The National Holistic Institute (NHI) is offering firefighters one free, 50-minute massage therapy appointment at any of its five California campuses during the month of July.
"Firefighters are working long and stressful hours battling the hundreds of wildfires raging throughout California," explained Tim Veitzer, co-owner of NHI. "Massage therapy has been proven to relieve stress, relax muscles, increase joint mobility, lower blood pressure and boost productivity."
NHI was the first accredited massage therapy school in California and the first to offer a comprehensive, 720-hour career program. In 1989, NHI started the Massage Emergency Response Team (MERT) in response to the Loma Prieta earthquake. During that disaster, more than 8,000 massages were given to disaster workers, demolition workers, grief counselors, highway patrol officers, and many others. Today, the program is used nationally to organize volunteer massage therapy on rescue and recovery workers at disaster sites.
"This is our way of giving back to those who risk their lives to protect our communities," added Veitzer.
NHI has five campuses in California, located in San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose, Petaluma and Encino. To schedule an appointment at any NHI campus, firefighters are invited to use the online booking system at http://www.nhi.edu. A firefighter ID is required at the time of visit.