About the Orlando School of Thai Massage, Rob Murray
About Thai Massage Education
Orlando School of Thai Massage's program (identical to Thai Bodywork's program in Evanston, IL) provides the highest quality training in Traditional Thai massage in a very efficient weekend intensive format. We build your skills and knowledge from the ground up, and do not require any particular background upon entering the program. Having worked successfully with hundreds of students, we understand the needs of the beginner, and use principles from yoga, ti chi, and martial arts to teach the art of fluid full-body movement that is essential to Thai yoga.
Our program provides 130 hours of core hands-on Thai massage education in Levels 1 through 3 (20, 40 and 70 hours, respectively) plus over 100 additional hours of advance training. You will receive a Thai Bodywork certificate upon satisfactory completion of each level. 130 hours satisfies the core requirement for the Certified Practitioner level. All courses are approved as Continuing Education courses by NCBTMB. Advanced courses are continuously being expanded. More about our courses...
After you move beyond fundamentals, we also offer advanced courses in Clinical Thai Bodywork and Commoner Style that build on the core program. We have designed these courses to give our students the best possible tools for designing effective treatments and getting great results with clients.
Selecting a Thai Massage Program
Thai massage education is not just about showing the student various techniques. As a beginner, you need to first learn how to move and work from your core, as well as how to learn Thai massage. We prepare you at each step for the next level of learning. Your work is constantly supervised by an experienced instructor who provides immediate feedback to help you improve.
Our program gives the student a strong foundation by covering the following topics:
- Thai massage history and healing philosophy
- Relationship of Thai massage to yoga and Ayurveda
- Cultural context, how it relates to Thai and Buddhist culture and other branches of Thai medicine
- Strong training in the principle of good body mechanics and working from the energetic core -- as opposed to "working with the hands", which leads inevitably to stress and injury.
- How to work in a way that is beneficial for both giver and receiver
- The idea of moving without effort -- fluidity and ease of transition
- Practical sequences covering over 6 hours of treatment possibilities in both Northern and Southern styles
- Treatment variations for different clinical situations
Why here in the USA and not Thailand?
There's a huge difference in teaching styles and emphasis; that combined with the language barrier and it becomes obvious that instruction CAN be much better here in the USA. In "the West" we are able to speak across many different levels: science of anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, yoga benefits and stretching, Ayurvedic influences, through religion, and other benefits to speak what Thai sen lines and Thai massage is about. In Thailand, the instruction is less specific, less verbal and more industrial, less individual or tailored to you.
My Teacher, Chuck Duff, has this to say about Domestic and Foreign programs
About the Instructor
Hello my name is Rob Murray. My heritage derives from a Thai mother and an American GI father. I grew up giving my mother Thai massages after her long hours at work until I was too heavy to stand on her, basically from 6 until I was about 13.
I graduated from Cottondale HS in 1993 (a four sport athlete: football, baseball, athletics, and cheerleading) with one year completed at Chipola Junior College and transferred on full scholarship to Troy State University where I finished another two years with a major in Athletic Training/Pre-med and a minor in French. Thereafter, I finished my BS with Honors in Exercise Physiology/Pre-med and Athletic Training from the University of Florida in 1998 with minors in Chemistry and Anthropology. While at UF I was an elite cycling sprinter on the UF Cycling Club team, mostly because I fell in love with my only form of transportation, as I lived 5 miles from school. Cycling changed my life and it's where athletics truly took hold.
After college, I started working as a personal trainer, massage therapist, yogi and Pilates instructor. After a few years, I reached a milestone in my life when I was accepted as a volunteer in the 2002 Olympics as a massage therapist. There I met athletes from all over the world who encouraged me to try the sport of skeleton, specifically Tristan Gale (USA gold medalist), Mike Vodouris - skeleton slider from Greece, Troy - skeleton slider from US Virgin Islands, and Anne Abernathy - luger from US Virgin Islands. From 2002 to 2006, I was on the US National Skeleton Team as an Olympic hopeful (winning many titles and awards along the way), and narrowing missing a berth to the Games by one spot due to nepotism and "sport politics."
After 2006 I started my formal Thai yoga massage training in earnest following years of researching the cost/benefits of different national and international programs. I completed my training with Chuck Duff of Thai Bodywork in Chicago, taking all of his courses and even assisting in the development of new courses and improving the previous courses, thus becoming a Thai Bodywork Certified Instructor.
To date, on average over the past three years, I have thousands of hours of Thai yoga massage therapy sessions as a student, practitioner and teacher. I enjoy the work and have a natural passion to which I hope to give to you and have taught hundreds of students.
My foundation with athletics and science predisposes my teaching style to be efficient and biomechanically safe for you, the provider, for years of therapy.
Here's a photo of me with my mother, Wong, and another with my wife, Dana.
Here's a photo with Master Instructor Lek Chaiya and her son, Jack, while I was taking a course from them. She calls me Luk Chai saawng - "Little Boy 2"
