The Myth of Massage Continuing Education.Let’s get clear about the fantasies beleaguering Massage Continuing Education. Why do the massive majority of massage therapists receive continuing education courses? To make more money? To further their education? To satisfy the State’s regulations where they practice? Or to cut another notch in their belts their skills, or just the appearance of their business cards? Its ruinous but, in this era, the majority of massage practitioners are altogether inexperienced.
Sorry if I have disturbed you, nothing personal here. in fact, no end of the graduates of massage schools never cultivate a supportive practice. Statistically, only about 10 per cent of massage graduates are still carrying on and sustaining themselves and their families 5 years after graduation from massage school. Now that’s morbid. Many massage therapists are sucked in into the industry because of the professed amount of money that they will earn when they “graduate” from their perspective schools. Just finish school and the money will begin showering in. I wish it were that simple. Hey, if you are making 10 bucks and hour, 60 bucks and up appears to be real exciting once you graduate from massage school. Many graduates of massage schools are muddling about these days due to problematic economic times, and part of the equation is the song and dance confining massage continuing education.
For 22 years I have polished my skills in massage therapy. It has been my only source of revenue. I am a graduate of the Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado and the Karuna Institute in Devon England. I have had a noteworthy practice in both Structural Integration and Craniosacral Therapy. I have traveled and inquired into 17 other techniques to “add to the soup” including Neuromuscular Therapy, the Bowen Technique, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Core Zero Balancing, and The Reconnection to name a just a few. But, the predominant amount of my studies has been the work of Dr. Ida Rolf (Rolfing) and Dr. William Garner Sutherland (cranial sacral therapy). I have also been privileged to have taught at The Utah College of Massage Therapy as their Deep Tissue Instructor, the Virginia School of Technology as their advance technique instructor and The Cayce Reilly School of Massotherapy as an Anatomy and Palpation teacher. I have taught classes in massage continuing education in Structural Integration and Cranial Sacral Therapy since 1996. I have also produced two intensive, home study courses in Structural Integration and Craniosacral Therapy as a provider of massage continuing education for the NCBTMB. If you would like more knowledge into what I bring to the table, please visit www.LyonsInstitute.com.
Let me reveal a point. I certainly wouldn’t hire a farrier to put shoes on my horses or find a contractor to build my home that had only 32 hours of training! And yet, the theory of massage continuing education furthers that level of nonsense. We ask our clients to pay us 60 dollars and more per hour with very little training. I have known had he pleasure of meeting massage therapists who have freshly graduated from their massage school programs only 9 months earlier, who are running the massage program of the same school they attended. These schools had just turned up due to the sweet market. And to trump that, those department heads had never developed an outside practice before becoming the head instructor of a particular discipline or the entire massage department! This is the actuality I have nothing to gain from being dishonest. I have seen over and over again recent graduates who print 7 or 8 different therapies on their business cards, even spelling them incorrectly. Which is in my opinion fallacious advertisement and dishonors our industry. Look, you can’t get to the top by sitting on the bottom. It has been said that, “Money grows on the tree of persistence”. So, why do so few persist? Because no one told them the bulletin about massage continuing education. There is a lot of poppycock out there, and with a little transparency many thwarted therapists turn the corner and realize their original vision. The intention that brought them to massage schools in the first place. Its called extensive training!
Let me make a suggestion to rekindle your fire with regards to a exploding massage practice. We are living in an fascinating time where authentic teachers have produced astounding tools for truly expanding your understanding in a multitude of rolfing techniques. The DVD, and software has created an incredible tool of technology to be studied in the solitude of your home until you completely master the techniques and can accomplish them with a high degree of proficiency which translates to moola honey! Find a methodology that interests you, buy the dvd home study course and check out a few of them out completely. Or go receive as many session from the different genres in your town.. And then, when you resonate a few of the disciplines and their practitioners, buy the best DVD home study courses out there from those chosen disciplines.Then practice them completely until they are wired. Make sure these techniques have been proven to have been effective in the massage field, and will catapult you where you have always dreamed of going. In the present massage field, especially where disposable income is not as available for many of our potential patients, its mandatory to unlock techniques that not only manage your clients pain, but increase their performance both physically and spiritually. clients will still ante up their acorns if they know your technique works and you can get them out of pain. Knowledge without wisdom is no different than a load of books on the back of a donkey! Wisdom comes from practice, practice, practice!
The outlay of a powerful dvd home study course massage continuing education course is a trifle compared to going out to enroll a class. In this economy it makes perfect sense. Do the math…its enormous! And don’t be misinformed into thinking that all you need is 48 hours of massage continuing education hours in 4 years to be successful at a chosen discipline. It won’t work. Trust me, this isn’t a car salesman talking to you..this is a practitioner who has been in the trenches for 22 years, traveling from your home to study is steep. When you compile the cost of the course, which is usually at least 500 dollars and up, plus transportation, hotels and food, it makes perfect sense to scrutinize the discipline by using the exciting technology that exists first, and then journey to a hands on class and really gain insights at a deep level what the instructor has to offer. If you like what you have learned from this article, I invite you to check out the resource box at the bottom of this article and investigate what is offered to catapult you to a higher standard of massage practice and on to the successful journey you have always dreamed to be possible. But never forget…practice makes perfect.
Judah Lyons writes cool stuff about the real world of massage continuing education. Get more of it at Judah Lyons Website