July 13th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
“Show me your outcome competencies” is the latest article from Keith Grant on what is needed in the massage profession.
Here’s the recipe: Insist on differentiating between “high requirements†and “high standards.†Standards lead to observable outcomes while requirements don’t have to. Define a job specification for an “entry-level practitioner.†Define all of the contexts in which you believe the job is done. For each context, break the performance into tasks. Get feedback from the stakeholders in each context. For each task, create a list of required observable competencies or, if covert, competency indicators. Define the needed proficiency levels. Get more feedback. Merge the individual lists of competencies into a master list of competencies, taking the highest proficiency level at which each occurs. Implement a plan to identify applicant learning gaps and teach them what they aren’t doing. Assess the results, and modify definitions and teaching methods to obtain the outcomes you want. Reward yourself for creating something that meets specific goals for stakeholders and is a clear guide to schools and students in reaching them. Then go back and assess the results again. The beauty of this method is that all levels are explicit. If you compare your competency standards with someone else’s, you can track down the exact source of differences.
To begin with I didn’t really even know what outcome competencies meant and am still in the process of figuring it out.
Here is what I found online that helped me understand a little more:
Definition of Competency from this website
A competency refers to an individual’s demonstrated knowledge, skills, or abilities (KSAs) performed to a specific standard. Competencies are observable, behavioral acts that require a combination of KSA’s to execute. They are demonstrated in a job context and, as such, are influenced by an organization’s culture and work environment. In other words, competencies consist of a combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary in order to perform a major task or function in the work setting.
Keith also explains it a little further :
“These are what the trainee should be able to do/demonstrate after the training, not the process of the training. It gets away from the pervasive idea in the massage world that the results of training are defined by hours. Several weeks ago, I put together a few notes and an example of some very rough XML. “
In other words - what does it take to be a massage therapist and how can we develop schools that teach this and a system for credentialing or licensing massage therapists?
From what I have seen and can decipher - schools have added hours of training without any real basis for needing more training. One of the reasons why the number of hours of training has increased over the years is mainly because students can get more funding in the form of loans and grants when the cost of school is higher. It that a good enough reason to say that it takes more hours of education to become a successful massage therapist?
What does it take to be successful? I don’t think it has anything to do with anything we learn in massage school. Monica Roseberry in her book “Marketing Massage” did an interesting study and drove around the US and interviewed massage therapists to find out what they thought made them successful or unable to be successful as a massage therapist. What she found had nothing to do with any academics or learning or number of hours of education - but how committed the therapist was, a desire to serve, being professional (setting boundaries) and customer service.
What can we add to Keith’s collection of competencies?
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July 13th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
I was just about to take some books to the used book store to trade in when I came across a copy of a book written in 1986 called “living in the Light” by Shakti Gawain.
I am sure I read it a long time ago but when I started re-reading it yesterday I was delighted to find another explanation of the theories I write about - the ‘code of the caretaker’ - which involve learning to take responsibility for ourselves and take care of ourselves first before taking care of others. It leads to learning to be of service which is different from helping.
There are a few great chapters - on on the “Tyrant and the Rebel”. Here is what she says:
“The tyrant is the inner voice that tells us what we should and shouldn’t do. It’s all our rules and rigid expectations. The rebel is the part of us that refuses to do anything it’s told to do. It reacts in total rebellion and trusts no one. When the tyrant says ‘do this’ the rebel says ‘No way’.
The rebel was developed early in childhood in response to pressures and demands from outside authorities. The rebel originally protected our feelings by refusing to believe anything our intuition knew was untrue.
The tyrant wants to be heard and wants cooperation.
Neither the rebel or the tyrant are listening to or protecting you anymore. They have taken on their own personalities and are working in reaction to each other. When this happens, people feel stuck.
Neither the tyrant or the rebel are truly you. By learning to trust and follow your intuition both the tyrant and the rebel dissolve and you emerge into who you really are.
So when you are struggling in your life somewhere it is a good idea to take a look at who is speaking and taking the actions. Is it the tyrant who keeps driving you making you think that you should or should not be doing something? Is your rebel reacting and stamping their feet saying “no”?
Learning to trust your intuition is a process. Taking it easy and being gentle on yourself and taking very small steps can help you get unstuck. When the tyrant and the rebel are fighting it really is a form of beating yourself up which is what you were probably taught to do at an early age. It happens when we are told things like “big girls don’t cry”, “stop crying or I will give you something to cry about”, “you can’t sing - you should be an accountant” and all of the other critical voices of others told you. Everytime you beat yourself up you are continuing the cycle.
Learning to be gentle with yourself requires that you develop a certain amount of strength
Gentleness comes from a place of spiritual abundance. We can
only afford to be gentle when we are secure enough to lay aside
our instincts for self preservation, defensiveness or aggression when
we know what we need.
Taking the time to really go inside and find out what you need is really about taping into your intuition - your inner guidance system - your feelings.
The wealthy massage therapist is able to honor both the tyrant and the rebel and get in touch with their deeper selves and finds out what they need and value and is able to start taking the steps to tune into their intuition and take care of their inner needs.
Posted in Ethics, Peer Supervision, Recommended Reading, The Code of the Caretaker, The Wealthy Massage Therapist | No Comments »
July 11th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
Getting a massage license in Arizona has certain requirements that can be found at www.massagetherapycareers.com.
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July 11th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
When I start working with a massage therapist who is just starting their massage business or someone is more experienced I teach them something I have called truth marketing. It is a way of taking a look at what you value most and then taking the action steps you need to show that you value that.
There are so many different types of marketing and so many things you can do to market your massage practice but none of them will work until your actions are in alignment with your inner self (higher being, god self or whatever you want to call it.) This often is a process of discovering more about yourself and what your values are and what you desire to happen in your practice. When you are able to start taking action steps that support those values the marketing you do will be more effective. You will also begin to see things happen without you even having to do anything. Suze Orman in her book “Women and Money” calls it being in harmony with yourself.
Shakti Gawain in her book “Living in the Light” calls it following your intuition. Ester and Jerry Hicks in their book call it “the Law of Attraction”.
Whatever you want to call it- the bottom line is that it works but it isn’t always easy to get to that place of integrity. It sometimes takes doing a lot of different things so that you can see what you like or don’t like so you can feel the difference and learn to choose what feels better.
Like I have been doing insurance billing for about 6 years and became a provider for the major insurance companies here in WA. At first they paid really will (above my cash rate) but gradually through the years they started paying less and less and making it harder to get paid and decreasing clients benefits. I had to work harder to get paid the same. I hated dealing with collecting payments and writing chart notes and reports. I also had to deal with clients trying to use their benefits for stress but their policies do not cover stress and they were not happy. I put up with it for a few years thinking it would get better and they would pay more but it just got worse. I kept doing insurance because those are the people who called. I finally made a decision not to take any more insurance clients and things started changing. I started getting new clients almost weekly from my website www.massageseattle.net that I created using Site Build it! and also got a stead flow of calls from my www.citycentermassage.com which was a test site using a system provided by massagelaunch.com. I also raised my cash rates for new clients considerably. After I stopped taking clients from the low paying insurance companies I found one that paid more than my cash rate and all of a sudden started getting clients from them. I am now doing less massage than ever and getting paid more than ever.
Or in the words of one massage therapist “Once I finally opened myself up to “receive” the benevolence of the universe, it happened right away.”
Posted in Building Your Practice, Recommended Reading, Starting Your Practice | No Comments »
July 9th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the issues in the massage profession is how we define massage and bodywork.
Each state that is licensed has a different definition of what massage is and who can do it. I am not sure where the term Bodywork started but it is also used to describe structured touch. The difference between what is massage and what is bodywork is very unclear since we don’t define either for ourselves and let the licensing boards do so.
Is Bodywork a type of massage or is massage a type of bodywork?
When I hear the word massage I think of only Swedish massage which is what is taught in basic massage school.
Bodywork is thought to be more therapeutic than massage and works to make changes in the physical alignment and function of the body. Those who are bodyworkers such as Rolfers or other structural integrators believe that there is a big difference between massage and bodywork. I agree with this having been trained in a structural integration offshoot -Zentherapy. When I learned Zentherapy I had to unlearn most of what I learned in basic massage school. We didn’t move fluids toward the heart and worked in places such as the mouth, armpit and behind the knee and other endangerment areas that were not allowed in basic massage. I also learned to work on inflamed area of the body that were recently strained or sprained (within hours of occurring) with positive results.
And what about all the other different types of massage techniques? Is Bowen therapy massage? Is polarity therapy massage? Is Reiki massage? Is cranio-sacral therapy massage? Is Berry work massage? Is the Rosen method massage?
Also as I research the different ways massage and bodywork is defined by the various states for licensing purposes there is a great variation in what is allowed and what is not. We can never have reciprocal licensing that allows you to practice in every state until everyone agrees on a definition of massage and bodywork.
So how do we as a profession define Massage and Bodywork?
What do you think???
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