Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of my answers to questions that I’ve received from prospective students of the course.
I’m also available to personally answer any questions you have about the course. Call me direct on (+61) (0)412 212 208. If I’m not in, simply leave me a detailed message and I will call you back as fast as I can.
Q. I’m afraid that most courses these days are so technical and detailed, requiring me to totally change the approach I’m used to. I’m looking for something that is
- Simple
- Effective
- Can works both as a stand alone therapy or
- Integrated with the techniques I already know.
A. I would definitely describe SLM Bodywork as simple and effective. in fact, I often do.
I’ve used SLM as a “stand alone” therapy since 1988 and it provides me with the tools I need to fix 90+% of the cases that I see.
I’ve come across most pain scenarios in that time, including many that have not responded to the conventional treatments available, but responded very well to the SLM approach. Even if there is another therapy method that could match the results you get with SLM Bodywork, I doubt it would produce the results as quickly.
Q. I am looking not to spend a fortune because you can imagine how much all my training has cost. I am also buying into a Chiropractic business at 50% of my wages, and that is not including the massage school I went to.
I am also currently looking at Myokinesthetic therapy and electro-therapeutic point stimulation (ETPS).
I watched the short blip of a video on your web site but honestly, I did not get a good idea of what the technique is about.
A. My initial training course would work out at under AUD$2000, which when put into perspective is less than a week’s wages for a busy therapist. That’s exactly what you’d be once you start using the techniques and knowledge in this course.
The ongoing training program should not be an issue in six months because you should be generating good money every week by then.
I have taken your advice and have now added a 2 minute video clip to the site to hopefully provide a better idea of what is contained in the training program.
Q. All the information I have received so far doesn’t give me an idea of how this work would be different from what I am all ready doing. What principles and mechanics are behind the technique? Why might I want to do this technique versus the others I have studied?
A. I think the best way for you to understand the theory and logic behind SLM would be for you to download and read a copy of How To Treat Pain Using Massage and Bodywork. Go to www.learnmassage.com.au/free-e-books/ to grab a free e-copy.
One thing I will say is that SLM has substantially different from every other type of therapy that I have seen. One way our approach is different is that we believe that pain at any point in the body, such as the knee, shoulder or back is usually the result of pressure that builds up from muscle imbalances in the rest of the body, rather than from what is going on at the actual point of the pain itself.
Another difference is that using this method we can thoroughly work on the full body in one 60 to 80 minute session, providing a very noticeable improvement with each treatment.
Besides removing the patient’s pain, the general well being generated by the treatment is enough to get people coming back regularly for maintenance, especially athletes and active people.
Q. I have had Bowen therapy done but was not impressed (although mildly relaxed) and they make great claims for their therapy from A-to Z! How do I know you’re not making similar claims without being able to back them up?
A. I haven’t had Bowen therapy so i cannot comment with authority but to be fair the results would differ depending on the particular practitioner. That would apply to any therapy. I know with my course I will teach you everything you need to know to become a master therapist, but I can’t guarantee you will get my message and act on it.
I appreciate it is difficult for people to believe all the claims made these days because everyone seems to make them and often you are disappointed when you buy.
There are two ways that I can demonstrate my claims to you. One way is for you to take a look at all the testimonials from patients and students of SLM Bodywork on the site. (Many of my patients are even world champion athletes.)
The other way is to enroll in the course on a “trial basis” only. The course comes with a full 60-day money-back guarantee because I know that if people take the time to really look at it and start using some of the techniques, they will see that my claims are well-founded.
Q. In my practice I am just as likely to see a overweight, fibromaylgic 50-year old woman in pain as an elite athlete! I feel that in order for me to be as financially successful as I would like to be, I need an additional effective technique to bridge the gap between these extremes and provide a treatment that works in my eclectic mix!
A. The beauty of this treatment is that you only have to adjust the pressure and detail depending on the patient you are treating from 2 yr olds to 92 year olds, from the fragile to the strong.
Even if a condition is not entirely fixable, you can provide patients with enough long term relief that they will want to come back for maintenance treatments.
Q. I am currently looking for another bodywork technique to learn. I allready have learned Structural integration, Tui Na, British Sports therapy, and am an Applied Kinesiologist(muscle testing). From your viewpoint, what are the strengths of SLM. What are the weaknesses? Why would I want to take this vs.other structural forms of bodywork. Is this like any other bodywork system you have used? And finally do they cover things like the biomechanics of an S.I. joint dysfunction?.
A. I will try and give you a simple answer so that you get a feel for the processes we follow when performing an SLM treatment. You can then decide whether it is something that interests you or is not the direction you are looking for.
The first point I would make about SLM is that is a very simplified way of looking at the body and treating pain.
It is a strong, direct, hands on therapy that treats the whole body in each session with a focus on restoring length and function to muscles to bring balance back into the body both on a physical and energetic level. We give a lot of attention to the ‘treatability’ of the body, meaning working with diet and exercise to ensure the body responds quickly to the stimulus applied through the unique massage and acupressure techniques.
We stimulate flaccid muscles through remote pressure points and nerve lines.
We release deep contractions through strong deep strokes and we work the full body each treatment because if you don’t, the untreated areas rebound back on the treated areas and nullify most of the changes you make in between treatments.
SLM treats most all pains and injuries within the system and doesn’t require other forms of bodywork to make it work. For things like an SI joint dysfunction we would just correct the twist or tilt in the pelvis (by working on the whole body but especially the legs), balance the leg length and strengthen the area in a balanced position and there would be no more SI joint dysfunction. SLM contains all the techniques needed to be able to do that.
That’s what I mean about a strong, simple and straight forward approach. A blind man could do the job as easily as a seeing person by feeling their way around the body and remoulding the muscles as they work through stimulation and releasing techniques.
The downside of SLM is probably that it is hard work, it is not recognised by governing bodies in the US and it requires the full time attention of the therapist for 1 hour each treatment. But to counter that it is extremely well received by the paying public and provides enormous job satisfaction to the therapist who wants to really help people.
Q. I am concerned that doing lots of deep tissue bodywork, my thumbs and hands will develop long term problems. How do you cope with this?
A. Any deep tissue work is always hard on your hands – not so much the fingers with SLM but the thumbs definitely. In saying that, we also use the elbow and a broom handle to assist during treatment so as not to overuse the thumbs.
Over the years I have had problems crop up with my thumbs but that is due to doing 6 to 8 treatments a day, working them hard.
Since SLM is about fixing pain, there are ways of taking that thumb pain away and if you keep doing that each week, you find your thumbs get stronger and more durable the longer you are work.
After 17 years full time I get very few problems with my thumbs and when I do, I find that working on them and a day’s rest is all I need. If you fix them when they are sore, rather than ignoring them and pushing through the pain you find they stay healthy and don’t deteriorate over time.
The ongoing support I provide in the forum should ensure you can always get help if you are having problems with your own body.
Q. I wanted to know if your course touches on trigger point therapy, as I find this area of treatment most fascinating. I have read a bit of information regarding this type of treatment, and I am looking at doing a course this year. I am currently massaging part time and I see up to 20 clients a week.
I would like to massage full time before the end of this year. Most of my clients are deep tissue and sports massages. Does your course cover anything like this?
A. My course trains therapists to be more effective by giving them a fast and effective way of curing pain in the body. This includes chronic pain, which most modalities struggle with.
The techniques shown are mainly massage and acupressure because this is the best way of working on the whole body in a one hour session and achieving fast and lasting results.
However in saying that, you can still use the treatment method you are familiar with as the theory and logic behind SLM Bodywork applies to any modality.
Deep tissue and sports massage are incorporated into SLM Bodywork as the treatment aims to firstly identify problem muscles then restore length and function to them so they work the way they are suppose to. The aim of SLM is to put the whole body back into balance so it functions as it should, without pain.
Q. Does the course take 15 months to complete or can it be completed in less time?
A. You will finish receiving the course DVds in 15 months yes, but you will actually find that after 2 oe 3 months you will be competent in SLM if you apply yourself and get lots of practice.
Over the course of the 15 months you will continue to fine tune your skills and improve juat like with anything you practice. In fact year after year you will get better at reading the body and faster at getting results and of course everyone learns at a different pace so that comes into it as well.
The way to speed up your progress is by attending one of our intensive training conferences and making good use of the support forum and asking lots of questions.
Q. Is the monthly case study DVD via subscription (9 months or whatever) optional or compulsory?
A. They are compulsory if you wish to get your qualification as an SLM Therapist and stay on the directory for referral work and in the forum so you can ask questions anytime, but realistically you would not have to complete them if it was just the basic skills you were after.
The course builds on what you have already studied and there are no prerequisites. The truth is, you could become proficient at this work with no other training if you were happy to work without health fund accreditation.
It is based on logic and uses simple yet highly effective techniques that don’t really require a thorough knowledge of anatomy. You fix people more from what you see and feel in the body. The man who initially trained me John Guttenbeil had no other formal training and worked for 50 years without any problems and far surpassed what other therapists and doctors could do.
Q. Are there any prerequisites for the course e.g. anatomy & physiology, musculoskeletal anatomy etc?
A. Basically, no. The course is based on logic and uses simple, safe yet highly effective techniques that don’t require a thorough knowledge of anatomy. You fix people more from what you are taught to see and feel in the body.
After the full course has been completed (the initial training plus 9 monthly case studies), you will be given a certificate qualifying you as an SLM Therapist and at this stage there is no other assessment that you need to do for that, but that may change in the future.
Q. To be able to offer private health rebates, it seems that I need to be certified in remedial massage. Does your course cover this or do I need to find another course to do first?
A. I recommend that you add the remedial massage because another course is acceptable today might not be tomorrow. The Diploma in Remedial Massage is the most complete course you can do for the piece of paper the health funds and accredited associations wish to see so it will always be the benchmark for any rebates or certification in the industry.
Q. On the ATMS site it is mentioned that correspondence courses may not be accepted by the private health providers. It is a little vague but of critical importance to clear up!
A. I’m sure there would be no correspondence course that the health funds will give rebates for on its own. They all require lots of hours of face to face clinical supervision, amongst other things.
Basically you do an accredited remedial massage course for the paperwork and you do a course like mine to become an excellent therapist who can fix people in pain.
Getting through the remedial massage course is very easy and you meet some good people and have a bit of fun anyway.
Q. I am a little concerned that the course is fully distance education.
I have always believed that massage must be taught hands on as it is imperative to have correction of the minor errors in technique that can be picked up.
Not only that, but as each person is unique and there is a vast range of shapes and sizes, some techniques need to be adapted to each person. I understand that this can be taught at a distance, but can it be effectively mastered and would I then have confidence to practice the techniques if I haven’t been personally assessed?
I accept I may have misread the info and I am unclear on what the ongoing training would entail, but I hope you can clarify this for me.
A. You have made me realise I may not have explained the ongoing training sufficiently on the website page so I will fix that.
The ongoing training is a series of case studies that covers fixing different problems on different bodies.
One particular case is followed through from the first treatment through subsequent treatments. This effectively helps you to understand how to work with different conditions on different types of bodies.
On the other part of your question, SLM Bodywork is not only one of the fastest and most effective ways to treat pain, it is also one of the easiest to learn and understand. It doesn’t require a lot of detailed work on precise muscles. For this reason I am sure people will be able to pick it up perfectly well through the DVD’s and manual. In addition to that, you can do one or more of the intensive training conferences which gives you the oportunity to be trained by me face to face for 2 weeks. This definitely builds on your skills greatly but there are planty of people with no previous massage experience who have had no problem learning and becomming very good therapists from the DVDs and text book alone.
Mastering SLM bodywork takes practice and experience to build the necessary strength, control and sensitivity in your hands and to develop an intuition with the body.
Also, you need to understand the concepts and explanations from the manual so you can answer questions that a patient might have.
It all fits together so logically, so understanding the concepts and theory is being able to answer any question. None of those things can be passed on in a face to face class any better than on DVD and in the text. In fact, the DVD’s and text provide a resource that you can go back to any time to go over and refresh your memory.
If you still have any reservations, remember, that’s what the guarantee is for. If you get the program and you find it isn’t what you expected you can just return it for a full refund, no problem, no questions.
Q. I like the sound of your course and what it offers but I really can’t afford it. Is there any other cheaper way of learning this method.
A.
I don’t believe the knowledge and techniques I teach are available through any other course out there but I do have the Basic Massage Course available as a starting point. It doesn’t cover much on treating pain but does give you the basics well
I am disappointed to hear you can’t afford the course though especially knowing the boost it has given the businesses of the people who are now doing it.
You might consider that being able to quickly, effectively and confidently treat chronic pain will add a much needed service to your existing practice that will bring more work and enable you to be able to afford the things you want but can’t afford at the moment.
If you are working in an area that no other or few SLM therapists currently work you would find the referrals you get from my marketing will bring in much more income than what you pay for the training. For example one therapist told me recently he estimated he had earned at least $15,000 last year in extra income from the referrals he got from the web site directory. Not a bad return on training that cost him less than $2000.
Anyway that is why I provide a payment plan and two months trial on the program so by the time your two months is up you are already seeing the potential.
