ITE Instructors
All of our instructors are registered massage therapists who teach at various College’s in Ontario. Many of our instructors have furthered their studies, pursuing Masters degrees, and, or education in osteopathy, yoga, and other specialized modalities. They are all passionate about the role Massage Therapy plays in maintaining and regaining good health.
Barbara Brendemuehl, RMT
Barbara Brendemuehl has been a practising full time massage therapist for over 30 years. Although her practise includes all age groups and types of treatment applications, she has been very interested in how massage therapy can help those with chronic or persistent pain. Barbara has presented on the topic of massage therapy and persistent pain to various health practitioners and the general public in the 1990s. In the last 20 years, it has become apparent that the treatment considerations and techniques she developed for persistent pain can be applied to a wide variety of conditions. Barbara is interested in sharing these treatment considerations now that they may benefit others on a wider scale.
Debra Curties, RMT
Debra Curties has been a massage therapist since 1984, and has been teaching Pathology and Clinical Theory to massage therapy students since 1987. She is the Executive Director and one of the owners of Sutherland-Chan School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her love of teaching and of the massage therapy profession have merged in many of the roles she has assumed in the past 15 years, including President of the American Massage Therapy Association’s Council of Schools, founding member of the Canadian Massage Therapy Alliance and the Canadian Council of Massage Therapy Schools, and contributor to the Ontario Core Curriculum and the Ontario College of Massage Therapists’ Standards of Practice. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the AMTA Foundation. She is the 1998 recipient of the Ontario Massage Therapist Association’s Meritorious Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the AMTA Council of Schools.
Pamela Fitch, BA, RMT
Pamela Fitch works as an educator, writer, mentor, consultant, peer supervisor and practitioner, and advocates for the profession both nationally and internationally. Pam has taught across Canada, the US and Hong Kong. Her workshops explore ethical challenges, communication, the massage therapeutic relationship, massage therapy and trauma, and the treatment of scars.
Cathy Fournier, RMT
Cathy graduated from Sutherland-Chan in 1990. She has extra training in lymph drainage, Mayan Abdominal massage and Cranial-Sacral therapy. She has been specializing in chronic pelvic pain for 8 years, and has been involved in massage therapy education and continuing education for over 10 years.
Margo Gal, CAP, LMT
Margo Gal graduated from Sutherland-Chan in 1980. She completed Ayurvedic studies under Dr. Vasant Lad, graduating in 1987, and then worked under his guidance at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque NM. In 2004, she completed a certification under Dr. Sunil Joshi in Nagpur, India. This involved mastering practical applications and various Ayurvedic body treatments including Ayurvedic Massage. Margo interweaves her deep practical knowledge of Buddhism into her work. She taught Ayurvedic Massage and Indie Head and Scalp Massage at the Four Seasons Spa Resort on Maui as well as at Lumeria Resort. She has also worked with Hospice Maui. Margo moved back to Canada in 2014, and is presently in private practise as an Ayurveda Practitioner.
Stacey Hauserman, RMT, DOMP
Stacey Hauserman is a firm believer in holistic approaches to health care. She combines her knowledge and experience of yoga, massage therapy, and osteopathy to provide unique and effective treatments. Stacey is a graduate of the 5-year program in Osteopathic Manual Therapy at the Canadian College of Osteopathy. She completed her thesis on “The Effects of Cranial Osteopathy on Balance in Parkinson’s Patients” and was awarded the William Garner Sutherland award for outstanding research in the advancement of osteopathy.
Matvey Kipershtein, BA, RMT
Matvey graduated from the Sutherland-Chan School and Teaching Clinic in 2004, where he is now a sessional instructor teaching Joint Mobilization and supervising student clinics. Matvey has extra training in various myofascial release modalities, including Muscle Energy. He has developed this Muscle Energy course aiming to present an effective manual therapy technique in a way that can be immediately utilized in RMTs practice.
Kathy MacDonald, BA, RMT
Kathy MacDonald, BA was a Massage Therapist from 1983-2004, teaching the Treatments class at Sutherland–Chan (1983-1989) and establishing and supervising the first hospital based outreach at the Guelph General Hospital in 1991 as well as outreach program at the University of Guelph’s High Performance Clinic. Kathy was also one of the co-owners of In Touch Education. She returned to school in 1998 and earned a Honours BSc (Human Kinetics) followed by a Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS). Her current research and teaching interests include anatomy, posture and movement, evidence-based practice and information literacy. She is currently taking a Yoga Teachers Training.
Bruce McKinnon, RMT
Bruce has been a Registered Massage Therapist since 1990 and has taught various courses since 1991. A long-time Anatomy instructor, he is currently teaching Palpation, Joint Mobilization and Myofascial Release at the Sutherland-Chan School in Toronto. As a practitioner, he has pursued in-depth studies in craniosacral therapy and myofascial release – two applications that significantly influence his work. Bruce has been presenting continuing education courses to Massage Therapists for many years. These courses include treatment of the Neck, the Thorax, TMJ Dysfunction and Myofascial Release as well as a series of Anatomy Review courses. A perennial student, Bruce is currently in his fifth year of study at the Canadian College of Osteopathy in Toronto.
Monica Noy, BA, BSc., RMT, DOMP
MSc Rehabilitation (Pain Management focus) at McMaster (current study).
Monica Noy graduated from Sutherland-Chan in 2003 and from the Canadian College of Osteopathy in 2010. She currently teaches Research Literacy with a healthy dose of critical thinking at Sutherland-Chan. She is a self-described skeptical manual therapist and research nerd. She incorporates current research in manual therapies and medicine in her practice and spends her spare time on professional forums on the internet. She loves discussing all manner of manual therapy research and science topics and has developed an international professional network of manual therapists.
David Schroevalier, R.Ac. RMT
David is a Massage Therapist, Craniosacral Therapist and Acupuncturist and has been the owner of Schroevalier Therapeutics, since 1996. During this time, he has had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings; hospitals, a group clinic and at sporting events, all while maintaining his practice.
His teaching experience includes both theory and practical applications. He was the Director of Practical at CCMH, at which he also taught everything from anatomy to treatment applications. He went on to co-create and direct the College of Acupuncture & Therapeutics, a successful private school of professional development for health care professionals. He has presented in a variety of venues, from small classes to large conferences.
David’s passion for anatomy and energetics has given him a grounded understanding of anatomy and the mechanics of movement while also giving him a deeper knowledge of how energy and fluid affect the overall well-being of an individual. His clinical practice is filled with variety but he specializes in rehabilitation work and women’s health issues.
David’s professional goal, both in caring for his client’s and teaching his student’s has been to “Enlighten, Encourage and Empower” so that each individual reaches their greatest potential. By providing his client’s and student’s with the knowledge and understanding of the issues/subject their confidence is boosted and it inspires them to move to their greater self.
David Zulak, MA, RMT
David Zulak MA, RMT, author of Clinical Assessment for Massage Therapists: a practical guide (2018, Handspring Publishing), has been a massage therapist since 1994, and an instructor since 1996. David has a wide and diversified knowledge base. He has been an instructor at several schools in Canada and has also been the director of the massage therapy program at two schools, and has written a complete 2200 hour massage therapy program, used at several campuses. Over his teaching career, he has taught most courses that are given at a school of massage. However, his focus and interest has always remained anatomy, treatments, techniques and orthopaedic assessment skills. Presently, David primarily teaches seminars for practicing massage therapists, along with sustaining a busy clinical practice in Paris, Ontario. Since graduating as a massage therapist David has pursued instruction in all the basic osteopathic techniques, along with lectures in osteopathic principles and theory, totaling well over 700 hours. He has been using an osteopathic approach within his massage therapy practice for over a decade, melding the two, with the intent to provide a more comprehensive approach to treatment for his clients.