Massage and Chiropractors

January 12, 2008 Julie Onofrio Find a Massage Job, News

Massage and chiropractic care is a great example of complementary medicine. Chiropractors work with the alignment of the bones which influence the position of the muscles which influence the tension of the muscles. Massage therapists work with the muscles which when tight, over or under developed create stress and misalignment of the spine.

Many Chiropractors will hire massage therapists to work in their clinics either as employees, subcontractors or sub-leasers of their office space. The relationship between the two can really work together towards a patients healing process.

Working for a chiropractor often brings up many challenges with issues over pay scales, the massage therapists role or skills and other issues.

Chiropractors also seem to have a negative image of being more of a salesman and only out to get money. They are able to see a patient and treat them in a few minutes and they charge high fees for those few minutes. When they hire a massage therapist they are often able to charge high fees to the insurance companies and get paid that amount and seem to be notorious for taking most of that fee and not giving it to the massage therapist. Massage therapists often end up feeling resentful especially when it was not clear that this was the arrangement from the beginning.

If you are a massage therapist who is looking for work in a chiropractic clinic there are many things to look for in finding a respectful chiropractor that you can build a working relationship with. The most obvious thing is to become a client first to see if you agree with their philosophy and methods of healing. So many massage therapist are tempted to just take a job with a chiropractor without first doing their research and determining what they want most. The financial pressures add to this with massage therapists taking jobs that turn out to be not what they were looking for. It is important to take a good look at your values and what you want before looking for a job with a chiropractor or any massage job for that matter. Your values will tell you what action to take. When you start taking actions like working for a chiropractor that does not pay you what you need to make, you start becoming unhappy and start blaming the chiropractor for your less than ideal choices.

The way to approach a chiropractor about a job in massage is to become more like a researcher and collect information first about whether or not you want to work for this person/place. Interview a handful of chiropractors and get adjustment sessions from them. Do you like the way they work? How often do they ask people to come in for sessions? What is your perspective on how often someone who is injured should come in? Is the chiropractor just trying to increase the bill or does the patient really need that treatment? Are their clients getting better? Do they keep coming back? Do they do anything to change their lifestyle and their beliefs about health and healing? or are they still smoking and not exercising and not taking care of themselves?

The other thing that is a common issue is whether or not the massage therapist is considered to be an employee or a subcontractor. This is a legal issue to be determined by an lawyer but in general be concerned if you are told you will be a percentage of the fee which may be considered a kickback. If you are also told what hours you need to work that is usually more of what an employee would need to do.
There isn’t much legal help for the massage profession in learning to figure out if you are supposed to be paid as an employee or are you being confused to be a subcontractor. Business owners tend to look at the massage therapist as a subcontractor so they don’t have to pay for employee benefits and pay taxes for that employee.