The benefits of massage are numerous and experienced by many. Those suffering from aches and pains can have their ailments soothed. Sports athletes regularly receive massages to mitigate injuries and protect their muscles from becoming damaged after exerting themselves. It can also be a very effective form of physiotherapy to help people to heal after surgery or serious accidents. Many people would like to become masseurs and deliver this form of treatment and understandably so. It can be a very fulfilling job but how does somebody go about becoming a professional in this field?
Study & Learn
If you are going to be entering this as a profession then you will need to be able to do much more than just going through the motions. You need to learn the science of massage and do extensive research to gain as much knowledge as possible. You will need to become as well-informed and up-to-date about massage as you can because this will take you further as your career develops. As you learn more you will be able to start thinking about which route you wish to take because there are many different types of massage therapists. Even at this early stage, you should be thinking about this so you ensure you’re doing everything you can to achieve what you want.
Choose Your Specialism
Having taken the time to learn as much as possible about massage then you should have started to consider which type of massage you want to pursue. It will be helpful for you to not over specialise and to learn more than one style but still knowing more about a couple types will help you enormously. The options available include, Swedish massage, stone massage, reflexology, sports massage, deep tissue and many more. Take for example deep tissue massage, if this was something you wanted to do professionally you will need to be doing very different techniques then if you were doing Swedish massage.
Become Certified
Simply learning about massage and deciding which path you want to take doesn’t allow you to get straight into operating as a professional massage therapist. Depending on your location there will be lots of different requirements so you need to check what you need to do to allow you to become licensed and certified. In addition to this different types of massage might need different qualifications or training so having selected specialist areas previously will enable you to select the training to receive. Complete everything applicable to you and then you can start to look at operating as a professional.
Employed or Self-Employed
Once you have received all of the training and certification you will need to decide whether you are going to set up your own business or go alone and set up your own. Professional practisers may be recruiting so look around your region. If you want to set up your own business you need to explore the potential for business within a region and find the right location. Running your own business takes a very different skill set so if this is the way you want to go make sure you plan it out properly and have the adequate funding beforehand.
