www.thebodyworker.com

With so many concerns of the economic challenges that are being faced and will be faced with what does the future hold for the massage profession? As a massage therapist for the last 20 years and an avid participant in the many online groups and through contact with my many readers, I can see that most of the massage profession struggles to get by. (Maybe it’s just because you don’t hear as much about the successful stories. They are out there though, I am sure.)

ABMP reports in their metrics section at www.massagetherapy.com that :

Average massage-related income for massage therapists in 2005 was $18,950, with a median income of $14,500 (2005 ABMP Member Survey)

Total earnings by massage therapists, including their earnings from other employment, were $32,506 (2005 ABMP Member Survey).

First-year practice average income was $9,589, reflecting the challenges of establishing a professional-service practice (2005 ABMP Member Survey).

ABMP estimates some 50,000 massage therapists leave the profession each year.

The average age of ABMP members graduating in 2007 and entering the profession is 44. The median age is 45.

Close to 83 percent are women and 54.5 percent are married.

As massage therapists look for other ways of making a living they are choosing to take low paying jobs just to get by. Massage Envy was one of the top franchises last year and this I just found online so I am not sure how true it is “As of this month, Massage Envy, which was founded in 2002 and reported nearly $100 million in sales last year, has 120 locations and 248 more under development in 30 states.” They pay their employees $12-$15 an hour from what I have heard -plus tips.

They are choosing to accept insurance as payment or join discount insurance networks just to get by. I am a provider here in WA State and have been since about 2000 when they started allowing massage therapists to be contracted providers with insurance companies. When it first started there were a few companies who paid fairly well but some who paid poorly -(less than the average of $60 for a massage in the US). I have yet to see them raise their allowable fees and most are reducing what they pay and also the allowable benefits. Each year it gets less and less and gets harder to get paid. Managed care makes it harder to make a living.

Since the median age of massage therapists is 45 according to the recent ABMP survey, where does that leave massage therapists as they move into their retirement years? Most massage therapists are coming into the massage profession as a second or third career and thinking of it as a way to supplement retirement or slow down until they retire. They are seeking a more fulfilling career working with others.

And where are all the men in the profession? With low paying jobs how can men support their families? With men as a minority in the profession it shows that there are still many preconceived notions about touch. Women don’t want to be massaged by men and men don’t want to be massaged by men. With this challenge men are leaning away from the massage profession for better paying jobs where they are more accepted.

With such struggles along with the physical, mental and emotional demands of being a massage therapist, many see this as a part time profession. They also perceive it to be more of a calling than a way to make a living and lack a clearly defined business model. Is massage a hobby or a business?

I also have been receiving many communications through my website www.massagetherapycareers.com in the frequently asked questions section from high school students looking into careers in massage. They ask about what jobs pay and where can they get a massage but their main questions are things like “Do I have to take math or science classes?” which makes me think they are just looking for an easy career (which massage is not.) Since most massage schools are just looking to fill their classes they tend to make massage careers look glamorous and appealing. While in the past most massage therapists have started their own business, many more are now taking those low paying Massage Envy jobs which will be affecting the whole massage profession and changing it from one of healing, compassion and learning to just another job.

The massage profession also is in the midst of a big controversy over licensing and legislation issues. How much training and education is required to become a successful massage therapist? How is massage and medical massage defined? We have yet to define these things for ourselves so now insurance companies are doing it for us. (In WA State there is one insurance company creating a special massage credential that defines how much education is required for a massage therapist in their provider network.)

So what is in our future? How can we take more control of where we are going as a whole and not let the economy and money over-ride client/patient care?

The Future of Massage - Whitney Lowe

Popularity: 17% [?]

No Comments »

Colorado made an attempt to license massage statewide but after their research decided that there wasn’t a need for it. You can read the about the process they went through to look at whether or not licensing is needed in Colorado. The Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) in CO is in charge of consumer protection.

The report discusses the question of whether there is a need for regulation in order to protect the public from potential harm, whether regulation would serve to mitigate the potential harm, and whether the public can be adequately protected by other means in a more cost-effective manner.

The results show that there is no proof of harm or need to protect the public from harm.

Keith Grant gives us an update on his blog- ramblemuse.com 

Part of the problem in licensing massage is that there is no clear definition of what massage is or isn’t. There are also no professional competencies created to guide the profession in determining what massage schools need to be teaching. Right now the testing procedures are multiple choice questions (some not even directly related to massage) that do not tell anything other than a person has studied how to take a test. It doesn’t show whether they really can do massage.

One of my goals for the next year is to keep looking into the licensing dilemma and start writing about it more. Part of the problem is that many massage therapists don’t understand the issues involved other than what it means for them to practice massage where they live. What happens to massage therapists in other states seems to be out of our hands, but it reflects on the profession as a whole.

Our lack of unity, understanding and a clear definition of what massage is nation wide is making the massage profession look unorganized and unprofessional. No wonder we are so often confused with prostitution and thought of to be masseuses and masseurs.

Popularity: 4% [?]

No Comments »

One of the reasons that massage licensing boards and other associations are in favor of licensing massage always seems to come back to the idea that massage can do harm to clients and the public should be protected from harm.

The Safety of Massage by Edzard Ernst had the conclusion: “Massage is not entirely risk free. However, serious adverse events are probably true rarities.”

Keith Grant also did research on medline publications on “Injuries Reported in Medline as Related to the Practice of Therapeutic Massage (.pdf file) — 1965 to 2003″

The abstract of this paper states his conclusions;

“Medline citations from 1965 to 2003 were searched for cases relating
significant injury to the practice of therapeutic massage. Eleven such cases
were found from over 12 million medical citations. While this number is far
too small for statistical analysis of injury patterns, six recommendations for
training and practice were obtainable from these reports on mechanistic
grounds. A conclusion of the general safety of massage follows from
the paucity of report injury cases in conjunction with corroborative
insurance statistics.”

Others use the claims of individual massage therapists of stories from clients who were ‘injured’ by other massage therapists in the form of bruising or other stories of massage sessions that were lacking in results.  While I am sure there are many cases of this type of problem, the harm is minimal enough that they don’t report it.

What some will find harmful, others will find beneficial.

The claim that licensing is needed to protect the public from harm has yet to be proven.  Until then, what needs to be done is to study the current licensing and the effects of licensing on a massage therapists ability to create a sustainable massage business and also provide quality service to clients.  The variations in the laws of each state vary so greatly and leave the massage profession looking unorganized and unprofessional.  What is allowed and accepted in one state is not allowed in other states.  Are you still wondering why it is so difficult to build a massage practice ?

Please let me know what is going on in your state as far as licensing and legislation issues?  Does the licensing of massage affect your ability to build a practice?  If you are in an unlicensed state do you think that licensing is needed?

Please fill out the forms in your specific state from this chart at www.massagetherapycareers.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

No Comments »

I got this idea for a story about becoming a massage therapist after reading Sean Sloviks story “Is Becoming a Massage Therapist like Becoming a Merchant Marine?” that is posted on www.massagetherapycareers.com

When you first start out in massage school, you will be studying for a year or so, learning all sorts of things you never imagined - anatomy, physiology, pathology, massage techniques - all of which are preparing you to be the best massage therapist in the world. By the time you get out you have massaged many people in the student clinic and all of your friends and family call you all the time for a massage. You are ready to take your State Board Exam or if you are in one of those last states that don’t have any exam, you are jumping right into a practice or job in massage therapy.

You of course pass the exam in flying colors because you spent all of that time studying, memorizing and learning.

You are now on to working at your first job or building your massage practice. You are quite nervous - the changes you have been through are quite amazing. You have grand visions for a job in a fancy spa that pays you $60-$100 an hour (isn’t that what they said in massage school that massage therapists make?) You tell yourself, this isn’t about the money. You just want to help others. You can live cheaply. You don’t really need much. You cherish your freedom and flexible hours.
You show up to your first job or office, and of course, you are a bit nervous. You take a deep breath and look back at your schooling and say to yourself, “well gosh, I shouldn’t be too nervous. I know where all those muscles are and all of the things to watch for not to do. You console yourself that you actually know a lot, maybe even feeling you know everything.

After a year at working at a Spa that hardly pays you much or struggling to start your practice and not getting very many clients, you start to wonder what the heck did you do by choosing this career? You find that working at the spa wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. You are working more hours than you agreed to because they can’t find anyone to work. You don’t have any benefits or vacation pay, and are starting to feel resentful that you are working for such low pay. If you have your own practice, your ideas of changing the world don’t seem so grand - you can’t pay the bills. Do you go back to work doing some menial job that you know you will hate?
But you stay with it and start learning about marketing, sales, customer service, finances, the therapeutic relationship. You take a part time job to help pay the bills. You join or start your own peer supervision group and find solace in knowing that there are others in the same boat. You start reading and learning. You keep learning new techniques. You keep working with as many clients as you can. You are learning so much about yourself as you go.
You can begin to see that everything that is happening to you is really a reflection of your own beliefs about yourself, but at the same time you think it is all about everyone else- your teachers’ didn’t show you enough, you don’t feel like you know enough, clients are getting more difficult health issues, money is slow to come in. You see clients who have physical health issues and are at a loss to help everyone. What you thought would be fun in helping others, now seems like a drain. You keep giving free massages away and start at a really low rate thinking that it will get you more clients. When someone doesn’t show up, you are disappointed and just think you are out the money- you don’t bother to charge them just thinking that you are doing them a favor because after all- they had a last minute appointment that was much more important.
“well, I thought I knew it all back when I was in massage school, but now I realize there’s actually a few things I don’t know.” You somehow thought clients would just show up at your door begging to get a massage. You just want to be doing the massage part- you don’t know anything about marketing, sales or running a business.

You begin to wonder if you made the right choice in becoming a massage therapist. You now are in about year 3-5. You can’t live like this much longer, yet you hate the thought of giving up what you love doing. You stick with it all and move up the ladder at the spa, getting better hours, more pay, maybe a managers position. Your practice is beginning to finally have ends meet. You are beginning to think about hiring other massage therapists. Your training and experience now brings in even more difficult clients. You begin to understand that healing is really not about the techniques that you have learned. They don’t really work on everyone or as quickly on some people as they do on others. You have worked on many clients with serious health challenges- cancer, mastectomies, serious car accidents. sports injuries. You have watched people with constant headaches for a year, suddenly get rid of them when they quit their job. You see people with chronic pain patterns resolve themselves when they start cleaning up their diet. You see people grieving who have lost their parents or other loved ones. You have seen people with post traumatic stress syndrome from accidents, war and trauma. You stand in awe of what the body, mind, heart and soul can do when they finally truly connect to each other. You learn that healing doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is paid free or disease free. You see that death is an inevitable part of life and can’t be avoided no matter how healthy we keep ourselves. You see that health is really about connecting to our wholeness- something that we always had inside of us but we just didn’t know it. You understand that saving the world is about saving yourself. You understand that healing others is about taking care of and healing yourself.

Your once ‘massage can fix’ all vision is quietly put in it’s place but a new vision has arisen. Knowing your place in the world allows you to be present for others to experience their healing and wholeness - still touching one person at a time - but you know that you don’t even have to touch them physically. Your presence is enough - but the massage is the icing on the cake. You see that the more you think you know about the human body, mind, spirit and healing the less you really know…

But there is a new employee at the spa or you are looking to hire other massage therapists. You wonder if you will continue to be successful because you don’t really know a thing anymore…but that brand new massage graduate must know everything so you don’t have to worry.

(How does this story end for you? )

Popularity: 5% [?]

No Comments »

One of my pet peeves or rather passions is writing about the licensing and legislation issues that are occurring in the massage profession.

The problem is that we as a profession have not defined ourselves so now there are insurance companies and legislators who are doing it for us.

I have been collecting information from the government websites on massage licensing and have found such a discrepancy in how massage is licensed. Some states regulate schools, some don’t.  Some still require fingerprinting and STD testing.  Massage is generally defined using terms that imply Swedish Massage is being done.  Some include modalities like Reiki, Reflexology, Structural Integration.  Why does someone who does the energetic work of Reiki have to know about Swedish Massage?

On my website www.massagetherapycareers.com and on this blog I am attempting to gather information on just what it means for each different kind of massage therapist to practice in each state - not just what the laws are but what are the implications and how does licensing or the lack of licensing influence the ability to be a successful massage therapist where you live?

By collecting this information,I hope that we can learn as a profession just what we need to do to define ourselves in a professional matter.  I actually think if we did that for ourselves we wouldn’t need licensing at all.  (Yes I know that is only my opinion and it is very different from everyone else thinking that we need more education and more laws to protect the public.  It is the massage schools and associations creating this idea without anything to back up their theories.

So if you are so inclined to partipate and provide information on what it is like to practice in your state you can go to

www.massagetherapycareers.com

and select your state and fill out the form there.  The form will create a separate page on the site for your information and others will be able to comment on it.  It is totally private and you don’t have to leave your name.

I am also going to be using this form system to build a directory of schools that can be rated and reviewed by students/grads.

Popularity: 4% [?]

5 Comments »