Whitney Lowe

For over three decades, Whitney Lowe’s dynamic Orthopedic Medical Massage training has cultivated exceptional massage therapists worldwide. Lowe specializes in advanced therapeutic treatments and established orthopedic assessment protocols. His extensive career includes advanced clinical work, research, teaching, hundreds of publications, and eight book chapters. Lowe’s Orthopedic Assessment in Massage Therapy text, originally published in 1995, continues to be an industry staple (new edition due 2025). You can find his in-depth works in Massage and Bodywork Magazine and Massage Magazine, as well as Lowe’s Blog, his Thinking Practitioner Podcast (with Til Luchau), and on his YouTube channel. of the most frequent comments about Whitney Lowe by his students—online and in workshops—is how accessible he is. They also like how patient he is with their questions and how he expresses a real concern with their understanding.

Background: In the 80s, Lowe mentored under and then partnered with Benny Vaughn, LMT, ATC, one of the profession’s most renowned sports massage educators and national sports team therapists. Vaughn pioneered a sports massage approach emphasizing established orthopedic assessment protocols. Lowe continued to develop a fully comprehensive system that integrated established assessment and advanced treatment techniques from across the field, with a focus on matching conditions with physiologically appropriate treatments. Today, Lowe’s system is a foundational core of variously named advanced treatment school programs, continuing education providers’ trainings, and advanced massage therapists clinical work. Lowe’s system is also what is mainly understood as ‘Orthopedic Massage.’

Anne Williams

Anne is the Director of Education and co-founder of Massage Mastery Online, specializing in digital textbooks that make learning more efficient, effective, and enjoyable. Anne is a licensed massage therapist (27 years), an aromatherapist, a certified reflexologist, a spa consultant, an author, and an educator (formally an esthetician and registered counselor). She is the former Director of Education for Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), where she pursued her passion for instructional design and developed support materials and resources for massage students, instructors, schools, and professional members from 2006 until 2019.

Before working with ABMP, Anne was a massage instructor for eight years, emphasizing curriculum development and program implementation for Ashmead College in Washington State, and in 2004 became their director of education at the Tacoma campus. She has offered several continuing education programs, including workshops on hot stone massage, aromatherapy, spa therapies, and reflexology.

Anne has served on the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) test writing committee and worked with the dynamic team at ABMP to develop ABMP's Student Life Program, ABMP Exam Coach, ABMP 5-Minute Muscles, and many other resources for schools and instructors. She also wrote the curriculum for the "Instructors on the Front Lines" massage teacher training program for ABMP from 2008 to 2019 and the content for the ABMP School Forum from 2007 to 2019. In addition, she is the author of Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists, 2nd Edition (2016), and Massage Mastery: From Student to Professional (2013), both previously published in print by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Anne served as project leader for the Entry-Level Analysis Project (ELAP). This research project described what a person must know and be able to do to practice massage safely and competently at the entry level. The ELAP curriculum blueprint outlines the learning outcomes and objectives all schools should teach in foundational education and was published in 2013 by the Coalition of National Massage Therapy Organizations. In addition, Anne partnered with Eric Brown and the team at ABMP to produce the ABMP Business Summit, ABMP Back Pain Summit, Eric Dalton Online Workshop, and ABMP Head & Neck Summit, attracting more than 16,000 registrants and hosting more than 7,000 people online, live at one time.

Today, Anne lives in Louisville, Colorado, where she explores her passion for instructional design for adult learners, now in online formats, with her husband, Eric Brown, and a team of feline helpers (Indu, Minnie, Loki, and Delphi). When not writing, Anne loves rock climbing, ice climbing, hiking, biking, skiing, hanging out with friends, and anything that gets her out into Colorado's beautiful countryside. She is teaching Eric to enjoy camping.

Learning Outcome: Having completed this event, the participant will demonstrate knowledge of assessment in U.S. massage training programs on an eight-question multiple-choice quiz.

Learning Objectives: Having watched the interview and reviewed the assessment survey, the participant will be able to:

• Review survey results to understand how schools are currently teaching assessment classes.
• Discuss changes in massage assessment training over the last decade.
• Examine trends in assessment training in massage schools.
• Discuss the prevalence of special orthopedic tests in massage education.
• Differentiate between assessment methods that belong in entry-level education verses continuing education.
• Contrast assessment taught in massage school and client assessment in the real world.
• List three challenges schools report when discussing assessment classes.
• Predict where the subject of assessment is headed in the U.S. massage therapy market.

Video Interview: Enjoy Whitney's perspective on assessment in short interview clips organized by topic. 

Transcript: The transcript describes everything discussed in the interview.

Assessment Survey: In March, April, and May of 2024, Massage Mastery Online sent email invitations to the 960 massage schools and approximately 450 foundational educators on its email list, asking them to complete a survey to share their views on client assessment in massage education. Review the results and add your comments to those of other educators. 

On-Demand: Watch the interview within minutes of registration and pass the quiz to obtain a certificate for CE reporting.

Mobile: Access your course on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone with internet access.

Category: Teacher Training

CE Hours: 1.5 Hours

CE Approvals: Approved by NCBTMB and all states that accept NCBTMB-approved CE. Please note this course is NOT approved by Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Subscription Period: Ongoing access.

After Purchase: The course is free, but you must go through the purchasing process to register. You will NOT need a credit card. Once you complete the purchasing process, log on to massagemastery.online with your email and password. The course will be waiting for you on your dashboard. Click the course access button and follow the directions.