How To Become A Massage Therapist The Right Way

Posted by writer on October 21st, 2008 at 09:48am

If you love to work with your hands, perhaps you should be in a profession that does exactly that, such as massage therapy. In fact, the US Department of Labor has established in their latest report that there is call for for such professionals for the predictable future. If this sounds appealing to you, then you need know how to become a massage therapist.

Those who wish to become massage therapists should enter in a program that is licensed by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork or NCBTMB. To become a licensed professional, you must complete at least five hundred hours of schooling including studies such as ethics, anatomy and physiology among others.

If you happen to study massage therapy in a school that is not accredited by this body, you will not be allowed to take the national certification exam. This may prevent you from practicing in states that need this prior to employment, which is why you should check first to see if the school you plan to enroll in is in the program.

If you do mange to find work without getting a license and are caught, you will be fined and could even be banned from practicing again.

The advantage of enrolling in a program under the NCBTMB is that you can apply for federal financial assistance if you don’t have the monetary resources to pay for your training.

But the big question is how much do massage therapists make? One research group has pointed out the median salary is $45,611. The report also says that half of those working make between $36,930 and $55,920 as this alters with experience. If you are new, you will likely just have one or two customers a day while more experienced people will have more than 5. This isn’t bad because massage therapy program can go as high as $12,000.

If you are serious about engaging this as a career, ask yourself some questions. Are you patient? Are you client oriented? Do you really want to help the patient? If your response to all three questions is yes then the next thing you have to do is find what specific interests do you have.

Just like medicine, massage therapy has several specialties and these include sports massage, clinical massage and Swedish massage this is but to name a few. While you will hopefully learn all of these in your schooling, you should try to get a clear idea of which one you wish to specialize in after your graduation.

It is a good idea to visit massage parlors and speak to those who are already employed there. You could also do some research online as there are articles that have been published and plenty of websites about the profession.

Once you get your degree and the license, you have the choice of working for somebody or starting up your own establishment. This will be easy if you had the capital since you will need to purchase your own massage table, chairs, pillows, sheets and lotions. But if you wish to learn first, then go find work, learn the tricks of the trade and then set up shop.

Now that you know how to become a massage therapist, the ball is already in your court. The right attitude will get you through school because with that you will be able to understand the techniques in helping a client.

For further Free information about Massage Therapy Jobs or  Massage Therapy Schools try visiting Massage Therapy Tips…

Tags: career, fitness, health, home business, massage, massage therapist, massage therapy, small business, work at home, working at home

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