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Judith Koch is the founder of the Institute of Somatic Therapy, which, among other courses, provides a Pregnancy Massage Certification course.

Judith has been in the massage therapy field since 1991, after taking to heart a book that encourages seeking a career doing something that you love.

Less than two years after entering the massage field, three of her regular clients got pregnant at once. Knowing that they must certainly need massage now more than ever, but having been taught that pregnancy was a contraindication for massage, she decided to fly half way across the country to attend an advanced prenatal, labor, and infant massage certification course. She couldn’t believe it—she found a niche within her niche, this time getting to watch little miracles happen as icing on the cake.

She continued her massage education and achieved national certification status in 1993. Her business continued to grow. An article appeared in the newspaper. The local television news included her in one of their health segments. Massage and Bodywork Quarterly, a national massage association journal, did a story on her. Parenting Magazine did one a year later. About that same time, she learned about women called doulas, (from the Greek word for “servant”) who helped women during labor. Judith had been relying almost exclusively on massage to assist her clients, and she was curious what these non-massage therapists were doing to ease labor. She took her advanced doula training from the women who developed almost all doula curriculum currently available, Ms. Penny Simkin.

To date, Judith has given over a thousand prenatal massages and attended nearly 100 births. Her mothers are maintaining an unbelievable average of only four hours of labor, most completely drug free.

Judith loves teaching—giving students a new level of success through meaningful skills that produce measurable results. She loves hearing from students who have found a new level of enjoyment in their career after getting certified in a new specialty. She believes one shouldn’t settle for courses that are only theory or simplistic, rather they should reward themselves by making education dollars count with courses that have the ability to transform their practice. Based on her extensive training and experience, she developed a thorough course for massage during all stages of pregnancy and delivery, as well as basic infant massage and movement.