Synergy Wellness Academy

Muggsy heard “floating ribs” and got dressed for the occasion.😂
Someone should tell him that’s not how it works.

How many pairs do we have? Take a guess in the comments, then swipe for the answer!

Cultivating Skilled LMTs to Elevate the Wellness Community in Grand Rapids!

Photos taken by: Jenknapp_photograhy

Every skill starts with a single, focused moment like this one.

At Synergy Wellness Academy, our students learn by doing, building the confidence, care, and technique it takes to turn a passion for wellness into a career in massage therapy.

Your future is in your hands. ✨

Muscle of the Week: Triceps Brachii

The triceps brachii is the primary muscle responsible for straightening the elbow, but there is more to it than that. Its three heads work together during pushing, reaching, and lifting, while the long head also assists with shoulder movement.
For students, this is a great muscle for understanding how one muscle group can cross and influence more than one joint.

Students, save this for study. Follow along for another muscle spotlight.

Cultivating Skilled LMTs to Elevate the Wellness Community in Grand Rapids!

Great minds. Open conversations. Fresh perspectives. And a shared passion for making Massage therapy education better!

What an incredible weekend at beautiful Lake Ann in Northern Michigan, connecting with Massage School owners from across the country 🙌🏽

Our annual Massage School Owners Retreat, led by the amazing Shari Aldrich, was packed with meaningful conversations, creative, collaboration, and ideas to bring back to our schools.

A HUGE highlight was hearing from keynote speaker Joey Coleman, author of “Never Lose a Customer Again”. Joey absolutely crushed it, challenging us to rethink the student journey and how we can create exceptional experiences from them very first interaction through the graduation and beyond.

But the real magic of these weekends is the community. School owners openly sharing challenges, celebrating wins, exchanging ideas, and genuinely wanting to help one another grow.

Throw in the spectacular northern Michigan fall colors, a beautiful lakeside, hike, great meals, fireside conversations, and plenty of laughter, and you’ve got a weekend that’s hard to beat!

I’m returning to Synergy Wellness Academy, inspired, energized, and grateful to be part of this group.

Thank you, Shari, Joey, and everyone who made this weekend so special!

Better schools. Better student experiences. A stronger massage therapy profession.

Starting from the ground up.

Our students are learning why the feet matter when we look at how someone stands, walks, and moves. It all connects to the bigger picture.

Located in Kentwood, MI | Serving the Greater Grand Rapids Area
Secure your spot today, spaces are filling fast!

If you are considering a career in massage therapy, we would love to talk.

Call/Text: (616) 855-1720
synergywellnessacademy.com

Cultivating Skilled LMTs to Elevate the Wellness Community in Grand Rapids!

Photos by Jen Knapp

This photo represents much more to me than another continuing education certificate.

This past week I completed the 40-hour Deep Lomi Thai Fusion Practitioner Program at Touch Factor Massage and Bodywork and Massage School Reimagined, taught by Joe Lavin, with Wendy Lavin bringing her extensive physical therapy background into the mobility, movement, assessment, and clinical portions of our training.

I thought I had a pretty good idea of the experience I was hopefully coming for.

It was all that and more.

Over the course of the week, we explored Deep Lomi, Thai-inspired movement and stretching, compression, mobility, body mechanics, assessment, clinical reasoning, and ways of creating bodywork that can be simultaneously relaxing, exploratory, creative, and therapeutically intentional.

What I appreciated most was that this wasn't simply about memorizing another sequence of massage techniques.

It challenged us to explore why we were doing what we were doing, to pay attention to how the body responded, to become more efficient with our own bodies, and to find ways to let movement, touch, assessment, and intuition work together.

And then there were the people.

Our group brought an incredible amount of curiosity, openness, vulnerability, and generosity into the room. We practiced on one another, experimented, asked questions, occasionally struggled, gave honest and constructive feedback, and helped each other become better throughout the week.

That made the experience immeasurably better.

Joe and Wendy, thank you for your patience, grace, humility, generosity, and for opening your space to all of us. There is something special about learning from people who possess tremendous knowledge and experience but remain genuinely curious themselves.

As both a massage therapist and an educator, experiences like this are incredibly important to me.

I don't want my practice - or my teaching - to ever become stagnant.

I'll be incorporating pieces of this work into my own bodywork as I continue developing the way I combine orthopedic, sports, movement-based, relaxation, and Lomi Lomi approaches. But I'm equally excited about what this experience will bring back into the classroom at Synergy Wellness Academy.

My students don't need to become copies of me or any other therapist. I want them to learn principles, develop excellent hands and body mechanics, understand anatomy and movement, think critically, remain curious, and eventually discover the kind of therapist they want to become.

Being a student again reminds me how important that is.

So I'm heading home with a certificate I'm very proud of - but much more importantly, with new ideas, new questions, new ways of moving and working, and a renewed excitement about this profession I've chosen.

Joe and Wendy - and everyone who shared this week with me - thank you.

I'm forever grateful.

Learning grows when we listen, share, and learn from one another.

At Synergy, every shared experience helps build stronger, more confident therapists.

📍 Located in Kentwood, MI | Serving the Greater Grand Rapids Area
🎓 Enrolling now, 10 months to a new career!

If you are considering a career in massage therapy, we would love to talk.
Give us a call and explore what is possible.

Call/Text: (616) 855-1720

Cultivating Skilled LMTs to Elevate the Wellness Community in Grand Rapids!

Saddle up for the answer! 🤠

Saddle joints are found at the base of the thumb and the sternoclavicular joint. Did you get it right?

👉 Thinking about massage therapy as a career? Come see what makes learning at Synergy different.

Call 616-855-1720 or DM us to learn more.

Cultivating Skilled LMTs to Elevate the Wellness Community in Grand Rapids!