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July 5, 2007

A Reader Writes . . .

I've been enjoying your blog for the past several months. I've been considering a career switch into the field of massage therapy for a couple of years now and your site has proven to be a great source of perspective on the challenges presented by this work. I appreciate that very much because there just aren't a lot of sources on the internet that get into these topics on such a personal level. I've been thinking long and hard about whether this field is right for me, and wondered if you might have any advice for someone who is considering this work?

I've been working in "corporate America" for about 5 years now and have figured out that this isn't how I want to spend the rest of my life. My main concern with massage therapy is the mental and physical toll that it takes on one's mind & body. I'd imagine that giving so much of yourself each day can be quite taxing. As it is, I have a tendency to "take on" other people's problems, so I worry that I might be overwhelmed by the pain/struggles of clients. But I also have an undeniable desire to help people, and I know that I need to somehow channel that into my everyday life. Massage therapy keeps coming back up as something I want to explore more. I'd appreciate any tips and/or thoughts you'd be willing to share for someone who is thinking about a career in this field.

My reply:
Thanks for reading. Here's my take on how this should be done. Take a six week introductory course for the general public at your local school if they offer one. This will let you know if you can tolerate touching strangers--very important. Keep your day job. Go to school at night if you can. Through school you'll learn a lot about boundaries and how to establish and maintain them. This may help with over-taxing yourself with other people's "stuff". Also, practice makes perfect. The longer you're at this, the stronger and more resilient you'll become. You'll be able to recognize when you're getting too involved or burning out. These are perfect opportunities for to take a vacation or take a continuing education course to recharge your batteries. Always remember, you have to take of you first or else you're no good to anyone else--it may sound selfish, but trust me, it's true.

Second, while you're doing your clinical for school, you'll be building your practice (unless you do like I did and move away from where you went to school). Otherwise, it will take you about two years to get up and running in order to make a living. Again, keep your day job until you feel you have enough clientèle to support yourself. Of course, having a spouse who is employed with benefits such as health insurance is a great help in allowing you to cut loose of the corporate world sooner.

When you get up and running it can be disheartening at first that the business is not flooding in the door. After all, you've trained and if your heart is in the right place, you'll make a great therapist. Keep your intentions pure and don't get greedy. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about money was from a veteran therapist. He said, "Have faith. As soon as you start worrying about money, the business dries up." Look at your income on a week to week, month to month basis. What I mean here is you can have one gang-buster week that makes up for three anemic weeks of work in one month. That one week may float you so that your monthly average income is, well, average.

Also, don't spend money on stuff you don't need. If it weren't for David in the background (my not-so-silent partner) saying "don't spend, don't spend," I would have been buying every gadget and decoration in the professional journals. It's easy to do, especially in the first two years when you're trying to get established and have the least amount of money to spend. Everything in the journals is interesting and makes you dream about what your practice could become. Until you get focused on your specialty, buying lots of things (especially expensive advertising campaigns that are focused at small business owners) could be a big waste of money. By reigning in my desire to buy, I've kept my office (relatively) uncluttered and more feng shui than I would have otherwise.

Luckily, a massage practice is one of the cheapest and easiest businesses to own and operate. Depending on where you live, you can operate your business for under $10,000 a year and that includes high quality continuing education with travel and accommodations annually. If you base your business solely on service, you have very no inventory and no city or state sales tax to pay. And it can be very rewarding to know that you have a safe and effective way to make people feel good in a way that is healthy for them.

tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health

Posted by linda at July 5, 2007 12:25 PM