MH Vicars Instructors

By joining MH Vicars School as an instructor, Renato was able to seamlessly combine his two careers.
When he graduated from MH Vicars School in 2010, Renato began to practice out of his home-based clinic. But he didn‘t give up his previous career as a high school teacher. He continued to both practice and teach for nearly a decade before he was ready to leave the public school system. But he wasn’t ready to leave teaching behind, so he now brings his many years of educational experience to Vicars.
Renato was first drawn to massage as a way to help his wife manage the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. In addition to working with clients with chronic conditions, his current practice specializes in treating stress and soft-tissue restrictions.

Every step of Anna’s journey towards massage therapy has been guided by her fascination with anatomy; the way the human body can create such a wide array of movements while balancing function with structural integrity. Anna earned her kinesiology degree at the University of Alberta, and this led her to a career as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, in which she focused on athletic performance and injury prevention and rehabilitation. She had discovered the therapeutic benefits of massage while in university, when she was recovering from a car accident.
Deciding that massage therapy would be a good complement to her fitness work, Anna enrolled at MH Vicars in Edmonton. But once she started practicing massage, Anna loved it so much that she now practices full-time at a multidisciplinary clinic in Jasper, Alberta.

From very early in his career, Dan knew that he wanted to teach massage therapy as well as practice, because it gives him the opportunity to positively impact more peoples’ lives than one-on-one client care alone. He took his massage training at Mount Royal College and then the Foothills College of Massage Therapy, and was a teacher at Foothills for seven years before joining MH Vicars School in 2008. In his Calgary practice, Dan treats all types of clients, with a special focus on those with fibromyalgia and chronic pain.

Alyssa is a massage therapist and instructor who values collaboration, active learning, and helping her students and clients achieve their goals.
Since graduating from the Vicars Calgary campus, Alyssa has worked in multi-modality and physiotherapy clinics in Banff, Alberta. She specializes in treating athletes and clients recovering from surgery, and working with other professionals to give her clients well-rounded care. Her continuing education interests are centered around practicing therapeutic massage with a kinetic focus. As a mountain biking coach she puts her own body through a lot, and knows how important massage is to prevent and care for injuries.

As an instructor, she loves watching students have “Aha” moments and to see them become enthralled with the body and the way RMTs can influence it with in our practices.

Like many of our instructors and staff, Mark was drawn to massage therapy because of his own active lifestyle. A lifelong athlete who loves to hike, run, and play cricket, Mark also played soccer semi-professionally. Prior to becoming a massage therapist, Mark had a successful career as an environmental scientist in his native Australia, including seven years teaching in Australian universities. He took his massage training at the Whistler School of Massage and at MH Vicars. Mark’s practice in Canmore/Kananaskis specializes in therapeutic and sports massage.