1. Find out what education requirements there are in your state of if you live in CA - in your city.
2. Find out if the school needs to be accredited.
3. Figure out what you want. How much can you spend? How much time can you spend? Do you need it to be close to home or can you move to another state?
4. What is your learning style? Do you like the more technical aspects of the massage profession or the more emotional/mental/spiritual?
5. Do you want to start your own business or find a job? If you want to start your own business, look for a program that has a larger number of hours dedicated to business building.
6. If you are thinking about a business, start saving now to start one. The biggest mistake people make is not planning. It takes a few years to start a business. You either need savings, a loan or another job. Most schools recommend not quitting your main job until you have a enough massage work to pay the bills. I find this to be contradictory as you can’t really get enough massage clients until you quit your day job. When you take the leap, you have to be committed enough to do whatever it takes to make it a success.
7. Research job salaries- It is not what most people think or are told. While massage therapists charge $60-$75 and even more, there are business expenses to take out of that. Job salaries where you actually work as an employee are around $12-$45 per hour. With such a large range and fewer jobs in the $45 range it often is more lucrative to start your own business. You may want to find a job in the beginning just so you can learn the ropes.
8. Ask the schools you are interviewing how many graduates are working in the profession right out of school and how many are working 5 years later or even 10 years later. Accredited schools are supposed to keep track of those statistics. Ask to see the actual study. The reason why you need to ask this is because there is a high burn out rate in the profession and many fail before they make it to 5 years.
9. Talk to graduates, current students and others working in the profession and ask them where they go to school. Find out as much as you can from people who are actually going to the schools you may be interested in.
10. When it comes down to it, you will have to use your intuition and just see what feels right after you have collected all the data. Even then you may run into obstacles but it is just preparing you for becoming a massage therapist. A massage school doesn’t really teach you how to be a massage therapist just like law school doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer. It is a process and it all depends on you and your level of awareness and self confidence.

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