CE INSTITUTE LLC BLOG

Les Nouvelles Esthetiques, Inc. has published CE Institute LLC Founder Selena Belisle's article:  Treatment Table Sanitation.  Please be safe during COVID-19.

CE Institute LLC is hosting a FREE 1 hour live webinar this month to make your massage therapy practice SAFER during COVID-19.  The webinar is available on a 1st come 1st serve basis with registration limited to 50 students. 

In this 1 hour webinar, we will review:
* How to reduce COVID-19 exposure in massage therapy practice
* How to improve your air quality during massage
* How to sanitize your massage therapy equipment
* How to practice socially distant massage and bodywork services
* Where LMTs can obtain a FREE COVID-19 Screening Client Health Intake Form
* How to lookup evidence-based information for COVID-19 for massage and other interests
* Where to find Florida's new Trafficking License Requirements Including Mandatory POSTERS

We will also discuss the Florida Board of Massage 2021 CE RULE CHANGE that allows students to take their CE hours in a different format for their 2021 Florida Massage Therapy License Renewal which is due August 31, 2021.

After this information is presented, we will host a live QUESTION AND ANSWER period with Selena Belisle, an Instructor and the Founder of CE Institute LLC. While it may be years until we have all the answers regarding the practice of massage therapy during COVID-19, this is your chance to ask a renown massage and bodywork industry educator your questions.

Attendees will receive a generic certificate via email one day after their attendance; however, this webinar is NOT eligible for CE credit.

To register, please click HERE to enter your name plus email address. Please check your email after you register for the join link to the webinar.  The join link will be resent via email 1-day and 1-hour prior to the webinar.

SPECIAL WEBINAR DISCLAIMER:  The safest way to protect yourself during COVID-19 is to self-isolate. Attending or following this webinar's suggestions will NOT guarantee to prevent COVID-19 acquisition or transmission.

At CE Institute LLC, we have always taught lymphatic drainage as a bodywork that uses technical skills that include pumping and very light strokes to reduce swelling and improve healing of inflamed human tissue (minus a few contraindications).  Inflammation causes could be post-surgical, a sports sprain or strain, post oncology treatments, lymphedema, burns or more.  All of these medical conditions should not be treated with excessive or forceful physical pressure.

Last month, a Florida Massage Therapist was served an EMERGENCY RESTRATING ORDER (ERO) for forcibly pushing bodily fluid out of surgical incisions which is also known as "incisional drainage".   According to the ERO, the practitioner was advertising her work as "manual lymphatic drainage massages".  The ERO reads in part:

the therapist's "...poor judgment in performing dangerous services outside the scope of licensure and the disregard for the laws and regulations governing massage therapists in this state will cause harm to clients and the public in the future.  This probability constitutes an immediate, serious danger to the health, safety or welfare of the citizens of the State of Florida."

We are glad that this ERO was issued, and we have heard that there are others.  We feel that this ERO reinforces the fact that lymphatic drainage should never forcibly expel bodily fluid out of surgical incisions.

Our opinion of "incisional drainage" which forces bodily fluid out of a surgical incision could cause:

• immediate and acute damage to inflamed tissues that are SUPPOSED to be healing.
• a greater amount of long-term tissue fibrosis than if left to heal without this forceful assault of the inflamed tissues.
• improper handling of biomedical waste (which is not within a massage therapy scope of practice).
• an increased risk of infection to the client, many of which are already in a compromised medical condition to be seeking service to reduce their inflammation.
• potentially longer and/or greater use of opioids due to the pain this type of treatment could cause (when the country is already in an opioid crisis).
• unnecessary and risky exposure to hepatitis, HIV and other blood-borne disease when a practitioner's primary training and license does not include the handling of bodily fluid pathogens.

There is a laundry list of medical logic that will never agree with the practice of incisional drainage. As such, we continue to encourage all LMTs to work within their scope of practice, avoid negative news coverage with illegal or out-of-scope practices and do not do anything that could harm your client (or you)!

To learn more about about lymphatic drainage, please register for one of our professional lymphatic drainage classes.  We have several different live, hands-on trainings to choose from, starting with 6 hour courses.  You can view all of our lymphatic drainage courses by clicking HERE.  

Massage Magazine has published CE Institute LLC Founder & Instructor Selena Belisle's article of how to sanitize a massage table and table equipment during COVID-19:

CE Institute LLC has installed a student loyalty program in 2021 for our past students who need financial assistance:

• Students who have completed their last 3 license renewals of education with us (in 2015, 2017 and 2019) can take 24 CE hours of FREE education with us in January 2021 (this includes one free 12 CE hour live interactive webinar and one free 12 CE hour online course).
• Students who have completed their last 2 of 3 continuing education renewals with us (between 2015, 2017 or 2019), and are in financial hardship due can contact us for additional class offerings and savings.  This program is only available for past students to complete their deeper discounted offerings prior to March 31, 2021.

Past students should check their emails from us for this new loyalty program information and offering.  We have several students already signed up for these free and discounted offers.  The school is most grateful for these students who have supported us throughout the years. 

Past students who qualify for either a free or deeper discounted training at the beginning of 2021 should email us ASAP at info@ceinstitute.com.  Please provide your name and license # with any additional applicable information in your email so that we can verify your past business and register you accordingly. 

Unfortunately the school is unable to extend free or deeper discounted courses beyond this existing loyalty program after March 2021, which is when the school enters the full-swing of Florida massage therapist license renewal season!

In 2020, we extended our CE classes into live interactive webinars because the COVID-19 pandemic has closed our downtown Miami physical school. We will resume downtown Miami school classes sometime in 2022.  

Free repeater classes were only eligible for students to repeat their exact same class at the downtown Miami school, with the founder of the school, when the class was less than half full.  Students also had to repeat their class within 2 years so that the class would be a true repeater. As such, the free repeater class program has been discontinued because we can no longer meet the program criteria.

Since we closed the physical school, we have had past students ask to take our online classes for free. Online classes have never been part of the free repeater program. One of the perks of providing free repeater classes at the school was to produce additional bodies for better bodyworker swap exchanges, which does not apply to online training.  

To the contrary, additional webinar attendees stretch internet bandwidth and decrease student computer screen sizes which makes a lesser quality education for everyone.  While the school can pay additional staff and software usage fees to split a class amongst multiple computer screens for a better bandwidth and webcam sharing experience, the school cannot pay these additional fees with unpaid attendees.  So, while some of our webinars may appear to have plenty of registration space available, the school requires payment for those spaces so that we can pay for the fees and staff required to provide them. 

It wasn't much of an effort to allow a past student to repeat their class in another existing small class at our downtown school, especially when the class was scheduled in our new 1,000+ square foot classrooms, hence the free repeater program. Unfortunately, online training is different.

We are more than happy to support our students whenever possible, however that support must make sense. And while this lengthy explanation does not cover a fraction of the reasons why we cannot provide new online training products for free - we do hope it will help students understand why we never provided free repeater classes with online training, nor could we start doing so now.  We hope everyone stays safe during these turbulent times.  Thank you!

Massage therapists, spa and bodyworkers have stepped up their sanitation habits in our new pandemic of COVID-19; however, there is one additional step that can be taken in addition to sanitizing a treatment table.

If you must work during COVID-19, it is best to work on clients in a prone position/face down to avoid direct airway-to-airway exchange.  And for best sanitation practices, it would be wise to sanitize the face cradle cushion then allow it to sit with a proper amount dwell time by using a 2nd cushion for your next client.  Swapping 2 cushions back and forth is a little extra effort and expense, but could additionally minimize COVID-19 exposure, especially when proper sanitation and safety measures are exercised. 

Air quality is an increasing concern for massage therapists given they often work in small, poorly ventilated treatment rooms.  The CDC and other government sites are now acknowledging that COVID-19 can aerosol and linger in the air for longer periods of time, even after an infected individual has left the room.  

Please click HERE to view Massage Magazines publication of CE Institute LLC founder Selena Belisle's article regarding how you can improve your air quality in massage treatment room if you must practice massage therapy, spa sessions or bodywork during times of COVID-19.

CE Institute LLC Instructor Wendy Langen is published again with the study: A systematic review of mindfulness practices for improving outcomes in chronic low back pain.  Thank you for your lifetime's work to help all of us live better lives Wendy!!!!