Andrew tells us about his massage courses and how they’ve changed his life….

Name: Andrew Reeves
Course: Holistic Massage and Sports Massage
Institution: St Mary’s University College

‘I studied two courses at St Mary’s University College in the summer of 2007: Holistic Massage and Sports Massage. Each was a fast-track course consisting of two or three intensive weeks spread over two months. I had quit my full-time job as a strategy consultant back in January 2007 to pursue other opportunities that I was interested in. I decided that the courses at St Mary’s would be perfect for me as I am a keen club runner and actually receive sports massages regularly to aid recovery. I am also starting to coach and it seemed a natural progression to have massage in my own repertoire.

College camaraderie
I really liked the idea of the fast-track courses where students can qualify relatively quickly and start practising new skills as soon as possible. The camaraderie amongst the students and between the students and the staff was excellent. We all thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and were being taught by first-class, experienced massage therapists (both our lecturers had their own massage businesses and had worked with professional rugby and football teams as the team therapist). We had to work hard with homework and regular tests but they made it a lot of fun.

In a typical day, mornings consisted of anatomy and physiology (A&P) lessons, while the afternoons were practical sessions. Here we would be taught the actual massage techniques and would then practise them on each other. This was probably the most fun – any sense of bashfulness some people had quickly fell by the wayside!

Starting a business
I now have a part-time massage practice with 20 clients, and I fit the massages around my other work commitments. Unexpectedly, a fellow student from the course, Alex Dean, came up with the idea of setting up a company to supply massage equipment to massage students and schools. So we set up MAXXImed Ltd. We partner massage schools, finding out from them exactly what they want their students to have. Students can purchase everything they need from our online shop. St Mary’s was our first partner college – they have been very supportive.
 
I am still planning for the future and I would like to take more specialist massage courses to improve my massage skills. MAXXImed is going from strength to strength and we are aiming to expand to even more colleges and schools of massage therapy. St Mary’s offered me great courses offering real practical skills that can be put to use immediately. To anyone thinking of taking a course – I would say go for it!’