Looking to balance your life while developing an exciting career path? Kinesiology is a multifaceted modality that is able to address energetic, physical, nutritional and emotional aspects of your life via a series of muscle tests. ntpages spoke to Brian Knight from The Health Arts College for his insights into this versatile healing approach.
What are the origins of kinesiology?
"Kinesiology has roots in the chiropractic world, with the work of Dr George Goodheart who developed applied kinesiology. A colleague of his, Dr John Thie, helped to broaden the appeal of the new modality beyond its applied roots with a number of self-help techniques he incorporated."
What conditions are best suited to treatment with kinesiology?
"Kinesiology means different things for different people and is not a formula. It really is a multi-disciplinary modality capable of treating just about anything, and matches an individual’s requirements. It can assist to find emotional, energetic, psychological, nutritional and physical balance in your life."
What aptitude do I need to be an effective kinesiologist?
"I would say you need two core skill sets: a caring nature and strong customer service focus. Anyone who is able to bring valuable life skills to their role is also going to be a successful kinesiology practitioner."
Tell us a bit about study options...
"We offer a Certificate IV in Kinesiology and a Diploma of Kinesiology. The certificate course is ten months, with the option to study an additional ten months to graduate with the Diploma. These are typically offered over weekends or evening, or a combination of both. We also have Skills Victoria subsidies and VET FEE-HELP available."
How do the Certificate and Diploma qualifications differ?
"The Certificate IV course is essentially grounding in the foundational knowledge and essential skills which enable you to register with associations and enter practice. The Diploma builds on this, equips you with additional specialist tools and extends your potential as a practitioner. The Diploma qualification also allows you to register as a practitioner with all the relevant health funds."
Can you give us a snapshot of the course content?
"The training is really dynamic and stimulating, including over 100 hours of human anatomy and physiology in conjunction with more than 260 hours of practical experience skills. Other course elements include other essential skills such as communication, business skills and first aid. So you graduate with all the right tools."
What career paths can I seek after completing my studies?
"Many of our students go onto private practice or join multi-modality clinics, while some people are interested in learning new skills for personal fulfilment."
Are courses nationally accredited?
"Yes, the Health Arts College is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Students graduate in the courses presented by our instructors and they may also become members of their respective professional associations in Australia."
Video Transcript
Brian Knight: My name is Brian Knight and I'm the Principal and the CEO of the Health Arts College. We've been operating the college now, the Health Arts College for seven years here in Melbourne, and we're now expanding. We've been advertising all year in all the other states, in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. People that attend are from say early twenties or 20 to early twenties up to even 60 year old. And these are people that want to make changes in their life. A percentage of the people that actually do the courses here are actually not doing it to actually practice as a practitioner, they're actually doing it to enhance their life and life experience and to give answers for life. Yet, there is a majority of people that actually want to actually practice as a professional complimentary health practitioner. Some of the different things that we actually offer are, for example, kinesiology, massage, aromatherapy, reflexology, beauty therapy, those types of things, which are for people to have a better quality of life.
The philosophy behind the college is creating and encouraging a high standard of professional practitioners for the complimentary health industry. But what creates the difference between us and other complimentary health colleges, I feel would be really the focus upon customer service, client, student, questions, the flexibility within the course, the ability for them to be able to allow their life to come into and to be part of their training. So their family support them and they support their family in the process. And there's also a large component of community service within it because every one of the courses have practice that people need to actually do out in the community and also within the clinic here as well. So there's a lot of practical clinical application. You know, I've been in this industry for nearly 21 years now, and so I understand that people training need to be able to do it in a way that they can incorporate it into their whole life.
So all of our courses are based around either weekends and or evenings, so people can still have a full time job if they want to work, Monday to Friday nine to five, that sort of thing. And either do some evening and or weekends, primarily the courses. So, that's how we've structured it, it's still classed as full time, yet it's not like a full time load. So what we actually have at the college here are the resources for people to be able to buy products, books, massage tables. A lot of that is also supplied for students at special prices.
Our main focus really here at the college is really about allowing the courses to be affordable for people, we've really gone to lengths of, particularly in Melbourne for example, we have the Skills Victoria subsidy for people that are eligible, it'll take somebody like a $15,000 diploma down to 4,000.
Peter Easton: A recommendation, I would certainly recommend this college and also what the college offers, the massage kinesiology, the aroma therapy. They're great for people of all ages, for young people starting out and for people such as myself who are looking for a change to be able to take control of their life and to help other people.
Betty Creasey: The people are great, the college is great. They're supportive. It's just been a fantastic experience. And at the same time, as you're learning, you sort of work through things for yourself. So it's a real journey. It's just a real self discovery journey as well.
Sharon Black: It's a place where we really have a lot of fun. We have a lot of laughs here. Coming here I do feel like I'm coming home.
Anne Phillipson: The best thing about learning aroma therapy here at the Health Arts College is the unique approach that I couldn't find anywhere else, and the way that the trainers and the staff are happy to share their knowledge and really encourage you and inspire you to do your own research and broaden your horizons.
