RE: ITEC Holistic Massage Books

I personally found the anatomy book pretty easy to follow and it contained most of the specified information, sometimes I needed to further explore areas using the internet or other books.
However, i was very disappointed in the massage book, it was extremely basic and I felt that the information in it was minimal. Luckily we had some great, very thoroughcourse notes which got me through.

RE: ITEC Holistic Massage Books

Hi Helen, thanks for your comments. It is interesting what you say about the massage book, because the theory as you say it's easy to complete with other sources. But I am strugling with the case study preparation. We do the practice in class, and for the case studies we got some handouts from the teacher. Now you would think that explaining how to do your assessment, case study, etc would be a class on its own, but it looks like we are only going to get theory classes on the physiology and business but for the case study preparation we have to do with the handouts and the massage book.
If this massage book is not really good, is there any other source where I can read about effects of massage, how to decide what type of massage for each person, etc?

RE: ITEC Holistic Massage Books

These are a couple of books which I found helpful.
I would also suggest that you ask your tutor to spend some time just going through what is expected from you with regard to your case studies. Quite often tutors are unaware which things are worrying you. As you are doing your case studies, show them to your tutor at regular intervals to check that you are on the right path and not including too much or to little detail
There are some excellent examples of case studies on this site. if you search the forums you should find them.

Body Massage for Holistic Therapists (Paperback)
by [link= http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/203-3378923-3376705?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Francesca%20Gould ]Francesca Gould[/link]

Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology for the Massage Therapist (Paperback)
by [link= http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/203-3378923-3376705?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Su%20Fox ]Su Fox[/link], [link= http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/203-3378923-3376705?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Darien%20Pritchard ]Darien Pritchard[/link]

RE: ITEC Holistic Massage Books

I used Louise Tucker for ITEC. It is incomplete and has a couple of errors in it, but it is a good introduction and if you learn it, it will get you through the exam, which is they key to gaining your qualification. It is only meant to be an introduction, but that's all you need for the ITEC exam. You must learn all of it by heartthough, and this is where the ITEC exam is difficult.

In order to understand better and if you go on to do further study, such as Sports Massage, you will require a deeper understanding of human anatomy - probably deeper and more specialist than a Biology A Level took you, which though very detailedhad to look at a wider subject. I found "Essentials of Anatomy & Physiology" by Martinin/Bartholomew, 3rd Edition, absolutely excellent. It comes with a CD too, is fantastically presented, goes into great depth, yet remains easy to understand. ISBN 013-110312-1. Really, in order to become a very effective therapsit, you need to understand how the body moves and heals itself as a whole, how muscles and nerves work in harmony or against one another, how differentareas of the body havedifferent blood supply and thus heal at a different rate, how stress, overuse and hormones can affect correct functioning, etc, etc, etc. Fascinating stuff! 😀 Louise Tucker doesn't really join up the dots on that, she just presents the basics of the science, which are your building blocks to further understanding, but that's all you need for the ITEC exam.

Good luck!