Skip to main content

Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

Palo-Santo-Candles

The Gentle Healing School of Massage Sets Student Up for Success

by Lauressa Nelson

The Gentle Healing School is a dedicated massage therapy school, accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) and directed by its founder, Donda Sternberg, who started the school in 1996 and has been a licensed, practicing massage therapist since 1987. The school operates from a 5,500 square-foot building, designed specifically to function as a massage school yet to match the look and feel of Sternberg’s Gentle Healing Wellness Spa, housed in an 1853 Queen Anne Victorian farmhouse on the same property.

Gentle Healing School offers 600-hour and 1,000-hour educational training courses in massage. The teaching approach is hands-on and presents the anatomical and physiological knowledge from Western science, as well as the respect for energy and the mind-body-spirit connection drawn from Easter philosophies.

In addition to a solid educational foundation, Sternberg stresses that massage therapy is not just a job, but also a way of life, and encourages students to develop themselves personally. All classes begin with a meditation to help students focus their energy and incorporate it into their healing practice. Sternberg meets with every student at least twice during the course of the program and maintains an open-door policy for students to see her anytime.

The program promises student contact with at least seven different instructors, which exposes them to a variety of knowledge, skills and modalities. Program instructors have between 8 and 25 years of experience, and many own businesses that specialize in the modality they teach, bringing real-world knowledge to the classroom.

For schools to measure success and requalify for accreditation each year, a number of quantitative statistics are compared. Gentle Healing is required to quantify its success annually in terms of the school’s completion rate (percentage of students that graduate of the total that started). For 2012, Gentle Healing School had a 100 percent completion rate. Also, 100 percent of Gentle Healing School students that elected to take the national massage therapist certification exam passed, compared to the average pass rate for New Jersey, coming in at just over 59 percent. In 2011, out of the more than 800 institutions accredited by the ACCSC, Gentle Healing School for Massage Therapy was one of only 13 to receive the association’s School of Excellence award.

Gentle Healing School of Massage participates with numerous professional organizations including the New Jersey Department of Education, American Massage Therapy Association, Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, and the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork.

Location: 1274 South River at Cranbury Rd., Cranbury. For more information, call 609-409-2700 or visit GentleHealingSchool.com.

Lauressa Nelson is a contributing editor for Natural Awakenings magazines across the country. She lives in Florida. Connect at [email protected]

Community Business Profile
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

Upcoming Events Near You
Follow Us On Facebook