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• Body & Spa: Spa Success
• Electronic Massage Tools: Increase Efficiency and Extend Your Career
• Guide the Body on its Path to Wholeness with Lympho-Fascia Release
• Living in Balance: The Art of Balanced Presence

• Guest Editorial: Demand High-Quality Education
• Research Exclusive: Massage Boosts Mood, Immune Function and Relaxation
• Avoid Interview Pitfalls
• The Role of Publishing Venues in the Promotion of Research
• List of Just-Published Books on Communication Topics
• When Choosing an Electronic Tool, Construction Matters
• Buying Real Estate in Today's Market

The Wrap
Massage Wraps, LLC

The wrap was designed to give therapists the ability to quickly and easily position and treat clients in many massage/bodywork positions, including side-lying, without compromising the client's privacy.

Product Features

The Wrap costs $34.95.

Massage Wraps, LLC
2390 Francisco Street Suite 204, San Franicso CA 94123
(888) 808.2781
http://www.massagewraps.com

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The Healing Power of Touch

Remember to focus on the healing power of touch and its importance in your life and in the lives of those you touch.

One touch can soothe, comfort and convey caring in a way words never can. Touching has the power to heal, connect us and ease pain. It also lessens anxiety and softens the blows of life. The simple act of touching is so powerful that it can slow your heart rate, decrease your blood pressure and strengthen your immune system.

Prior to touching, focus your attention by centering yourself. Centering brings mindfulness to your life. When you are centered, you can dwell totally in the present moment by releasing thoughts of the past as well as releasing projections into the future. Centering involves conscious breathing, focusing and mindfulness. One way to stay centered in the present is to avoid slipping into repetitive, habitual movements. By treating each individual as a new landscape to explore, it is possible to dwell in the present moment and move into a continuous creative flow.

Allow the healing energy to flow from a centered place in your heart. Breathe deeply and fully. Relax and let the energy flow. Release your attachment to the outcome. The healing power of touch has an intelligence of its own, and it will go where it is most needed, restoring balance and flow on every level.

Ariana Vincent, L.M.T., M.T.I., N.C.T.M.B., is a Nationally Certified Massage Therapy Instructor and workshop leader based in Austin, Texas. Learn more about her at www.arianavincent.com.

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Branding Your Practice

"Make my phone ring, please" doesn’t need to be part of the everyday vocabulary at your alternative and integrative health-care practice.

My phone never rings when I run an ad. That’s because it’s not supposed to.

If you’ve ever sat by the phone waiting for it to ring after you’ve run an ad in your local paper, you are not alone.  Print advertising is by far one of the most misunderstood mediums of all the marketing tactics. In a layman’s world, it’s only natural to think that if we tell people about our product or service, they are sure to want to know more.  And that might have been the case, were you not competing with all the other “noise and hype” that is put out there every day by advertisers just like yourself, hoping to pique somebody’s attention and get them to call you.

Sorry. Ads are not designed to make the phone ring. It’s that simple. They play a much more subtle, yet no less important, role in the marketing mix commonly referred to as branding---aka, letting people know what your company stands for.

Branding is not about what you do or the benefits of your product or service, it is indeed something much more.  It’s the values your company stands for, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The keeper of your brand–-What makes a good print ad
It all begins with your practice’s brand, be it integrity, quality, performance, service or some other value so inherent in your company that if it disappeared, would your company exist today?

Values are clearly articulated and delivered to the people you are most likely to do business with through a comprehensive marketing campaign. A branded message paves the way and opens the door for you to engage with your potential customers.

With so much riding on your brand, your communication of that brand has got to be crystal clear---easily communicated and understood by every person that comes into contact with your company. Without exception, a good brand will pass the test of time. See if you can guess who these long-standing brands belong to:

• "It’s slow good" 
• "We try harder"
• "Breakfast of Champions"

Make no mistake about it. Heinz Ketchup didn’t just run one ad. It took many insertions of the same ad in the same publication with the same brand message before even one person remembered its “slow good” brand.

For more than 25 years, Randi Drinkwater has successfully spearheaded high-impact marketing solutions for such global companies as IBM, Cisco Systems, and WorldCom/MCI/UUNet. Today, Drinkwater resides as CEO for Alternative Growth Streams, (http://www.easygettingmorepatients.com) a marketing-membership Web site designed exclusively to empower alternative and integrative practitioners to grow their practices and get more patients/clients. She is well known and respected throughout the industry and is the recipient of the BPAA Atlanta Peach and Southeast Addy award for marketing excellence.

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