- Traditional Cupping workshops
- Eastern Tradition Cupping workshops
- Western Tradition Cupping workshops
- Contemporary Cupping workshops
- External Injury workshops
- Chinese Massage course
- Traditional Thai Massage course
- Gua Sha day course
Highlights for 2009... The NEW Contemporary Cupping Workshops...PLUS Australian, USA and Canadian dates
HEALTH TRADITIONS is about presenting first class practical courses and workshops. After decades of research, practice and instruction, we have successfully lifted the veil from many traditional therapies such as Cupping, Gua Sha and Traditional Thai Massage to see them take them their rightful standing in popular global practice. Our cupping and gua sha workshops were 'World Firsts', and the Australian School of Traditional Thai Massage was instrumental in establishing renewed enthusiasm for TTM, both in Thailand and the West. We remain for the past twenty years, to be the only school in the West to be recommended by the Wat Pho School of Traditional Thai Medicine and Massage - established by Thai Royal patronage over three hundred years ago as the Headquarters of Thai medical knowledge. The Australian School of Traditional Thai Massage was the first school established in the West to teach TTM and we offer the most unique and comprehensive training available.
We trust you will find our courses unmatched in quality and the genuine transfer of knowledge and skills. Please take a good look at what we have to offer.
BRUCE BENTLEY- Founder of Health Traditions has been a pioneer in Traditional Medicine for over thirty years. Following his initial studies in Thai medicine and traditional Thai massage in Thailand Bruce went to Taiwan in 1976 and completed to a five year Doctor's program in Traditional Chinese Medicine, in Mandarin, at the Chinese Acupuncture Hospital, Taiwan. In Australia, his subsequent formal studies include Western Medical Sciences, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Nutrition, a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Chinese Herbal Medicine), an Honours Degree in the Sociology of Health and Illness and a Masters Degree in Health Studies, with his thesis titled "Cupping as Therapeutic Technology". During 2002, Bruce was employed by the Victorian State Government (Australia) to conduct a full time research project titled "Folk Medical Practices in the Vietnamese Community".
Bruce is also in private practice, and is a state registered practitioner of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine and is an accredited Chinese remedial massage (tuina) therapist.
Additional research and study backgound profiles, particular to each of our courses, is available to check out on the relevant HT pages
"There is no doubt that Bruce Bentley is the foremost international expert on the history and practice of cupping in different cultures around the world, having spent 30 years in a dozen countries studying the range of techniques." - Steven Clavey, Editor of The Lantern: An International Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
SHIRLEY GABRIEL is a massage therapist and yoga student who has also completed all of the Health Traditions courses. She teaches Day Two of the new Contemporary Cupping Workshop and instructs in our courses on traditional Thai massage.
Some comments from our various course include:
"The first class I did with Bruce was the Western Tradition Cupping Workshop and had such outstanding results in conjunction with massage on the elite athletes I treat, that I then did the Eastern Tradition and the Gua Sha Day. Bruce’s vast knowledge on these subjects is second to none and I highly recommend his courses. Cupping and Gua Sha have both been fantastic on the athletes. They are completely sold on both!! It saves my hands as well". Heather Deller, official massage therapist for the Great Britain Olympic Cycling Team, US, T- Mobile, the Women’s Professional Cycling Team and Chinese, Giant Bicycles, Women’s Professional Cycling Team.
"I have been practicing TCM for 10 years and it is hard to believe my eyes have been opened so widely to the practice of cupping. Clinic is going to look a lot different from now on!" Dr Michael Max Lic Ac, Herbalist & author
(from the 2008 cupping workshop held in the USA).
"Learning the correct way of performing Gua Sha and all its various applications in practice was a revelation. Since the class with Bruce – which was great – I use it often and with great success". Barbara Stephens, remedial massage therapist and remedial massage and shiatsu lecturer.
"Although I had been to Thailand six times to seriously study Traditional Thai Massage, when I heard about Bruce Bentley's research, I went to Melbourne (I live in Brisbane) to do the Diploma course with the ASTTM. I was so impressed with with the quality and range of teaching that I decided to do the entire course again the following year! I can only congratulate the ASTTM on their efforts over the past 30 years in gathering the depth of knowledge and skills (much of it no longer available in Thailand) that students receive. I highly recommend the course to all those interested in this excellent synthsis of yoga and massage." Richard Clark: Ashtanga Yoga instructor, Traditional Thai massage practitioner, past president of the Australasian Ayurvedic Practitioners Association and writer for Australian Yoga Life magazine.
For information on upcoming USA East – West Traditional Cupping Workshops & testimonials from some students who attended the cupping workshops in 2008 click here.
COURSE LOCATIONS FOR 2009
Australia
Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide
United States of America for September - October
New York City, Ashville/North Carolina, St. Petersburg/Florida, Chicago/Illinois
Canada for September
To be advised
Continuing Education Points (Australia)
- Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association (AACMA)
- Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS)
- Association of Massage Therapists (AMT)
- Australian Association of Massage Therapists (AAMT)
- Association of Remedial Masseurs (ARM)
- Australian Natural Therapists Association (ANTA)
- Yoga Teachers Association of Australia (YTAA)
Continuing Education Units (USA)
- The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB) - Advanced Educators
- National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM)
- Florida Board of Massage Therapy