New Judge at the World Championship in Massage
The Panel of judges at the World Championship in Massage is a strong team. Our newest member is:
JILL KRISTIN BERKANA LMT, BCTMB from the USA.
Founder – Director – Academic Dean – Instructor Trainer – Mindful Expressionism® Originator – Advocate and Ambassador for the Massage Therapy and Bodywork Profession
Jill Kristin Berkana founded the Berkana Institute of Massage Therapy in 2011. She is the School Director, the Academic Dean and provides strategic leadership for the Berkana Institute’s Academic Department. She served as a Board Director for the United States National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork and was the Board Liaison for the
NCBTMB Ethics and Standards Committee.
Ms. Berkana is the Original Developer of the Berkana Institute’s Style of Bodywork, and designed the comprehensive curriculum. She is the chief advisor for all Berkana Institute’s operational, student and faculty affairs. In 2005 she founded the Costa Rica School of Massage Therapy (CRSMT) and was the Acting Director, Academic Dean, and Senior Bodywork Instructor for the “Jungle Massage School” from its inception through the fall of 2011. She is a Licensed and Board Certified Massage Therapist. She enjoys a thriving massage therapy practice since 1990, during which she has inspired and mentored many students and provided thousands of massage therapy treatments to a dedicated clientele, specializing in Normalization of Soft Tissue techniques (NST), Integrative Massage Therapy, Myo-fascial Release, and Neuro-Muscular Therapy. Ms. Berkana is a U.S. National Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork Approved Continuing Education Provider.
Her extensive and evolving career path in the massage therapy profession has led to the development and oversight of massage therapy programs for health clubs, chiropractic offices and educational ventures. She created and launched a destination spa program for a resort in the jungles of Belize where she provided massage, spa treatments, strength training, nutritional counseling, and guided tours. She has provided expert consultation for resorts and spas internationally. Over the years, she has worked with a full spectrum of clients including infants, professional athletes, cancer survivors, adolescents, elderly clients and familiar celebrities.
Ms. Berkana is the originator of the creative bodywork approach known as Mindful Expressionism®. Mindful Expressionism® blends the therapist’s unique expression of bodywork as an art form, with the customization of treatments designed specifically to meet the client’s constantly changing needs. The therapist utilizes intuition, communication and mindfulness in order to understand and respond to the client’s feedback. Mindful Expressionism® is a meditative form of artistic bodywork with no agenda, no assumption, or standardized recipe. Therapists draw on traditional, modern and invented techniques in order to provide powerfully effective treatment, while enhancing the holistic well-being of the client. With this approach, every massage can be a masterpiece, and as such, be deeply rewarding for the bodywork artists, as well as the client. Mindful Expressionism® supports industry longevity for the therapist.
Ms. Berkana has written for and has been featured in Massage Magazine. She will participate on an expert panel at the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education, Education Congress in 2019. Ms. Berkana is a passionate advocate and ambassador for the massage therapy profession and is excited about the future of this healing art and is training apprentices to teach her methodology and style in schools abroad and in the United States.
Jill Kristin Berkana looks forward meeting and watching all the great Massage therapists at the World Championship in Massage in Copenhagen, Denmark in June.