Massage and bodywork school owners and educators from across the country gathered in Denver for a weekend of inspiration, community building, and support at the 2022 ABMP School Forum on April 22–23.
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, ABMP President Les Sweeney and Director of Professional Education Kristin Coverly kicked things off by welcoming attendees before Chris Smith of the Colorado School of Healing Arts delivered the powerful keynote presentation “Identifying Trauma in our School Communities.”
Cindy Williams gave attendees a peek into Cornerstones: The ABMP Instructor Development Program with the presentation “Adapting to the Digital Classroom—Building the Essential Skills of Modern Teaching.” The Cornerstones program was unveiled for the first time at the forum, and educators were excited about the new library of online teacher-training CE courses now available for free to anyone in the profession until April 2023. Michelle, an attendee, said, “I’m so excited to incorporate the Cornerstones tools with our instructors.”
For more than 25 years, the ABMP School Forum has brought together the massage educator community to learn from each other and share unique experiences. This year, the best example of that was provided during Coverly’s “Un-Session,” a facilitated experience where attendees could identify the topics most important to them and participate in a conversation with like-minded colleagues. Amy, an attendee, said, “This was a very beneficial session. It was great to learn about other topics from other schools that have been in the industry for a while—very helpful.”
Attendees also included sponsors and vendors from within the massage profession who actively participated in the event, including Dr. Joe Muscolino of LearnMuscles.com, who presented a kinesthetic learning activity to the group.
While details are still to come for the 2023 ABMP School Forum, one thing is certain—the community that gathers will bring their unique experiences and expertise to benefit each other, as described by Michelle: “At our school, we live by the motto ‘Collaboration, Not Competition.’ This forum is the perfect epitome of this in action.”

For more information about ABMP’s resources for schools, instructors, and students, visit abmp.com/educators.