I was looking for a massage course that was intensive yet of quality and where I would walk away with the experience and knowledge to begin massaging clients straight away. I am not a theory person and learn best with hands-on lessons. I had my doubts about any course being able to provide me with these criteria. I signed up anyway, booked a hostel and ticket, flew to Singapore (from my temporary home in Taiwan) and turned up on the first day of training.

The class turned out to be even better than I ever could have hoped for. 3 students the first week, 2 the second and therefore plenty of personal attention from our trainer, who, I might add, certainly wasn't in possession of large muscles or any kind of bulk for that matter. Susie Toh turned out to be tiny woman looking many years younger than her age, who (though I still wonder how!) certainly had enough power within to make even the biggest man sigh and sometimes squirm or squeak under her knowing touch. She is a wealth of knowledge and a treasure to have as a trainer. Completely selfless, she answered absolutely any question, whether relevant to the immediate situation at hand or not, clearly and with no doubt whatsoever.

Under her tutelage I quickly improved, chewing and swallowing every morsel of information, every stroke, every pressure point that I could. By the second week we were massaging the public every day, and although a little nerve-wrecking at times, as long as you remember you are a student and you ARE allowed to make mistakes, you will quickly gain confidence and experience at massaging different body types. Some clients made me sweat a little more than others (from the effort) but as Susie says 'Use more elbow!!'. Even as students, the public we massaged enjoyed the massages greatly and asked if there were any more open spots that needed to be filled, since they really wouldn't mind coming back for another!

On evaluation day I was saturated with knowledge and experience and felt quite confident (though a little nervous!) about the massages I was required to do. I had no trouble doing the 1 and a half hour massages although I wasn't perfect, but then who is?

The course was exactly what I had been looking for; intensive, quality, hands-on and accredited to boot. I did the course with either a part-time or full-time career in mind when I make another move, this time to Holland in March 2007. I fully believe that it is within my reach, especially since I have many eager friends hinting or openly shouting out that they really, really want me to use them for practice.

This course will teach you deep-tissue massage along with relaxation techniques that made each of our public clients say they enjoyed it immensely and it's a cut above the other styles of massage they've had. They'd come back for seconds and thirds and THAT is what you want!!

Wendy Bloemers, 26yr old Dutch Australian - This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it