Massage Therapy as a Career

Being a massage therapist is the dream of many people around the world. First, because of the environment you will be working at and second because of the job itself. There are certain skills and a type of personality that are more adequate than others, but as long as you put your effort and work hard enough, you can get your permission and learn those soft skills as you go. Read on to find out everything about massage therapy as a career.

Job Description for a Massage Therapist

Massage therapists take care of multiple tasks. There is a big difference between private practitioners who can make the appointments, massage clients and also handle the money. In the case of the practitioners who work for a spa, they only take care of doing their part while the spa gets the clients, handles money and makes the appointments. Let´s take a look at the duties of a massage therapist:

• Perform the Massage Therapy –The first and most important task for a massage therapist is the therapy itself. Delivering top-notch service can ensure you the entrance to other spas or more clients if you are a private practitioner.
• Soft Skills and Knowledge Sharing with Clients – Most serious practitioners perform a brief interview with the client in order to get as much information from them as possible and address their issues promptly. The idea is that the therapist is as helpful as possible to the client.
• Maintain Records – It is important that the massage therapist can keep good records about customer´s problems and their evolution until their healing. Records are good to share with other professionals, but also to give feedback to customers.

• Develop Treatment Plans – Unless you are a practitioner dedicated to tourism and random clients in a wellness spa, it is important that you trace a strategy with which to resolve all the issues that the customer told you about in the initial interview.
• Be Knowledgeable and up to date – Massage therapy advances as far as any other science in the 21^st century and therefore, keeping up to date with latest news is a definite need. Also, most clients like to ask questions and be told what is it that you are doing, and which is the problem you are aiming to fix with it.

Needed Education to Become a Massage Therapist

First of all, to be a massage therapist, what you need is willingness and vocation. It is not an easy task to deal with people all day every day and it is not an easy task to be on your feet for many hours a day; massage therapy is a very physical work and will demand a lot from your body. That being said, you also need soft skills, empathy and a minimum of patience to cope with clients´ requests and needs. If you have all of that and want to get into the wonderful world of massage therapy, then you should get your degree and have the sufficient working hours needed to get the license in the particular state or place in the world you live at. For example, in some places in the United States of America, you have to do between 330 and 1,200 hours of practice to apply for an examination and only once you pass the exam you can actually become a massage therapist. Finally, to become a massage therapist is a path that, with hard work and continuous training, can be a very good income. Good massage therapists continue studying until they become specialists in every type of massage they can. For example, if you studied Swedish massage and take a course into deep tissue massage or even shiatsu massage (or both) you can get more work as a private practitioner, but also at spas. The more highly-trained you are with more hours of practice under your belt, the higher chances you have to work in the best places.

Possible Career Paths When Choosing Massage Therapy as a Career

As a massage therapist, there are many career paths you can follow and make good money out of while fulfilling your dream.

• Rehab Clinics and Hospitals – When you work in this environment, the set of rules is changed and the client is no longer the one deciding which kind of massage and when to have it, but the prescribing doctor. The environment in which you will be working is not going to be the most glamorous one, but if your vocation is to help people, then this is exactly the place to do it.
• Spas – Working in a spa is a dream come true for most practitioners. It is not all made of gold, of course; you will be experimenting the behind the scenes of this huge industry and you might not like taking off the magic to those places. On the other hand, it doesn´t hurt to go to work surrounded by chilling music, beautiful scenarios, exquisite scents and low lights every day.
• Private Practitioners – This kind of work can be mixed with any or both of the above. Private practitioners that have many customers make very good money and most can handle their own schedules on a one-on-one basis. The good thing about being a private practitioner is that you get paid for what you work, and hence, you have more control about your daily activities vs. your income. The downside of it is that most of the times, you won´t have a fixed salary to trust upon and pay the rent, services, credit cards and more on time.

Conclusion

Being a massage therapist is not for everyone, but it really is a great way of making a living if it suits your personality and physical aptitudes. Some practitioners even go on to open their own wellness centers in time and continue their career from another point of view. It is also a great way to complement another income doing just random private visits. Whichever is your career path, becoming a massage therapist is a great option.