FAQs
If I am not already a Certified or Licensed massage therapist or in a massage training course, can I call myself a “Certified Prenatal Massage Therapist” upon completing this course?
To use the designation Certified Prenatal Massage Therapist, you would need to already have or be planning to have a license/certificate in massage through the state, province, or country where you practice through an accredited school. This is approximately 500 hrs of training for most schools in the US, more or less in other countries. This Touch From Within training is an adjunct to that: we are not offering a 500 hr program. If you are not a Certified/Licensed Massage Therapist, you can still complete the Touch From Within course. You would then be able to market that you have (amazing, if I do say do myself) training in prenatal bodywork but not that you are a certified massage therapist through the state/country. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
Isn’t it better to learn bodywork and massage in person and not online?
For sure there are elements of massage guidance and interaction that are impossible to convey and assess in an online format. However it is amazing what actually IS possible to learn! And you have ongoing access to these materials as long as the course is active(and lifetime access to the DANCES prenatal massage video) that you can continually revisit and integrate. Once you complete the online course you are eligible to register for a 1:1 mentoring session (additional cost is $290 and is required for certification). This can be in-person if you are able to travel to the San Diego area, or we can do the session virtually so you can ask questions that are relevant to the unique way you plan to use this bodywork training.
Will I learn how to work with laboring and postpartum clients or only those who are pregnant?
While the main format for the training is focused on pregnancy, much of what is learned can be applied to laboring and postpartum people. We have specific learning modules for both Labor/Birth and Postpartum bodywork as well.
Can I take the course if I’m a student midwife, still in massage school, or a brand new doula?
YES this course is for any birth or bodyworker who wants to deepen and broaden their embodied learning of prenatal massage and bodywork.
What additional supplies will I need? What are the additional costs I can expect in addition to the initial course fee?
The Art of Receiving and Giving ($24)
Heart Centered Pregnancy Journal ($15)
Coaching Plain and Simple ($19)
Additional supplies can generally be gathered with items that you likely already have on hand (like cushions and sheets and oil)
Art and craft supplies of various forms for some of the lessons (yes crafts!) can be collected inexpensively.
Please contact me if you’d like an itemized list of the supplies.
In person or virtual 1:1 sessions are $290 if you are planning to certify, and $250 if you would like a session but do not plan to certify. They are either virtual or in person if local or able to travel to the San Diego area.
Are birthworkers and bodyworkers taking the course together? Shouldn’t birth workers get a massage therapy certification before they learn prenatal massage?
I believe that birthwork IS bodywork and it has been a mistake to separate them. Conversely, bodywork with pregnant clients is also automatically birthwork and I think practitioners benefit greatly from a more holistic birth framework and training (through the lens of Birthing From Within). Much of this course is about the inner work of the practitioner, and birth- and body-workers have so much to learn from each other! I see this course as an opportunity to go within and explore our personal beliefs about touch and birth, but also to build a broader and more diverse community of practitioners.
Individual participants will learn to discern what is and what isn’t within their scope of practice as the course progresses. The difference between “nourishing touch as pregnancy and birth care” and “ clinical therapeutic massage therapy” will at times be quite clear and at times be a “grey area.” Part of the course is exploring those powerful edges of scope and personal integrity.
There are many workshops out there that train, for example, doulas to do internal pelvis work, or to use acupressure points during labor. Does that make them physical therapists and acupressurists? No, but they can integrate these skills into their own embodied awareness of themselves, and even perhaps explore how the scope of their profession perhaps ought to change in some ways. I know many non-massage therapists doing scar tissue remediation and massage on Cesarean scars or full body prenatal and postpartum massage who are incredible, ethical practitioners.
Some birth professionals and trainers are attempting to define what is the practice of massage and what is not. I believe the more we try and categorize touch, I think the more ridiculous and rigid we become (and therefore the more shitty our touch feels). I’ve heard some say doulas should only do hand and feet massage/touch, and maybe the shoulders, but never the belly or torso or the legs. I’ve also heard that the moment you use oil or uncover an area of the body to access the skin directly that that then becomes the practice of massage. This segmenting of the body I think is frustrating for practitioners and confusing for clients.
I’ve been practicing prenatal massage for a while, would this course still be helpful for me?
This course is designed for both experienced and aspiring prenatal massage therapists (and massage students!) and birth workers. While some of the material will be a “review” on the surface, there is much new understanding unfolding within the realms of prenatal anatomy and nervous system responses that will be explored. Topics like Consent and Body Mechanics and Quality of Touch I believe should always be revisited by even very experienced practitioners. This ensures that these ideas do not become static and rote in our bodies, but alive and always on the edge of the unknown from where we can more powerfully work and model this for our clients.
You also have the option of a 1:1 mentoring session with me where we can practice and learn techniques relevant to your specific needs as a practitioner! Sessions are $290 if you are planning to certify, and $250 if you would like a session but do not plan to certify. They are either virtual or in person if local or able to travel to the San Diego area.
Please reach out to me directly (hello@jamiemossay.com) if you have further questions about Touch From Within!