Mindful Movement is Great for Everyone!

Mindful Movement is one of the Eight Limbs of Chinese Medicine and an essential component of health and wellbeing for everyone. At The Wellspring School for Healing Arts we enjoy being able to offer quality classes for the community that fall under the Mindful Movement umbrella, including both T’ai Chi Chuan and Qigong. Mindful movement helps synchronize your mind and body, keep you focused, in balance and healthier overall. The best part of Mindful Movement is that absolutely anyone can do it!

We also view these practices as indispensible components of our Amma Bodywork Therapy program and have incorporated 90 hours of T’ai Chi and Qigong classes into the overall curriculum. Giving students the opportunity to learn and practice mindful movement throughout the course of the program is a differentiator for their success as students as well as future practitioners. Our next Amma Bodywork Therapy program begins in February 2013! Click here to learn more about the program and to download your copy of the student handbook.

Check out a brief T’ai Chi demo in the below video given by lead Amma instructor, Michael Guida, BPS, LMT #19016. For more information and to register for any of our movement or meditation classes, click here.

Video: How Rylen got into Chinese Medicine – and what she still loves about it

Check out this video to get to know Rylen and The Wellspring School a little better, and to learn more about Amma Therapy.

If you have any comments, questions, or thoughts after listening to Rylen, we’d love to hear from you. You can email us at info@thewellspring.org, call (503) 688-1482, or stop by our beautiful new space in Northeast Portland.

Amma Bodywork Therapy – Portland Program Starts in October!

We are thrilled to launch our professional Amma Bodywork Therapy program in Portland on October 10, 2012. We would love for you to join us! If you have been considering a new career in wholistic health, Chinese medicine or bodywork, or if you are a practitioner looking to expand skills and offer more comprehensive care, read on for more information about Amma Bodywork Therapy and details about the program!

What is Amma Bodywork Therapy?

A classical Asian bodywork style that predates acupuncture, “Amma” is the oldest Chinese word to describe massage. Amma Bodywork Therapy is a specialized form of bodywork that combines deep, circular pressure and acu-point stimulation and utilizes Chinese Medicine principles for assessing and treating imbalances in the body’s energy system.

Why is Amma Bodywork Therapy so unique?

Amma Bodywork Therapy is more than massage.  Brought to the United States by Tina Sohn as Amma Therapy, it also includes Chinese Medicine theory and diagnostics as well as the in-depth study of channels and points used to maintain health and to relieve many chronic conditions. Amma Bodywork Therapy is an extensive, dynamic, and comprehensive form of wholistic healthcare that includes: training in a traditional Asian bodywork form, wholistic nutrition, herbs, supplements, meditation, tai chi, and qigong.

Why study Amma Bodywork Therapy at the Wellspring School?

We are the only school in the United States offering comprehensive training and professional certification in Amma Bodywork Therapy. The Wellspring School’s Amma program is led by senior practitioner Rylen Feeney.  Rylen studied with Tina and Dr. Sohn as well as Faye and Steve Schenkman and has been teaching Amma for 19 years. Honoring the principles of a lineage art, we strive to maintain Amma Bodywork Therapy in it’s purest form.

Our 1000+ hour program is taught over six 15-week segments and takes roughly 24 months to complete. Classes include: Asian Principles and Foundations, Asian Anatomy & Physiology, Food and the Treatment of Disharmony, Asian Clinical Assessment, Complimentary Techniques, and much more. You can find a full list here.

What do students say about the Amma program at the Wellspring School?

“Amma Therapy is a profound healing art.  The Wellspring is founded and run by committed individuals that live what they teach and will teach you to do the same.” Nathan M.

“I can honestly say becoming a student of The  Wellspring School was the best thing I have ever done for my health, happiness and personal growth.” Amy B.

What is the next step?

Contact us to  find out more about our Amma program.  We will also be hosting three upcoming open houses (see below). These are great opportunities to find out more about our programs and classes, meet instructors, past graduates and the school directors.

Tuesday, August 21st (214 SE 18th Ave.) 5:30pm-8:00pm

Tuesday, September 11th (call for location*) 5:30pm-8:00pm

Wednesday, September 12th (call for location*) 11:30am-1:00pm

Please also share this information with people in your personal and professional community who you think might benefit from our Amma program. You can email them the link to this blog post or give them our email address: info@thewellspring.org. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay current on upcoming classes and events.

*We will be moving in September from SE Portland to NE Portland (2440 MLK Jr. Blvd.) Stay tuned for more details.

Community Classes in Portland Start This Week!

We are very excited about launching our first series of community based self-care classes entitled Nurture Your Soul This Holiday Season & Beyond.  We are bringing together a number of Portland-based practitioners of various modalities and interests to offer a variety of low-cost community classes created to sustain the mind, body and soul through the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  Classes are a mix of meditation, self-massage, progressive relaxation, building the immune system and nourishing one’s whole self.  We are excited to bring a lot of great practitioners together and bring a healthy close to 2011. We hope everyone can take advantage of these!

All classes will be held at the Portland school location at 214 SE 18th Street, from 6-7PM unless otherwise noted . Advance registration is requested and payment due at beginning of each class.  You can call us at 503.688-1482 or register directly. 

A brief snapshot of each class is provided below and you can find additional information on our website. 

COMMUNITY CLASS SCHEDULE

NOVEMBER

9th: Progressive Relaxation & Guided Imagery w/ Rylen Feeney – $10.00

14th: Qigong Self-Massage w/ Jennie King LAc & LMT. $12.00

16th: Holiday Health Survival Guide: Renewing your energy and mood to thrive during the holiday season and beyond! w/Elise Schroeder ND. 6–7:30pm.  $25.00

21st: Pivotal points. Using ancient exercises learn how to rehabilitate our joints and keep them healthy w/ Sylas Navar, LMT, Tuina Practitioner.   $12.00

28th: Acupressure and Massage for Hand, Feet and Shoulders w/Jennie King & Rylen Feeney.  6 – 7:30pm.  $20.00

30th: Progressive Relaxation & Guided Imagery w/ Rylen Feeney – $10.00

DECEMBER

5th: Enhancing the Immune System Using Jin Shin Jyutsu (Japanese  Acupressure) w/ Patricia Blakeslee LAc, RN. 6:00-7:30p,. $25.00

7th: Exploring Your Breath & Managing Stress w/ Michael Guida. $10.00

12th: Fertility Awareness for natural birth control, achieving pregnancy, and reproductive healthw/ Leilani Wong Navar, certified Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner. 6 – 7:30pm. $25.00

14th: Progressive Relaxation & Guided Imagery w/ Rylen Feeney – $10.00

19th: Still Points. Exploring your center through movement & standing practices w/ Sylas Navar LMT, Tuina Practitioner. $10.00

Big News! All Future Wellspring School Amma Programs will be Offered in Portland!

For those of you who missed the announcement in last week’s newsletter, we thought we’d re-print the Director’s Letter for you. Lots of activity and changes at The Wellspring School! We want to make sure everyone is up to speed on what’s happening, because if you’ve been waiting to take a class or attend a clinic that is part of the Amma Program in Boise, now is most definitely the time!

This summer has been a whirlwind of activity for us at The Wellspring School in both Portland and Boise. Our Amma Therapy clinic is underway in both locations. In June we hosted all WSHA Amma students in Boise for a three-day intensive with Rylen (picture), and we have another one planned for August.  We held an evening event for the Wholistic Nutrition Program (WNP) students, past and present, featuring a lively panel discussion led by alum practitioners, Anne Woodhouse, Kim Rene, and Alisha Smith, in addition to Rylen and Rachael.  We are excited to welcome two new WNP instructors to Boise in the next couple of months. Jessie Hensley and Bari Mandelbaum will be teaching Daily Dose I (August) and Eat to Live I (September) class weekends respectively. Yes, we are busy!

Rylen and Rachael also met in Portland for a planning session to talk specifically about, “What’s Next for The Wellspring School?” We have been working diligently with the Oregon Department of Education to formally establish our school presence and program offerings in the state. We are hopefully approaching the home stretch in that process and once completed we will be publishing our 2012-2014 Portland programs and classes calendar. In conjunction with this process, we also still plan to launch the first Wholistic Nutrition Program in Portland this fall, pending final approval of the Oregon Department of Education.

With all of this underway comes a very big decision for us regarding the Amma Bodywork Therapy Program. Since its inception in 1995, The Wellspring School has matriculated over 100 students into the Amma Bodywork Therapy program in Boise. Very exciting! It is our goal to continue to fine tune this program as a whole as well as evolve components to provide a robust set of CEU/PDA offerings for existing practitioners and public attendees. To make this happen we have evaluated teaching resources, student interest, public demand and opportunities for positive growth. The end result is that we’ve decided not to offer the Amma program again in Boise. Instead we will focus our energies on the future development of this program in Portland specifically.

We hope to bring class sizes back up to the double digits as well as take advantage of the broad set of holistic healthcare practitioners available within the larger Portland metro area. We’d also like for Rylen to spend less time on the road and more time in the classroom. That means that the current Amma Program Group13 is the last group that will graduate from The Wellspring School in Boise! Go, Lucky 13! Make sure to take advantage of Amma student clinic through December, as it will be the last one in Boise! 

We are still going strong with our Wholistic Nutrition Program in Boise, and as mentioned we plan to kick off the next one in Portland this fall. The current Boise WNP group will be hosting a great public event followed by clinic next spring, so stay tuned on that. As always, WNP classes are open to other attendees, space permitting. If there’s a class you’ve been wanting to take that’s part of the Amma Program, especially one taught by Rylen, now’s the time to sign up. Check our upcoming classes page for dates/instructors for Additional Techniques – Asian, Daily Dose, Eat to Live I & II, etc.

All alumni can take classes as a repeat for 50% off! We hope that our Boise Alumni will take advantage of the proximity to Portland and join us for some dynamic upcoming workshops or if there’s a class you wish to take again.  In October, current WSHA Amma Students from both locations will be meeting in Portland for an evening of Taoist Thought and a weekend of Chen Tai Chi with Bill Helm. We are really grateful for the opportunity to have brought Amma Bodywork Therapy to so many people in the Boise community to date. We hope that all of you that have been coming to The Wellspring School as clinic clients, students and teachers will continue to enjoy and promote the benefits of this incredible modality in Boise and beyond!

-Rachael & Rylen

Amma Bodywork Clinic – What’s it all about?

It never ceases to amaze me how many calls we get at The Wellspring School from people wanting to know if we have clinic up and running. Even after an almost two-year hiatus (in Boise) it’s great to  know that clinic is something the community looks forward to and values. With that in mind we are really excited to be able to offer clinic in both Boise and Portland!

So what’s so great about clinic? It offers something for everyone. The student gets the chance to gain hands on experience, build confidence and learn skills needed to become a successful practitioner. Instructors get to work directly with students and focus on individual needs as they see a myriad of clients and issues. Alumni have the chance to serve as a clinic assistant and continue to expand their knowledge of Amma Bodywork Therapy to better serve their clients and grow their practices. Finally, the client gets the benefit of a full hour treatment with input from students and instructor at an incredibly discounted price. The general benefit of an Amma treatment is something everyone should experience.

Don’t just take our word for it. We recently asked students, instructors and clients what they thought about clinic and here is some of what they had to say.

Students:

“Being able to have feed back and instructors immediate insight has improved my treatment and diagnostic skills… so that the client gets more insight to a healthy state of life.”    Stephanie O.

“What a great “hands on” learning experience student clinic is.  Treating a variety of people from all age groups, different body types and differing health concerns is vital for my education as an Amma Therapy Student.”  Amma G13 Student

Alumni/Clinic Assistant:

“As a graduate of the Amma Program, the experience in clinic was really valuable.  Treating so many people with guidance from my instructor gave me the confidence I needed to begin my practice.  As a current practitioner, it is extremely useful to be able to take the time to assist in clinic. There is always something more to learn.”  Kim R.

Clients:

“I’ve experienced many massages in my life, but nothing like Amma.  I really felt as though the practitioner was moving energy in very positive ways…waking my body up!”    JB

“Amma Therapy is very calming.  I feel more energized, yet peaceful.” JA

“Amma Clinic is something I look forward to every week. My stress melts away and it is the best way to kick off the weekend. Last Saturday my entire family went including my 4-year old daughter. We all walked away feeling good. Can’t wait for next week!” Bill M. 

Boise Clinic  has already started and will run almost weekly through December.  We are very pleased to offer our first Portland Clinic starting June 24th. Check out the website for dates. We are taking appointments for both. Just call the office. We are working on an online booking system we hope to introduce soon as well!

The Wellspring School Settles Down in Portland « The Portland Pedal Power Blog

The Wellspring School Settles Down in Portland « The Portland Pedal Power Blog.

Have Spoon—Will Gua Sha!

April Crowell, Dipl, ABT (NCCAOM), CI (AOBTA), & CHN, currently serves as lead instructor for The Wellspring School Amma Program. We asked April to give us her take on one of the upcoming classes, Complementary Techniques that she will be teaching in Portland in April 29^th & May 1^st. Thanks, April!

Complementary Techniques is one of my favorite classes to teach.  If you ask my students they will tell you that I say that about every class, whether it’s a technique or a didactic class.  But Complementary Techniques is truly a class I love to teach.

Each technique has its own set of benefits, uses and contraindications. For example, Moxibustion warms and tonifies, which is perfect for a cold and deficient client.  Fire cupping can relieve deep lung congestion and pain in general.  Gua sha relieves pain rapidly, releases wind and cold, and is very easy to use. These are just some of the great benefits.

All the techniques are simple to apply once the basics are learned and this class is great because students get the chance for lots of hands on practice.  Practice is what is needed to develop the coordination to get an accurate fire cup seal, to safely use those techniques involving fire, or feeling confident enough to apply gua sha. The point of the class is to learn how to effectively use these beneficial techniques and leave feeling confident.

Through the years, we’ve had a few Comedy of Error moments in the classes; self-singed bangs, dropped cups, flaming cotton balls, and even an emotional release or two. However, students have all left saying this was one of their favorite classes whether they are in the Amma program or taking the class for continuing education. Fire cupping, Moxibustion, Gua Sha, Auricular therapy are excellent additions to any practitioner’s set of skills.  And they are just fun to learn. We get to play with fire, literally.

For more information on this and other classes, please check out the website WSHA website.

If you are interested in receiving our newsletter, please sign up here.

Come Move with us in the New Year! PDX class

The New Year is  always a time for evaluating our lives, reassessing our priorities and making new commitments.  Often those commitments include improving our health.    The winter is a great time to try a mindful form of movement, such as T’ai Chi Chuan.  T’ai Chi is a great way to improve balance, support your joints and get focused.   Centuries old Chen Style T’ai Chi is said to be practiced with “a serene heart and a concentrated mind.”  Your nervous system is able to recharge, achieving deep relaxation.  Your body is rejuvenated by harmonizing the function of the inside and the outside of the body, circulation of blood and lymph is circulated, bone structure is improved, muscles are toned, and metabolism is regulated.

Chen T’ai Chi is composed of spiraling movements and practiced muscle control.  The qi flows from the tan tien (core center of energy) to the entire body through the spiral movements.  The Chen style is characterized by spiral movements that are soft and gentle with some fast and explosive motions interspersed, which facilitate the movement of qi.

Chen Style T’ai Chi Chuan can benefit the body by relieving pain, correcting digestive problems, relieve stress and build self-confidence, and discovering internal energy flow.

Come rejuvenate yourself and join us in Portland for a 13 class series of Chen Style T’ai Chi Chuan.

This class is devoted to learning the 19-movement form of Chen T’ai Chi. This is a simplified form developed by Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang to serve as a powerful introduction to the ancient Chen style T’ai Chi Chuan.

Class dates: (13) Fridays. Class dates (2011): January 14th, 21st, 28th, February 4th, 11th, 25th, March 11th, 18th, April 1st, 15th, 22nd, 29th, and May 6th. There will be no class on February 18th, March 4th, March 25th April 8th or May 13th. There will be an additional class hour on March 11th and May 6th for Amma students only to accommodate a midpoint and final form review.

The first three classes are open enrollment and drop-in’s are encouraged.  Enrollment closes before the beginning of the 4th class.  All students must be registered to take the series before the start of the 4th class.

Class Cost: Public attendees: $170 for 13 class/hour series (paid up front) or $14/if paid per class.  Current Amma and existing Yan Li students please contact the office directly for information on class pricing at 503-752-4840.

Introductory Special: Paying participants may bring a friend for free to one of the first three classes (only).

Or see: http://redirectguide.com/isavegreen/display.asp?isg=3511 for a coupon.

Food in the Treatment of Disharmony

Rylen Feeney Dipl. CH & ABT (NCCAOM)
Saturday, October 3rd & Sunday, October 4th, 2010, 9:00AM – 5:00PM

This class reviews the principles of a preventive diet and then explores what it takes to create a remedial diet to treat according to Chinese Medicine patterns of disharmony. We will cover the four phases of life, the four seasons, the five elements, temperature, taste, channel/organ route, direction, therapeutic action, specific symptomatic actions, common clinical use, and contraindications of foods. This class is open to Acupuncturists, students and alumni of the Amma and Wholistic Nutrition Program. Eligible for 15 NCCAOM PDA’s Cost $275 LOC