Your Name: Doris Seau

Job Title: Founder, Trainer & Health Practitioner of EduQ International Wellness, which enhances children and women’s health using aromatherapy, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), therapeutic massage, and yoga

What is your nationality and background?  

I am a Malaysia-born Chinese and from an expat family in Bangkok. I’m also the Founder, Trainer and Health Practitioner of EduQ Wellness program, with a huge passion in teaching parents/caregivers to massage their children to promote bonding and wellbeing of children.

I am a certified therapist for Thai, Baby & Child and Postnatal Care Massage of Wat Po Massage School Thailand; instructor from the International Association of Infant Massage and Prenatal Massage Therapist of  Mothercare Australia; Hatha, Kids and Prenatal Yoga Instructor of Yoga Education Institute, USA; health practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) of Beijing International Acupuncture and Acupressure centre; therapist of children and women health acupressure massage of China Qingdao Massage Centre; and  trainer of children’s and women’s health of China Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

 What is your profession?

As a Massage & Yoga Wellness Trainer, I facilitate massage workshops for parents-to-be, parents, and caregivers with children, from babies to adolescents,  including special needs children, as well as offer prenatal massage and women’s health massage workshops. The EduQ International Parents-Child Wellness program focuses on  bonding and wellness of parents and children by educating them on massage concepts, approaches and techniques, which combine both natural therapies from the East (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and the West (Women & Children Aromatherapy Massage). The wellness workshops can be conducted at your place, pre-school centers  or wellness centres with advance planning.

Besides the parents-child wellness workshops, we feature a EduQ Instructors Course for the Japanese community in Bangkok. The was held last February and March in response to the high demand from the Japanese community. There will be more instructor courses coming up this year to cater the needs of parents who wish to learn how to massage their children for bonding and wellness benefits.

As a Health Practitioner, I provide wellness and therapeutic TCM, moxibustion and aromatherapy massages to women (prenatal and post natal care) and children (0 to 12 years old).

What are the key skills and responsibilities of this role?

Having the correct skill of massaging children at different ages with different symptoms is very important as every child’s needs are different.  As a wellness trainer, I have to ensure the workshop participants (caregivers/ parents/Instructor) learn and are able to apply the right massage know-how to kids of different ages for the optimal delivery of relaxation, health and happiness to them.

As a health practitioners for children’s massage, my responsibility is to give safe and therapeutic massage to improve the wellness condition of children, as well as to advise parents/caregivers on how to promote children’s health with the right massages, including approach, preparation and technique.

How did you get involved in your profession?    

In order to know the right ways of massaging my twin babies, I started the massage and wellness education 13 years ago when we lived in Bangkok from 2000 till 2006. After taking a baby and child and postnatal care massage courses at Wat Po, I realised the important of natural healing and wellness, especially for women and children. I continued learning, applying and sharing the knowhow and skills of massage wellness program in hospitals and community centres while staying in Thailand, Singapore, Japan and China. With many years of wellness education and experience as a massage therapist and instructor, I developed and founded the EduQ International Parents-Child Wellness Program in 2010, when I was working for HOME Women & Children Hospital in Shenzhen, China.

How does your role enhance the wellbeing or experience of children?

With a great passion in massage and yoga education, experience in massaging my own sons, and positive feedback from hundreds of parents-child wellness massage workshops I conducted over the years, I truly believe that parents/caregivers who attend the EduQ workshops will be able to learn and confidently use the right concept and approach with the nurturing touch for their children to promote bonding, wellbeing and a great massage experience for their children.

What challenges do your face in this role?

Medication is used very widely for children in Thailand and other Asian countries.  There are many health reports on the benefits of child massage, such as boosting immunity, helping growth, promoting relaxation and relief for common childhood ailments, such as tummy discomfort, cold, and cough. However, the result is slow compare to medication.  Educating parents about massaging children in Thailand, especially in the Thai community, is always a challenge. But on the other hand, more and more expat families in Thailand realise massaging could promote bonding and wellbeing of children, so the workshops of massaging baby and child are getting more attention now.

What do you hope to achieve within your industry?

I wish more and more babies and children will receive the nurturing touch from their parents or caregivers. To achieve it, I would like to cultivate more EduQ Wellness Instructors internationally, especially in Thailand, Japan, China, Malaysia, and Singapore, to be able to facilitate baby and child massage classes to teach parents and caregivers the safe, fun and effective massage methods. EduQ Wellness workshops are conducted in English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese languages.

Who or what inspires you?

My twin sons are the first two babies I started to massage and they are proof that massage improved their emotional and physical health.  They are the ones who inspired me to continue massaging them even at their age of 13 now. With such great outcomes, I started to share this gift with other parents and caregivers. Over the years, all the positive feedback inspired me further to develop EduQ parents-child wellness massage program.

Only a Bangkok local would know…

I always miss Malaysian-Singaporean style food when overseas. There is a little restaurant called “Bon Ton Kee” Chicken Rice near the entrance of Thonglor soi 14 that always fulfills my craving for home cooking. The chicken rice is famous for more than a century but I sometimes just can’t resist having a second dish — the Seafood HorFun, which is similar to Senyai Ladna Tale in Thai cuisine.

For more information on the EduQ International Parents-Child Wellness  program and upcoming workshops, please visit www.dorisseau.wix.com/wellness  or contact babymomcares@yahoo.com.

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