The History of Alberta College of Massage Therapy
Alberta College of Massage Therapy (ACMT) has a rich and diverse history, dating back to 2001 when everything began!
The very first campus was opened in Grande Prairie with the original name of Prairie Massage Training. This initial campus was opened by the Founding Principal Ed Mooney. Ed was a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) and to this day ACMT has kept that tradition: all Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Clinic Supervisors and the present Principal are all RMT’s with many years of experience in practice.
From the original Grande Prairie campus, Ed decided to follow the growing call out for more campus locations within Alberta. He proceeded to open doors in Lloydminster, Edmonton, then Fort McMurray and Calgary over the next few years and changed the name from Prairie Massage Training to Alberta Massage Training. Locations were rented from universities and other higher learning facilities.
In early 2015 Ed decided to retire and pass the business along to new owners. This brought many new changes to Alberta Massage Training.
Firstly, Alberta Massage Training was replaced by the new existing name, Alberta College of Massage Therapy (ACMT), which was a more accurate representation of the services provided by administration and instructors. As Ed stepped out of his Principal, Dawn Sharman stepped into the Principal role. Dawn had been instructing with Alberta Massage Training and was already familiar with the model of curriculum being offered.
Over the following years ACMT established dedicated campuses and Student Clinics all over Alberta: Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Lloydminster, Grande Prairie, and Fort McMurray. Student Clinics where our students get their practicum hours working on the public while supervised by RMTs.
During the development and opening of ACMT campuses many internal improvements were happening simultaneously. From overhauling the curriculum to the Regulated Provinces Standards of Education (Inter-jurisdictional Practical Competencies and Professional Indicators for Entry-to-Level Massage Therapists), launching an online student resource portal, providing Student ID cards and professional shirts to opening supervised clinic shifts and offering graduation dinners for an end-of-program celebration, ACMT was growing faster than ever!
Moving forward, we are still dedicated to ACMT’s mission to educate safe, confident, ethical and effective massage therapists.
