Cortiva Institute Establishing Gold Standard of Massage Education

Nationwide family of schools is committed to shaping and defining the future of massage therapy education.

New York, NY (PRWeb) June 26, 2006 -- The spa services industry is experiencing unprecedented growth, with demand growing every day. There are almost 300,000 people employed in the $14 billion industry, yet it lacks any true systematic approach to core competencies and career development. In fact, a recent survey revealed that fifty percent of therapists quit the industry within five years of completing their training.

Cortiva Institute was created to address those issues and deliver training, education and career development to massage therapists and others involved in the industry, and as such has become a new force in massage therapy and holistic care.

"We discovered a need in the health and wellness space," said Alan Clingman, Cortiva's Chairman, CEO and co-founder. "We are building a business model with the goal of ensuring that everyone - professional massage therapists, employers and students - all have the tools to build a fulfilling and successful career."

With a rapidly growing family of 13 locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Washington, Arizona and Massachusetts, Cortiva offers unique programs that go beyond education and focus on the way of life of those working in the holistic field. All Cortiva schools share the core values of integrity, quality, holism and compassion - and a commitment to offer students career alternatives in clinics, hospitals, health clubs, spas, resorts, sport therapy clinics or in private practice.

"We conducted a tremendous amount of research before we started Cortiva, and believe we have deep understanding of employers' needs in this increasingly sophisticated field," said Anthony Millin, Cortiva's President. "Unfortunately most of the schools in our profession have not kept pace with consumer trends, thereby placing a huge burden on employers to retrain their employees. We see meeting industry needs as being our main focus as that will also secure long-term success for our graduates."

Cortiva students and graduates benefit from exclusive and proprietary training tools offered via www.cortiva.com, including:

• Exclusive online business courses from eCornell to help develop skills for success as a career-minded employee, private practitioner or small business owner (www.ecornell.com)

• The 2006 Graduate Series: a series of free continuing education workshops, which is open to all massage professionals. This is sponsored by Cortiva as a way of supporting the whole industry, not just its own constituents, and thereby raising standards of professionalism and competency.

• A Job Portal: a web-based system, exclusive to Cortiva that is already matching thousands of employers across the country with Cortiva's graduates and alumni (http://cortiva.com/careers/JobList.html)

• deep™: a free, noncommercial, bimonthly publication serving as a forum for massage ideas, trends and research (http://cortiva.com/deep/)

• ShopCortiva.com: an online service supplying quality massage products at discount prices (www.shopcortiva.com)

Cortiva has assembled a management team of dedicated professionals from the massage education field and the spa industry. Together with the marketing and financial skills of the founders and a panel of distinguished industry pioneers that act as visionaries and advisors, Cortiva has positioned itself to take a leadership position that is unprecedented.

For further information, please visit www.cortiva.com

About Cortiva Institute:

Cortiva is an education company that believes in a new kind of professionalism - one that brings a progressive health and wellness professional to the world. An active and dynamic person that is present, competent, compassionate and humane. Cortiva's focus on technique, anatomy and physiology, hands-on-practice, clinic experience and insistence on ethics forms the foundation of a high quality educational experience for its students. Cortiva's growing list of locations includes New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Washington, Arizona and Massachusetts.

Contact:

Bridget Quinn

bquinn (at) cortiva.com

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