Why Is Continuing Education Important?
As I prepare the finishing touches on my presentations for Pilates On Tour (POT) Scottsdale, I am thinking about the importance of continuing education, not just in my life, or my students’ and colleagues’ lives, but in our movement industry in general.
Presenting at a POT has been a dream of mine for years. Being selected to present is an honor I have been waiting for, for years now. It has been years in which I never stopped pursuing my interests and research. I am one of the lucky ones – I feel inspired every single day to get up and be able to explore solution-oriented movement strategies with and for people who have spine and joint issues, and with like-minded teachers and therapists, in my Mentorship program.
There are 3 main reasons I feel that continuing education is important: 1. personal fulfillment and inspiration, 2. skill maintenance and development, and 3. ensuring quality standards in our industry.
1. Inspiration
I am continually inspired to research questions that occur to me in my daily work with people who have complex histories. Questions that present themselves in the form of Mentorship case-studies are another source of inspiration, collaboration and research.
Sometimes a client or student will enter my practice who becomes my inspiration for research. I call this person my “muse” for a time, and find great joy in researching the connections, therapies and protocols that are proven for the person’s situation via studies. I use that information combined with my own experience and common-sense, their unique story and lived experience, along with some intuition, to holistically problem-solve and develop customized, collaborative movement and treatment strategies.
This research turns into continuing education courses that I am excited to teach – so it becomes a cycle of exploration, continued growth, sharing and collaboration.
It is this constant curiosity, education, exploration and research that feeds my soul and brings me joy. It gives me the gift of looking forward to my work when I get up every morning. I am one of the lucky ones – and I hope you are too – people whose career is one of choice, guided by love and joy.
2. Staying up-to-date
I am curious, and my mind finds connections that lead me down the rabbit-holes of Geekdom on a regular basis. I love it when new research comes out that either proves, or disproves, long-held beliefs, or expands on them. I think one of the benefits of continuing education is this continual source of inspiration that feeds curiosity. Being non-attached to specific paradigms and beliefs opens up a whole world of possibilities to explore and play with.
I can’t tell you how many times I have discovered through this process that things I was taught as a (I like to say) “baby” personal trainer, yoga teacher or Pilates instructor, have been disproved by current research. This is not something to be chagrined or embarrassed about, it is something to celebrate! Often we are taught what is current at the time, but research continues on, and sometimes it is not necessarily that the thing we were taught was “wrong” but that it was not as well understood then, as it is now.
Sometimes it is helpful to have a focused guide on this path, and continuing education courses can provide that focus. Why reinvent the wheel, when there may be someone who has done 20 years of research that can serve as a leaping-off point for your curiosity?
I find that I am usually inspired by continuing education, and even though most of it may be “review,” to see information through someone else’s lens is fascinating. I have reached a point where, after years of study, if I get one or two good tips or a different way of looking at something from a 16-hour course I consider it time and money well-spent. Plus, I am supporting other educators’ research and investing in industry quality as a whole.
3. Support Industry Self-governance
Supporting industry quality as a whole is a big-picture topic. This brings me to my third point, which is industry self-governance.
One of the questions I hear when teaching Pilates education modules is, “why join the PMA?” or “should I take the NCPT certification exam?”
I hear the same question from yoga teachers about Yoga Alliance, yoga therapists about IAYT…in truth, Pilates and yoga are very similar in the structure of their self-governance.
The personal training world’s big-name Personal Training certification providers require re-certification every 2 years to maintain current credentialing. Once a person has passed their basic training requirements from a Pilates or yoga education provider one could take courses and practice for years without ever taking another Pilates or yoga course.
Joining oversight groups or alliances is voluntary. It is the overarching organization that provides oversight in our Pilates and yoga industries, therefore the requirement to submit continuing education hours (cecs or ceus) to maintain the credential of YA, IAYT or NCPT-certified. Now, most of us are curious, and want to take continuing education anyway, so why join an oversight organization? The short answer, in my opinion, is because we as an industry need to self-govern, or the larger political government will eventually step in.
Look at what happened to the massage industry, which created its national board (NCBTMB) in 1992, followed by the establishment of the MBLEx in 2005 to standardize licensing requirements across states. Unfortunately, the more the government became involved in massage therapy regulation, the more paperwork became involved, and basically after the establishment of the CAMTC in California in 2009, most of the smaller – but very good – massage therapy schools were unable to stay open due to the increased administrative burden.
As an industry, if we can all agree that we want self-governance as opposed to government regulation, we can join a voluntary oversight organization, and the continuing education that we are *already* taking will fulfil their recertification requirements.
I hope this gives you some perspectives on the importance of continuing education and its role in personal fulfillment, skill maintenance and development, and industry standards.
See you soon!
-Gwen
Want to dive deeper?
Join Gwen in Foundations or the Safe Movement For All Spines Mentorship.