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Instructor Profile: Marcia Coling
Formal
Training Improves
Infant Massage Practice
 Marcia
Coling has been a certified instructor of infant
massage since 1991. She is an early childhood
special education teacher who has worked with
infants and toddlers with developmental
disabilities and their families since the early
1980s.
Marcia
initially learned infant massage from a fellow
teacher and incorporated it into her practice,
but met with little success in getting families
to use massage with their babies. She took the
instructor training class in order to improve
her success rate, and immediately discovered the
root of her problem — she had been massaging the
babies herself instead of having the parents do
it!
“The formal
instructor training not only helped me to
further increase my infant massage skills, it
also showed me how to work with the parents to
improve the success rate in my business," notes
Marcia.
As a salaried
employee of a local public school system, Marcia
is fortunate to be able to incorporate infant
massage in her work without needing to charge a
fee to the families in her program.
“Infants with a
25 percent delay in one or more developmental
areas, infants who are showing atypical
development in one or more areas, or infants
with a medical condition that places them at
risk for developmental delays are eligible for
services through the program in which I work,"
explains Marcia.
She offers
infant massage instruction to all families whose
infants are under six months old, as well as to
families of older infants who would particularly
benefit. Generally she sees families one-on-one,
in their homes, for an average to three
sessions. She teaches the regular infant massage
curriculum, with modifications as needed to
accommodate for any special needs.
Marcia, who
recently completed additional training in
working with infants and children with special
needs, is interested in learning how infant
massage is being incorporated into early
intervention programs around the country.
You can reach
Marsha Coling at mcoling@yahoo.com.
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