You'd never get this in Sydney! Melbourne's sanctuary for mind, body and hip pocket ...

Melbourne may not be the most stressful city in Australia - but it's good to know where you can find relaxing and rejuvenating healing at a price that will blow your mind and probably your body & soul too. Sydneysider JANE LOUISE was rendered speechless by the extremely inexpensive student therapy sessions at The Health Arts College in Box Hill ...

Being a Goth girl in Sydney is tough - and sometimes I find myself visiting Melbourne just to get back in touch with what it means to be a true emo.

But thanks to a tip off by a friend, on my latest trip to "bleak city" I got to explore Melbourne's healing side, and most of it for little more than the cost of a bus ticket.

The Health Arts College has a fantastic system in place which enables their students to get the practical experience they need to walk out of the college with their diploma and immediately start work as therapists and healers - they have a "student clinic" which on the flip side offers members of the public the community good of receiving natural therapy treatments for a fraction of the cost that they'd pay in the "real world".

Since I was visiting Melbourne for two weeks of leisurely shopping and grungy cafe hopping, I got hooked on what the Health Arts College offer and had three sessions in all - one in aromatherapy, the other in massage and finally the last in kinesiology (the cheapest session of all, kinesiology starts at only $2!
Yep, that's not a mis-print ... $2!!).

And all the while I got an added lovely glow from the thought that I was assisting these students in their practical training! Not that my practitioners needed much in the way of assistance – my encounters with them were magnificent. In fact I’d go so far as to say I’ve paid a lot more for a lot lower quality elsewhere.

Massage

We all know what massage is about, so you’ll know that at $20 for an
entire hour you can’t get better. Jessica’s session was faultless,
leaving me in no doubt of the calibre of her training. I realised
that experiencing a student practitioner would be an effective way of
checking out the training outcome before beginning a course at The
Health Arts College. My only suggestion would be to drink lots of
water before and after your massage! The massage set everything
circulating in my body so if you’re a bit out of kilter you may feel
it. I followed my massage session up with a lunchtime pho nearby which
fixed any lingering after effects.

Aromatherapy

I’d never experienced an aromatherapy session before. Sure, I’ve had
my head over a bowl of eucalyptus oil in hot water for the 'flu, but I
learned a lot about why we do these things during this session.
Perhaps considered a little ‘airy fairy’ by some, I quickly learned
that wasn’t the case. There is a depth of study required to understand
and utilise these properties to full effect - aromatherapy is not only
seeped in history but science as well. The Health Arts College
students learn about the compounds and properties of the oils used, as
well as what problems to use each particular oil with, and what method
of application is the most effective. So instead of the massage I was
expecting, I had a 15 minute footbath. This allowed the oils to
penetrate the skin and do their thing throughout my body. I’d chosen
to be treated for a bit of muscle tension as I’m in front of a
computer all the time.

I definitely felt relaxed after only a few minutes, to the extent I
thought I must have been imagining it. But I wasn’t! My practitioner
Gina has seen immediate benefits for many people. She treated one
person who had great difficulty in moving. After a footbath the
woman’s pain subsided and she could freely move. That’s just one
example of how powerful nature’s pure essential oils can be.

Another example she gave of effective treatments was that in her
family, they now find that an aromatherapy treatment has completely
erased the need to have cold and flu tablets in the house. Now that’s
got to be a good thing!

Kinesiology

I had no idea what kinesiology was about when I walked into this
session, but my practitioner Theresa immediately put me at ease.

Kinesiology combines muscle testing with the principles of Chinese
medicine. It’s still difficult to describe my session even after
experiencing it, but my early thoughts were that it’s enabling your
body to tell you what your mind might not want you to know! We really
do hold our own answers, and this is an extremely effective way of
tapping into that. I found this a powerful and intriguing experience,
and although some may find it confronting I think it cuts right to the
heart of whatever you are looking to fix in your life – whether it be
physical or emotional.

If you’re even slightly curious, I highly recommend you take up The Health Arts College on their offer of an initial consultation for only $2. Now there’s a reason to check it out if ever there was one! If you’re anything like me you’ll be going back for more, but that’s okay too – follow up sessions are just $20.

Overall, I was left in no doubt that The Health Arts College
practitioners are very well trained and love what they do. Jessica
said of The Health Arts College: 'sometimes it doesn’t feel like
school, we just get to try all these great therapies!' Happy and
excited about their training, the practitioners were enthusiastic and
confident about their respective fields. That was contagious.

It’s very clear that people like coming here. I was told that after
time away, some even feel like they’ve come home. I can believe it -
The Health Arts College starts from a place of success, and the way
they've married both study and fun really works.


For info about The Health Arts College Student Clinic click here. Or for more info on becoming a student with them, click on the following links for kinesiology, aromatherapy, remedial massage, yoga, first aid, Anatomy & Physiology, Reiki and many more.