Welcome To The Rhythmical Massage Therapy Training (RMTT UK)

A part-time professional training with ten modules over a two and half year period.  This course is delivered in international English and is open to international students.

We are still accepting applications for this course.  It may also be possible to join part way through the first year.  Please contact the registrar with all enquiries.

The RMT training is accompanied by the IKAM (International Coordination of Anthroposophic Medicine) accreditation process; following successful completion of the accreditation, participants will receive a diploma recognised by the Medical Section of the Goetheanum, Switzerland. 

About Rhythmical Massage Therapy

Training as a Rhythmical Massage Therapist involves not only mastering the techniques of the massage itself, but also developing an understanding of the human being in health and illness, both from a conventional, natural scientific perspective and an Anthroposophic spiritual-scientific perspective.

Practitioners recognise each individual human being in their unique biography and life situations; illness is regarded as an opportunity for positive change and growth. Rhythmical Massage Therapy is an Anthroposophic medical therapeutic practice that at its core, is an understanding that life has meaning and purpose and that the loss of the sense of this is often reflected in a deterioration of health.

Anthroposophic medicine emerged almost a century ago as an integrative medicine. Extending “conventional medical practice”, it took into account a broader spectrum of factors when treating illness and offers many new approaches to treatment.

A central aim of Rhythmical Massage Therapy  and other Anthroposophic medical approaches is to stimulate the natural healing forces inherent in the human being. Anthroposophic medicines and new therapies have been developed to this end. Scientific, artistic, social, and spiritual insights may need to be applied together in developing an individualised treatment programme. The science and art of Anthroposophic medicine developed this understanding and was originally pioneered in Switzerland by Dr. Ita Wegman and Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

DOWNLOAD OUR LEARNER HANDBOOK

Aims of the Training

The Rhythmical Massage Therapy Training aims to:

• Train learners in the Rhythmical Massage Therapy approach and technique
• Transform each learner’s hands into tools for healing.
• Integrate massage practice with theoretical approaches to health and illness.
• Acquire a deep understanding of Rhythmical Massage Therapy and its influence on the emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of the human being.
• Encourage engagement with fundamental questions concerning the value of Rhythmical Massage Therapy on the whole human being.
• Understand the contra-indications and cautions.
• To have knowledge of professional standards and ethics pertinent to remedial massage.
• Inform and advise learners with regard to acquiring individual professional indemnity insurance.
• To impart a basic understanding of first aid.
• Inform learners of placement opportunities in Rhythmical Massage Therapy
• Inform learners of employment opportunities in Anthroposophic practices and elsewhere
• Develop appropriate communication skills to work effectively with clients, colleagues, and the wider community.

Course Overview

The course is designed to provide students with a breadth of understanding of the different ways of approaching health through Anthroposophic medical therapies, in particular Rhythmical Massage Therapy.

There are regular opportunities for practicing massage techniques and movements, communication, and presentation skills. The student is encouraged to engage in a thorough learning understanding of the human being both from the conventional natural scientific perspective and Anthroposopophic spiritual scientific perspectives apparent in health and illness.

The techniques and skills inherent in the work of RMT are taught and practiced on a daily basis in a one-to-one tuition within the class setting, mentor guidance, and home practice. Each course module is full-time and intensive. The student is asked to keep a personal learning journal to note personal responses including personal development, issues and documentation of all programme content.

This will include homework, exercises, supplementary notes and research conducted throughout the course.

Read what one of our previous students has to say about her experience of the course.

Who is it for?

The course is intended for practitioners with a bodywork qualification such as massage therapists, physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, doctors, acupuncturists, reflexologists (Itech) and nurses who have either completed or are in the process of completing a bodywork training recognised by a regulating organisation, such as The General Council for Massage Therapies (GCMT) or equivalent of a ‘licence to touch’.

If you are not currently qualified please do get in touch to discuss your interest in applying.

The course is delivered in international English and is open to international students.

Programme Summary

The first part of the programme is focused on the image of the healthy human being both from a conventional and an Anthroposophic point of view. Following that, the dynamics of health and illness in its varying manifestations will be studied. During the two and half year’s participants learn the basic forms of Rhythmical Massage Therapy and then deepen these massage movement skills qualitatively by learning how to transform the archetypal forms to suit specific illnesses.

The curriculum is comprised of:

• Rhythmical Massage: practical sessions of learning the techniques and its applications.
• Medical studies: building on natural scientific approaches to human anatomy and physiology and biology, a more living and spiritual view of the human body is developed. Subjects include study of all the main systems and inner organs of the body; man as a three-fold and four-fold being in relation to the nerve-sense system, rhythmic system and metabolic system, and their relationship to thinking, feeling, and willing; the four elements, the twelve senses, the seven life processes and embryology.
• Written assignments and oral presentations (Inter-modular essay)
• Case Studies
• Medicinal plant studies and the knowledge of medicinal substances, including aromatic oils.
• Introduction to external applications and hydrotherapy.
• Anthroposophic studies to extend and deepen a cognitive understanding of the human being. Including aspects of Inner Path work and development.
• Professional and personal development.
• Artistic media/exercises.

Teaching Methods

Teaching and learning take place through a combination of lectures and hands-on practice, mixed artistic media exercises, discussion groups, tutorials, regular between-module medical assignments, year-long independent projects, case studies and special seminars.

Through these methods, students can develop a thorough, in-depth, and holistic approach to the theory and practice of Rhythmical Massage Therapy. The in-class hands-on practice will generally take place in groups of three, with a timing of fair rotation in the roles of Receiver, the Doer (practitioner) , Observer. Each hands-on lesson usually begins with a presentation and or demonstration.

Throughout the course, study-skills support and guidance is provided through tutorials and mentoring sessions.

Students are encouraged to develop an ability to accommodate to new principles and understandings, reflecting on their own value system and to question concepts and theories encountered in their study.

Core Themes

• Human physiognomy, anatomy and physiology
• Anthroposophy and medicine
• Plant observation and learning about healing oils
• Artistic Work
• Aspects of illness pictures and themes discussed and worked with in practice.
• Inner Path of Development
• Goethean Methodology

Treatment Practice

• Back treatments (prone and in sitting positions) 
• Back related disorders ( spinal problem, i.e Scoliosis, kyphosis, Sciatica) 
• Arms and hands (supine and sitting positions) 
• Legs (prone upwards, supine upwards and downwards) 
• Variations on working with the calves 
• Hip treatment (Post op and generalised circulatory problems) 
• Knee treatment (Post op and generalised circulatory problems) 
• Abdominal work (including the sympaticus movement, the chalice movement) 
• Head massage 
• Organ embrocations/ Rhythmical Einreibung (liver, spleen, bladder, kidneys, heart) 
• Lemniscate treatments 
• Pentagram treatments 
• COPD (Asthma) 
• Paralysis 
• Constipation 
• Cancer and its care 
• Sleep disorders 
• Muscle and Nerve degeneration 
• Circulatory problems, Disorders 

Course Requirements

The programme operates with a number of different types of Assessment/Assignments including:

• The completion of a learner journal
• Practical assessments during each practical session and throughout whole training.
• Intermodular essays
• In-class presentations
• Written self assessment reports
• Case studies
• Final exam

Attendance will be monitored throughout the training and used in the overall assessment at the end of the year.

• Learners are required to attend at least 80% of the programme. An attendance level below 80% is considered insufficient to meet the programme requirements.
• Learners who miss more than 20% will be asked to repeat the subject or complete additional work as set by the tutor.
• Learners are asked to be in time for classes.

Participant Experience

Watch these short videos to experience firsthand insights from our students as they reflect on their experiences after completing module one of the Rhythmical Massage Therapy Training.

Curious about the difference between Rhythmical Einreibung and Rhythmical Massage Therapy?
Emerson College is delighted to offer courses in both Rhythmical Einreibung and Rhythmical Massage Therapy – to learn more about the differences, and the similarities, click here to visit a blog post by course leaders Aoine Aoine Landweer-Cooke &

Fiona Sim.