Northwest School of Animal Massage

The faculty at the Northwest School of Animal Massage includes our experienced instructors and guest speakers, as well as administrative and student services staff.

Lola Michelin, founder and director of the school, is responsible for curriculum development and teaches many of our courses, including the advanced levels of training.

Kim Bauer, Jaime Johnson, Megan Ayrault, Polly Kelin and Joan Sorita round out our team of oustanding instructors. Each have successful animal health related businesses or massage practices of their own and bring their wealth of current knowledge to each class. Several also serve as distance-learning instructors to guide students through their at-home studies.

We are proud to have several guest speakers who share their expertise with our students; including Dr. Michael Salewski, DVM, a veterinarian with chirorpractic, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medcine expertise and Shelly Kerron is a World Cup Grand Prix Showjumping rider and trainer. Others include farriers, canine behaviorists and animal trainers.

The administrative staff offers assistance with program application and financing and tracks student progress. Sandy Dochnahl serves our student body as their student services representative and Diane Bowlin oversees financial matters, while David Coat-Robles is on hand to field information technologies.

Regardless of your path of study, you will find the NWSAM staff friendly, professional and committed to your success.

The NWSAM Faculty:

Lola Michelin, LMP LAMP SAMP
Founder of NWSAM, Director of Education
Lola Michelin founded the Northwest School of Animal Massage in 2001 following years of successful practice in massage for horses, dogs and people. She has over 20 years experience in the veterinarian and zoological fields. She speaks and writes regularly on the topic of animal massage and is active in promoting standards of practice for the industry at large. She developed and currently instructs the large animal, small animal and exotic species training programs at NWSAM. She has been featured in numerous magazines and has appeared on television and radio as an advocate for animal therapies. Director and Founder of the Northwest School of Animal Massage Chairman of the Washington Animal Massage Association, 2000-2004 Published and featured in: Massage MagazineJournal of Massage Washington Massage JournalWhole Horse Journal Modern Dog Women and Horses: Volume Two Radio appearances: Animals Aloud, San Francisco Martha Norwalk’s Animal World, Seattle Pet Shop Talk, Internet Radio National Public Radio Television appearances: Good Day Oregon
More

Megan Ayrault, LMP LAMP SAMP
Instructor
Megan Ayrault is a Licensed Massage Practitioner and a Large and Small Animal Massage Practitioner. She had advanced training in Shiatsu, MFR and Saddle-Fitting. After graduating from Harvard (BA-- English), Megan earned a graduate degree in education from Seattle University. Megan has studied animal massage for both large and small animals for many years, and uses these skills in her private practice. Her interests with horses have been primarily dressage, trail riding, natural horsemanship and teaching therapeutic riding. The hard-working therapy horses were a significant part of her initial inspiration to learn equine massage, followed by continuing education classes, apprenticing and expansion to work with humans and dogs. Visit her website at www.touchwithheart.com and watch for the upcoming release of her eBook and informational site All About Animal Massage.
More

Jen Streit LMP SAMP LMHC
LMHC SAMP
Jen has recently left NWSAM to dedicate herself to her animal massage practice. She taught small animal courses for us for many years.She brought a broad base of experience to our students and will be sadly missed.
More

David Cota-Robles
Information Technologies
David is our go-to guy for all things technical. When he joined the NWSAM staff in 2008, we were able to begin implementing many of the programs that have long been on our wish list, such as our email newsletter, better communication tools for our distance-learning students and instructors, improved database management for our student records and, coming soon, more interactive online activities for our students.His easy way with animals and true empathy for those animals in less fortunate situations shine through in all he does. He has taken several of the NWSAM classes and hopes to expand his work into massage in the years to come.
More

Kim Bauer LAMP SAMP
LAMP, SAMP
Kim Bauer teaches both our LAMP and SAMP program and is based near our Portland campuses. She is also our on-staff expert in acupressure and will be teaching acupressure classe s through our partnership with Tall Grass Animal Acupressure. Kim works part-time as a technician in a small animal clinic when she isn't massaging her clients or spending time with her horses and other animals at home.
More

Diane Bowlin
Bookkeeper
Daine Bowlin is our bookkeeper and a fellow animal lover. Diane works with our students to manage their school finances and keeps a close eye on our expenses.When she isn't helping her clients move toward success, she is in a yoga class or at a football game.
More

Jaime Johnson LMP LAMP SAMP
LMP, LAMP, SAMP
Jaime travels all the way from Texas to teach our classes. She grew up with horses and has a special way with all animals. She is particuarly skilled in the arena of sports massage. She has competed with her horses extensively and is currently mom to one horse, one puppy and two cats.
More

Sandy Dochnahl
Student Services Representative
Sandy is the happy voice at the other end of the phone that most people hear when they first contact NWSAM. In addition to answering questions for our potential students, she will assist you in enrolling for class and manage your progress throughout class. She keeps all of us here organized and works closely with David to manage all of the information that passes through our doors.
More

Website Design by Montana Banana