preconcieved and given an alternate in how to resolove situtations but this book gives you more than enough to understand and turn things around. Even my cleints who aren't in the field of bodywork asks for this book to be in my waiting room.The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

This is a must read, no matter what level a practitioner is at- student, beginner, or, like me, in the field for over a dozen years. A wonderfully, sensitively written book about relationship dynamics in touch therapies, from someone who truly has walked the path we are all going to walk if we are involved in touch therapies, manual therapies, bodywork, massage. I was fortunate to have some of this type of training , in a very good way, when in schools, but I know very well that it is rare, and getting more rare for schools to provide these important insights. I know this because I teach the graduates of those schools, and sometimes receive work from those graduates. This, to me, is much more important than simply reading about "ethics", because a deeper understanding of relationship dynamics truly helps us form and understand our ethics in the first place. This is must-have insight for all schools to delve into,and provide ample training in- including the medical profession! If your work involves touch in a therapeutic way, read this book! 5 stars for this contribution to the field!

When I tell people that I'm a massage student, the predictable response is: "Think of me if you need anyone to practice on...". As I observe my desk piled high with books and search my schedule in vain for a free hour to massage my husband, this seems like the dumbest/most insensitive thing anyone could possibly say to me.The Educated Heart deals with issues such as these: of boundaries as a massage student and how to approach people that are reluctant to pay the full price for massage therapy. In fact, this easy-to-read book is packed with insights and simple explanations of complex concepts (e.g. dual relationships, projection). If I had just one book in my massage collection, it would be this. I recommend it be required reading in every massage school.

At last, a professional wrote ethical guidelines for bodyworkers. Her sense of humor, candid stories and writing style add to the author's invaluable advise to practioners who "touch" many, many people everyday. Thank you, Nina!