The Author

Larry Heisler, MA, LMT

One of New Jersey’s massage therapy pioneers (since 1975), Larry Heisler, M.A., LMT is the founder and director of the longest running massage school in the Garden State, the North Jersey Massage Training Center. Larry has taught massage therapy to thousands of students and has dramatically affected the massage and bodywork landscape in the tristate region. Larry became Director of Nutrition for the Parsippany Medical Complex after attending two alternative nutrition programs; the Kushi Institute and the Donsbach School of Nutrition. It was at the K.I. that Larry learned how to combine the macrobiotic nutritional counseling with traditional barefoot shiatsu. In fact, the first 8,000 massages Larry performed were entirely traditional barefoot shiatsu. Larry’s skills were so dynamic, that within a few years he had a substantial clientele and dozens of students apprenticing with him.

By the mid-eighties, Larry had a full-fledged massage therapy program with a cutting-edge curriculum combining a fusion of Eastern and Western medical massage applications. His revolutionary approach to bodywork is based on the direct influence the acupuncture meridian system has on the human musculature. Larry’s school has been widely acknowledged for its volunteer massage team participation in many hundreds of state-wide fund-raising events for organizations like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy, the Diabetes Foundation, the Red Cross, the Leukemia Society, Make A Wish Foundation, Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and the 9/11 Port Authority Ground Zero Command to name just a few. Larry was one of the very first in New Jersey to present what is now called Integrative Medical Programs in Wellness, Nutrition, Massage and Meditation for the hospital medical staffs at six different Grand Medical Rounds Symposiums including the New Jersey School of Medicine and Dentistry. Each one of those hospitals began offering Integrative Medicine divisions after Larry’s presentations. In addition, Larry’s school created and conducted the very first hospital-based massage therapy program offered in NJ. He also created a massage organization entitled, the United Bodywork and Massage Practitioners of NJ. At that time, his group was as large as the NJ Chapter of AMTA and was directly created to even the playing field and prevent the American Massage Therapy Association from enacting an exclusive Swedish massage license they were heavily promoting. To stop that monopoly from occurring Larry had an all-inclusive massage certification bill created specifically by a professional bill writer in the N.Y. Legislature. That became the model for a fair and just certification bill in the Garden State. His personal activism culminated on television with then Governor Christie Todd Whitman, where the Governor made it clear that a bodywork monopoly would not be tolerated. Larry’s United Bodywork organization then became one of the founding member groups of the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. In addition, Larry has presented programs on over thirty college campuses, for a dozen health departments, for a hundred different religious organizations, at many hundreds of New Jersey/New York corporations, has written the holistic wellness curriculum for three Universities and has done dozens of popular radio health shows like the Gary Null Show.

Currently, Larry’s school offers classes to improve the competitive skills of already licensed practitioners by offering advanced education on a continuing education basis. In fact, Larry’s school is one of the major continuing education providers in the tristate region. And while dozens of highly qualified educators share their talents at his school, Larry personally offers over a dozen classes himself. There are thousands upon thousands of glowing evaluations on file at the school written by students after taking Larry’s classes. Whenever you see therapists using a rocking elbow technique to the posterior body, chances are they studied with Larry.

In massage and bodywork, Larry is considered a Grand Master, having personally treated an estimated 60,000 patients including thousands of world-class athletes. His email newsletter goes out to 9,000 massage therapists and he has an exclusive arrangement for his school to offer Certification in Manual Lymph Drainage from the prestigious Manual Lymph Drainage Institute. Larry believes MLD will change the entire massage profession! Aside from his extensive education in massage therapy, Larry holds additional degrees and certifications in counseling, nutrition, education and ministry.

Larry wants to personally thank his wife, children, and office staff for their continued support and unconditional love and lastly his teachers, meditation master Hilda Charlton, Sensei’s Michio Kushi, Masahiro Oki, Shizuko Yamamoto, Dr. Wally Burnstein, and Ingeborg Schlobohm, LMT.