Massage Therapy Careers
With massage therapy careers being talked about on many online job sites as the up and coming career – what does it really take to become a massage therapist?
Massage school just teaches you how to do massage. It doesn’t teach you how to be a massage therapist.
When you touch people you are touched too. Touch is a two way sense. You can not touch without being touched yourself. Because of this and the fact that people who seek out massage therapists are in pain, stressed out and vulnerable to begin with. What happens when you ask someone -a total stranger- to take their clothes off and lay on a table in a dark, quiet room to massage them?
So often many massage therapists come to the massage profession looking to help others. They also become massage therapists because of having been helped themselves by a good massage therapists. People seek out massage therapy careers thinking it will create more meaning in their lives. They think that because they know how to do a good massage that it only takes having good hands to be successful in a career in massage.
We don’t have any actual research or statistics on the burnout rate of the massage profession in particular. It seems you only hear of the people leaving because of it and don’t hear as many success stories.
Burnout can happen for many reasons but at the core of many of the reasons is that massage therapists tend to be people pleasers and so called helping professionals that often results in unhealthy helping and burnout. Massage therapists struggle along without clients or the income to sustain a successful business. They lack marketing skills or motivation to put themselves out there to learn how to market or hire someone to do it for them.
What is lacking in massage school is the basics and in depth support needed to create a solid business framework that includes a business and marketing plan. It also involves being willing to do your own personal growth work to understand what it really is that happens when you touch someone not only from the clients perspective but from your perspective. The main role of the massage therapist is to look out for the clients best interests at all times and that is hard to do when you have your own issues coming into play. Massage therapists help to fill their own needs for attention and appreciation. Even Oprah once said on her show ” I just wish those massage therapists would shut up!” (I am not joking!) When you work with people who pay you and you take up the session talking and giving advice, the session becomes more about you than the client.
To keep the session focused on the client it is important to get your personal needs met outside of the massage office. The best way to do that is through the process of peer supervision, supervision or getting even more professional help from a psychologist.
The thing is that it can be another way especially if you come into a massage therapy career with some understanding of the dynamics of touch and the therapeutic relationship.
See also: info on massage classes and massage therapy careers at www.thebodyworker.com
See the list of massage classes that you will take in massage school.
Visit www.massage-career-guides.com to get more information on careers in massage therapy and purchase my ebook – The Massage Therapy Career Guide – The truth about becoming a massage therapist.
