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!