Massage Careers are often advertised as being the next up and coming career on many job websites and massage school websites. The combine helping people and having a more meaningful career. The nice pictures often seen in ads portray a relaxing environment – the client relaxed on the table and the massage therapist in non-traditional work clothes all with happy faces.
They don’t seem to show any pictures of clients with ugly scars, the guys looking for prostitutes, hairy backs, treatment rooms that are too small to move around, employers that treat massage therapists poorly or the struggles in building your own massage business. They often forget to tell you that most massage therapists do in fact start their own business which means that you have to do everything from renting an office space, getting clients and being a profitable business.
I know when I went to massage school 20 years ago they didn’ t tell me anything about what it would really be like. I didn’t even know enough to know which questions to ask the massage schools and the few massage therapists that I interviewed. No one was talking back then. And then of course it was different back then. Massage was more of a life style choice. Massage therapists lived simple lives because they didn’t make much money. They did have more free time to pursue other interests and also to come and go as they pleased.
Today massage careers are really at an exciting time for this profession. We are standing up to define ourselves as a profession and are demanding the respect that we deserve. What really is the value of making someone feel like a million bucks every day? What really is the value of helping someone avoid carpal tunnel surgery or back surgery? What really is the value when someone comes in for neck pain and leaves saying my relationships and attitude at work and in life are much better?
The thing is that being a massage therapist is part of the helping professions. Many come to the profession because of being helped by massage in some way or wanting to just have less stressful lives and careers. While helping may sound like a good thing it is also usually filled with many unmet needs that get in the way of being able to be successful in a career in massage. Massage therapists also often have the perspective that it isn’t about the money but then struggle with staying in the profession or making ends meet.
Being a massage therapist is about the money only in that one needs to have enough to take care of yourself (getting regular weekly massage, saving for retirement, taking nice vacations.) It isn’t so much about helping others as it is about serving others. (My favorite all time article on this is “In the Service of Life” by Rachel Remen MD.)
Just like any other profession becoming a massage therapist has it’s challenges and issues. But I am here to tell you that it can be another way. You can make the money that you need and have the career you dream of. It isn’t all that easy. It can be very rewarding. It can also be a very enriching career path.
After 20 years of being a massage therapist I can tell you that it is more about YOU than taking care of others. It is about developing as a person so that you can become more present with your emotions and feelings so that you can be a witness to another’s healing. It is about doing your own healing and also about taking care of yourself first and doing what ever it takes to make the money you need, be as healthy as you can and be as successful as you want.
The Massage Therapy Career Guide: The Truth About Becoming a Massage Therapist ” was written to help you make a more informed decision about what you will be getting into and what you will be faced with in a massage therapy career. You can purchase it on my other site through the previous link.
