Acknowledging the difference between the Ashi-Thai Home Study and Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy® live workshops.

As a continuation of the registration or purchase process, please review the company's viewpoint below on distance learning with regard to Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage.

While the AOBT foundation strongly believes in the importance of live, hands on education with an authorized instructor present, we also recognize the changing needs of today's massage practitioner in our economy and digital society. Home Study continuing education has exploded but comes with many disadvantages & challenges. This company strongly believes if you want to learn a professional skill, then make the commitment to learn in a hands on, live educational workshop environment.

To this day, our company has not seen a Home Study course in Ashiatsu Barefoot Bar Massage that is safe or professionally produced! The reason we feel comfortable offering Ashi-Thai as a home study is because the application is completely different than barefoot Ashiatsu. Take a moment to realize that Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy involves gliding barefoot effleurage strokes and at times, using both feet with bodyweight on a well lubricated human body. Ashi-Thai does not. Ashiatsu can be an uncomfortable and harmful technique if studying on your own without some kind of support or supervised instruction. Ashi-Thai is more user friendly without having to hold weight up and off.

Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapy

Ashi-Thai

If a distance learning DVD is NOT produced integrating effective design & graphic layout, top-notch visual aids, quality camera work and offers interactive online chat assistance and instruction, then save your money. Also, is the printed material time tested, case studied, truthful and constructed to achieve specific educational outcomes? We ask that you trust your resources and not settle for a no refund, self produced, iPod video, teaching you that it's perfectly okay to stand directly on someone's spine.

Another factor why we recommend a live workshop over home study is that the teaching, practice, and coaching aspects of Ashiatsu are equally important when the student receives Ashiatsu during the training. With the instructor present, the student can receive quality training as the instructor can observe the student in practice sessions and recommend improvements and also validation. Would you trust a nurse poking you with needles who got certified watching a video? Ouch! And what if that nursing degree diploma on the wall was bought via the internet? Are you okay with that?

In live workshops, multitude of questions that come up spontaneously during group practical's can be answered right then and there. This usually leads to discussions that would not likely take place without an instructor present. This important aspect of the student/teacher relationship is not very well accomplished through the mail, email, or just seeing a video. Because of this we recommend all therapist's to approach home study courses as an experimental or additional process to formal training.

We know that interactive supervised webinars are the wave of the future and we are working hard to administer and achieve that goal. However, moving and gliding barefoot effleurage with combined bodyweight is a precarious subject. Performance-based assessments are difficult to administer in the cyber-environment. We hope to approach the distance learning challenges for Ashiatsu with passion and respect so that this beautiful modality maintains it's trusted reputation.

IMPORTANT - Before you can purchase the Ashi-Thai Home Study Course,  you must click here to complete the Code Of Ethics form.