Schmidt, Dawn - LMT

Dawn Schmidt, LMT has been involved in both public and private education for over 30 years. She has served as Director of Education and Instructor at both Brenneke School of Massage (now Cortiva Institute - Seattle and Seattle Massage School (now Everest College). Currently, Dawn is an adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University Physical Medicine Department teaching massage skills to future Naturopathic Physicians and Acupuncturists. She is also currently providing continuing education in the form of workshops and mentoring.

Dawn has been licensed and practicing massage in Washington State for over 20 years. Prior to that, she practiced in California off and on since 1977. She has an eclectic private cash based practice and serves as an employee in a medically oriented clinic providing services. Dawn's massage/bodywork skills span a wide spectrum of approaches from energetic and wellness to clinical medical massage/bodywork. She specializes in treatment of difficult to resolve conditions in all body areas and she recently served as a Research Interventionist with Group Health Research Institute. Dawn provided massage treatment for patients with cervicalgia as part of a large massage dosing study.

Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education/Kinesiology and a Professional Teaching Credential (for K - Adult). She has also taught in public high school setting teaching health education and physical education.

Dawn has also been involved in consulting, research and has been a long-term volunteer for many industry organizations, such as:

• Group Health Research Institute: consultant to develop data gathering instruments and massage protocols treating low back pain and generalized anxiety disorder.
• C3 Study: developed the massage protocols for use in the "C3 Study" addressing end of life care with Bastyr University and the University of Washington.
• Massage Therapy Research Consortium (MTRC): former member
• Academic Consortium on Complimentary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC): as a founding member Dawn focused on facilitating respect and understanding amongst health care professions and developed common ground to support accurate education, representative of the respective professions.
• Massage Therapy Body Of Knowledge project: task force member
• Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA): served as commissioner, secretary and as an experienced on-site evaluation team member and leader
• Accreditation Council on Continuing Education and Training (ACCET): experienced on-site evaluation team member and leader
• American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA): member of the national committee for Ethics and Standards of Care. At the state level, Dawn was instrumental in developing competency based educational and licensing standards for the profession.

Dawn provides consultation services for attorneys, law enforcement, legislators, educators/school owners and licensed massage practitioners regarding massage business operations, practice and skill development considerations, as well as ethical and legal issues for the massage profession. She diligently worked to develop, lobby for change and facilitate legislation beneficial for the profession. In 1999, she participated on the Insurance Commissioners Clinicians Workgroup on the Integration of Complementary and Alternative Medicine clarifying coverage issues for CAM services and forging alliances between CAM providers and deepening the dialogue between CAM providers and clinical directors for Insurance companies. NCBTMB #451818-11.