Lexington Healing Arts Academy has entered into their tenth year.  With a holistic approach to wellness, they are licensed by the Kentucky Proprietary Board of Education and accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health education Schools to offer training for aspiring healthcare professionals.  “The mission of our school is to train people with professional skills to go out there in health and wellness careers,” says Bill Booker, executive director.   

The warm, inviting environment comes from the colors of the room and the attitude of the staff serves as a motivator for people to put their health first.  “We all know that we can get busy in our lives and have so many different demands on our schedule, whether it is kids or work, that you have to take time to work on yourself,” says Booker. 

One of the most popular tracks is massage therapy, which has been around since 1999.  Over 600 students have graduated and are passing along the benefits of stress reduction and decreased suffering from low back pain and migraines.  Massage can be used as a therapeutic modality to help improve various ailments including tendinosis or chronic tendon injury.  Students find that there is more than one type of massage as they become competent at therapeutic massage, pregnancy massage, hydrotherapy, energy work and chair massage.

Since 2008, there has been a 200-hour yoga teacher training program that is approved by the Yoga Alliance.  “Yoga is a great practice for someone to get grounded, centered, move, stretch their muscles and get good exercise.  It is also a great stress reducer,” says Booker.  Students gain an understanding of the body and movement so they are able to instruct others on how to make appropriate adjustments.  They teach others how to safely do yoga poses, breath correctly and reach a balance.  The spirituality of the yoga philosophy and technique can be imparted in daily life.

Personal training is one of the newest features beginning this fall.  It will be an 840-hour program that is year-long and teaches people how to train others to exercise.  In the eyes of the staff at Lexington Healing Arts Academy, wellness has many components and a chief one is staying physically fit.  Students build a foundation in anatomy and physiology, exercise physiology, nutrition and kinesiology.  They are trained understand medical and physical contraindications and ways to work around them, as sometimes exercise techniques need to be modified in order to accommodate all people.

The personal training program is designed based on individual needs.  One of the benefits of attending this academy is that you get hands-on experience working with patients, which allows the personal trainer students to get the full range of scenarios their future clients may throw at them.  “It depends if you are coming for weight reduction and need to develop an exercise routine or if you have stability issues and your balance is not good,” says Booker about the different programs a personal trainer would devise for a client.  Some people are working on strength to lift heavy boxes without hurting themselves.  Others may be sitting at a desk all day long and just need to move because they are becoming hunched over.  According to Booker, personal training is expected to see a jump in popularity given the aging population and the increased public interest in practicing a healthy lifestyle.

Wellness coaching, or support in making healthy lifestyle choices especially with regard to diet and exercise, is a recent trend.  “We are going to be teaching people that go through our personal training program how to become wellness coaches which means communicating, building relationships with clients and then motivating and coaching them so they will sustain healthy lifestyle choices towards wellness,” says Booker.

According to the Lexington Healing Arts Academy, massage, yoga, personal training and wellness coaching are considered to be some of the fastest-growing healthcare fields.  Personal training alone is expected to see a twenty-nine percent increase over the 2008-2018 decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Sometimes just having a healthcare professional on your side as you strive to become healthier can make a difference.  “Our whole goal is to keep people out of the doctor’s office and stay healthy.  A lot of that is exercise, diet and having good balance in your workplace,” says Booker.  If you are looking to gather some tools to teach others or to improve your own wellbeing, it is worthwhile to stop in Lexington Healing Arts Academy.  “We are trying to help Kentucky get healthier and look at their health in a more holistic way,” says Booker.