CERTIFICATE

Certificate.

In this modern era, most people, when inquiring about my teaching, first come up with two common questions: "How much does it cost?" and "Do you give a certificate?" Rarely does someone ask the question which, in my opinion, is the crucial one: "What exactly do you teach?"

Over the 20 years I have spent in the world of bodywork, I went through a typical evolution of a bodywork therapist. I was learning and learning, traveling, going from one training to another, from one workshop to another, and I was practicing, practicing, practicing... Then one day, I started to teach and share my experience, and during those times, I acquired all these certificates shown in the picture above. All that was only to one day realize that they don't matter at all. For real teaching, you would never be granted a certificate.

When it comes to bodywork, to become a true, mature practitioner, it requires talent to begin with. If you don't have a natural talent for touch, no amount of training and no certificate would make you a good practitioner. Further on, it requires practice, and we are talking here about serious practice. What is serious practice? Well, it is at least between 5 to 10 years of continuous practice; thousands of people going through your hands. Remember, every human being is different, and this is why experience makes you a great practitioner, not technical knowledge. It is the way it has always been and will always be, at least when it comes to bodywork. This makes it very clear why a weekend, two weeks, or a month of training wouldn't make you a practitioner. You can just acquire a good foundation, assuming you are lucky enough to learn from a knowledgeable and experienced teacher. Afterwards, it's up to you to put what you have learned into practice, otherwise, you'll forget it all. A certificate is just a piece of paper, and if it holds a title, it is often a false one.

Throughout my life, I met many "certified" practitioners of various disciplines, many of them maintaining a practice that doesn't fit their certificate title at all. Certificates didn't exist in ancient times. It is a modern phenomenon, invented in the process of standardization of knowledge; a product of our market-oriented society, with the purpose to introduce "instant reputation" within the business environment. It leaves no space for questioning. It exploits our basic ego longing for recognition and a feeling of importance. The certificate is gradually becoming a motif by itself, making this certification business much more prone to corruption. Today, it most likely doesn't reflect the actual knowledge and experience of its holder.

I never show my certificates to anyone. I got them out of a dusty box specifically to make this picture, and I immediately put them back to rest in darkness :) It is this attitude that people unconsciously recognize with me, so they never ask about my qualifications. However, sometimes it happens, and it is usually someone from far away who comes with a question: "Are you certified?"

And I just kind of keep silent, not knowing what to say...