Hand & Stone is a proud partner with over 75 massage and esthetics schools across the U.S. through our National School Partnership Program. This program encourages our spas to build direct relationships with our partners and work with them individually in the ways that can most benefit these schools - such as teaching a CE class, volunteering for an event, joining a committee, etc. It also offers guaranteed interviews at any of our 500 + locations to any of its students or alumni through the Education Portal on our careers site.
February’s School Spotlight: North Carolina School of Advanced Bodywork
This month we talked to Kimberly Williams, Director at the North Carolina School of Advanced Bodywork. They have been a partnered school with Hand & Stone since February 8, 2018!
Can you tell us a little bit about your school and its focus?
Our advanced approach to massage and bodywork therapy at our school in Charlotte, NC includes addressing and eliminating postural distortions caused by muscular tension and myofascial imbalances. We believe the body’s inefficient opposition to gravity can cause many forms of musculoskeletal pain.
Our objective is to have students focus on musculo-fascial units that are overly “locked short” from C.E.M.&.N.T. (Chronic, Excess, Muscle & Nerve Tension & Stress), specializing in resolving muscular imbalances linking poor posture, musculoskeletal pain, a wide variety of dysfunctions, and restriction of body movements.
How has your school taken advantage of the benefits of the Hand & Stone Partnership? I have info on our bulletin board regarding employment at Hand & Stone, I have a great relationship with the owners in our area and our students know they can walk into any Hand & Stone in Charlotte and will be given a tour and an interview.
What made you interested in massage education? Our founder, Kyle Wright, developed a type of manual therapy and put it in a 500-hour curriculum that we have offered for over 30 years; first as the founders of the Southeastern Schools of Neuromuscular and Massage Therapy of Jacksonville FL, Charlotte, NC, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville and Spartanburg, SC from 1992-2007 when we sold them all to Keiser University out of Florida. We then opened NCSAB in Kyle's home in Asheville NC and in 2015, I moved it back to Charlotte. We opened FLSAB in Jacksonville FL in 2016. I, personally, am not a therapist. I am someone that lived in chronic pain for 20 years with a bulging disc at L4/5 in Chiropractic and PT care all of those 20 years. One session of this manual therapy and I have been pain-free for 30 years. Kyle said "Oh, so now you want to become a therapist" and I replied, "No, I want to run the place." I've been managing his schools and practice for 30 years this month.
When is your next enrollment event? We enroll four times a year: March, June, August, and November.
How do Hand & Stone locations close to you support your school and its students?
We offer a career fair during class the week before graduation 4X per year and the Hand & Stone franchises show up in full force! They take up a couple of tables, have their standing banners, and spend their time talking with our graduates and recruiting all they can. I have several graduates with H&S, a couple that has stayed over 4 years and is very happy. Some locations have bought individually wrapped food stuff to put in the break room for students with an H&S sticker on each one. We feel very supported by the Hand & Stone franchise and all its owners. Beautiful spas and a great place to work!
Thank you, Kimberly, for taking the time to chat with us and for your continuing support and contribution to Hand & Stone’s exceptional team of professional massage therapists!
To learn more about the North Carolina School of Advanced Bodywork, visit www.ncsab.com
To learn more about a career in Massage Therapy and available opportunities, visit www.handandstonecareers.com
To learn more about our school partnership program, please email Jenn Deakin, jdeakin@handandstone.com.
