I want to become a Massage Therapist, but I have a few questions...

[M.O.A.B]

Firstly, hey ^_^ I'm new.
Secondly, I will love you forever if you can help me with a few questions:
Thirdly, let me say, I am perfectly confident that Massage Therapy is my cup of tea-leafs. The answers I receive from you won't change the fact that I will go into Massage Therapy - but it may change other things like, for instance, the use of a second job (which for me would be a freelance writer), and the such like. So any answers that you can give me would be gratefully received.



1) How stable is being a massage therapist? No job comes with complete stability, but if i am going to pursue it as a career, I need to know that I can actually live off of the income..

2) How do I go about training? There is a college near me that does part-time 1-year courses in aromatherapy and Swedish massage, I was thinking about doing both of those - but would it 'look' better on a CV if I trained at an actual spa (or wherever)? If so, could you give me some direction as to how I go about finding the closest place to me where I can train?

3) If you're a massage therapist - what do you love and hate about the job?


Feel free to add any other input I just want to get a better idea of what I am jumping into before I pursue training and effort.

 

[Arvind]

Hi there! Welcome to the forum, first of all

I can't say I'm an expert to be saying, I am just in a course myself and only been there a month so all say is really my own experiences and sharing some of the thoughts from my classmates on the topics but I hope that it helps you all the same!

In terms of stability - people in my class I have 2-3 who did massage before but wanting to refresh themselves and they reckoned it was pretty stable albeit they found being self employed a little tricky (though this can be affected by many factors including location/demand). However a lot of them agree that having a certificate into Sports Massage will put them in a better position for a job (presuming to be employed by someone) than what it is for someone who doesn't. Equally; over the past few years I've noticed a lot of demand in places such as cruise ships which mostly run on yearly contracts which can be renewed or not - for at least some grounding (and life!) experience that may also help =]

Consider: location, local demand (don't be scared, go into health spas, massage parlours etc in your area and ask!), what type of massage you want (sports, leisure, health) and also what qualifications will mean to you (are you going to be self employed/employee and which are the most in demand qualifications).


I think the second question rests somewhat on personal experiences and opinions. All I can say is being in a college (which of course will have bias in it, so how much truth, I couldn't say) is that learning through a body is more secure and professional to image than not. What I will say on that note though that I do trust in 100% is if you do go for being trained up via a spa then ensure of what the training in the end will get you. Will it be a recognised body or just a certificate from the spa? Again, if you know what you want to do with massage, it will help you understand what you will need qualification-wise.


As I said, I'm training and hand on heart, I love every single class (including Anatomy and Physiology though I'm sure it hates me !) and it's hard work but extremely rewarding! The one thing I hate is trying to perfect going through a consultation form without sounding like I'm just listing off conditions and sounding too...clinical. But that's not really a thing with massage itself it's just my own frustration to master a technique!

Hope it helps!

 

[laksh]

I would say being a massage therapist is probably about as stable as being a freelance writer. If you've coped with freelance writing, you should be able to cope with massage therapy. If you're wanting a change because you want something more reliable than freelance writing, it might not be the best option.

A full time load for a massage therapist is usually considered 20hrs hands on work per week, more than 20hrs will usually put too much stress on your body, you push through an burn out. The average life span for a massage career is less than 5 years - most people don't even last 2 year either because of burn-out or injuries from doing too much, or financial stress from not doing enough. People think of the hourly rate for a massage and think it's a good wage, the problem is you can't do that work for 40hrs a week, physically it's closer to brick laying than a desk job.

Massage therapists can be either self employed, getting to keep all of what the client pays, but when you start getting the clients in is the problem, 100% of 1 client per week isn't going to get you far.
You can work as a contractor and get much less than 100% of the clients you see, 50% of 20 clients per week can be a good amount of money, if they can give you 20 high paying clients. The problem is they might not have 20 clients for you, and they might not charge much for a massage, and you might get less than 50%......
Or you can work as an employee and get an hourly rate, whether you do a treatment or not. If you are only qualified in Swedish or aromatherapy or holistic massage, it means you can get a job in a spa and get paid the type of hourly rate that beauty therapists get, which isn't much, female dominated industry, low hourly wage. If you have sports massage you can get into more of a clinical environment and the hourly rate is usually better. In either environment, if you are getting a nice regular hourly rate regardless if you are doing a treatment, you will find that they will try to having you doing treatments as much as possible, usually more than you should be doing and it will lead to burn out.

While you build up the strength and stamina needed for a full massage workload, you do need a second income stream and/or a partner with a regular income.


I would go to a school and get a formal qualifications in massage rather than just pick it up on the job - without the formal qualification, the next place you try to get work at won't know what you were doing before and there will be lots of more qualified therapists that will get the job rather than you. Formal qualifications make getting insurance easier, and if you are a contractor or self employed you need insurance.