Massage Apprenticeship

Another school is moving into the area that will be offering a massage training program.  Probably for $13 to $15 thousand dollars, just like the others.  The problem is that massage is still primarily a self-employed field, even though there are more opportunities to work as an employee than when I started over 26 years ago.  Still, that's a lot of money for an uncertain future.  Plus, most of these programs are mediocre at best.  The quality of a program is in the instructor or instructors.  Do they know what they are talking about?  If they don't, then you are paying a lot of money for bad information.  I have worked for schools like this.  One, in St. Louis, was pretty good because I designed the program from the ground up.  They had two campuses in the area, both of which I taught at.  I had no need to create a cookie-cutter program which would work for multiple schools in multiple states.  Why is that a problem?  Because each geographical area has its own peculiarities as it relates to the massage industry.  Is there a Vishy shower in the area?  Lots of hydrotherapy?  If not, why spend 40 hours of the program teaching something that you won't use and will forget six months after you graduate?   Because they need it in Visalia, California?  What's that to you and your wallet?

Back to the instructors.  Who hires them?  What do they know about massage?  Usually very little.  Many schools require that an instructor has been working in the field for three years before they will hire them.  That actually ends up meaning that they graduated from a program three years ago.  They really don't care what the instructor has learned or accomplished.  It just has to meet the criteria on paper.  So they don't know that a lot of what the instructor is teaching about aspects of the physical sciences is wrong.  You are paying for an education and are getting a bad one.  But doesn't the fact that these are accredited programs protect you from this?  Well, apparently not.  I worked at an accredited school where this very thing was happenning.  Worse things were also happenning.  Some instructors like to razzle-dazzle you with "advanced techniques".  Let's think about that.  When should you learn advanced techniques?  How about after you have mastered the basics?  Does that make sense?  So an instructor who wants to show you "neat stuff" right away is setting you up for disaster.  When do you use these techniques?  For what situations?  Hell, you don't know yet.  Wait until the student is capable of understanding how to apply the technique before you teach it.  Then they can properly utilize it.  I've heard instructors tell students that they were showing them "Bay Area Stuff".  Hey...that sounds cool, huh?  But what does that mean?  Do they do secret, neat stuff somewhere else that we've never heard of here?  I don't think so.

And then we have the information taught.  A good program needs to make sure that the courses are designed for your maximum gain and knowledge, right?  Right.  Is that what you get?  Let me tell you a quick story.  When a school takes government money they need to meet all kinds of criteria to qualify.  There are government rules and regulations about how the program must be put together to best suit the needs of the students.  And the federal government is just incredibly savvy about how to do that, right?  Oh, yeah, right.  One of the schools that I worked at needed to increase the number of science hours so as to qualify the program for acceptance by a nearby state that had licensing laws.  They actually needed to almost double the science hours.  So what did they do?  Look for innovative ways to increase the hours while also increasing the opportunity for the students to better learn the information by using a variety of methods of exposure?  Create a class that used models of the skeleton and had the students create muscles out of clay and apply them to the skeleton so they could see and touch the anatomy of the muscular system?  Spend money on better equipment, videos or training for their instructors?  No.  The 20 hour anatomy class became a 40 hour anatomy class, the 20 hour physiology class became a 40 hour physiology class and the 20 hour kinesiology class became a 40 hour kinesiology class.  The instructors were left with the task of determining how to make the information last twice as long.  Hey, problem solved!

So, what can you do if you feel drawn to massage therapy as a profession?  Pick the best education for your needs and personality.  If you just want to learn to soothe and relax away tension by doing swedish massage then you will still need to take a 700 hour program for $13 to $15 thousand dollars.  You will need to sit through a lot of classes that are of little interest or value to you.  Or you can click on the "training" header above and look at the program I have developed.  It is in three sections.  The first section will prepare you to work in a salon or for yourself as a relaxation massage therapist.  And for a lot less than the prices quoted above.  If you want to learn to help people who are in pain or who suffer physical limitations because of muscular problems you can go to those same expensive programs, get a polo shirt to wear, a bunch of redundant books that you probably won't read and sit through a lot of classes that you don't need either or that are taught by people without the experience to tell you how to most effectively use the information.  Or, you can also click on to the "training" header above and look over my program.  All of the infrormation is there - hours, courses, prices - for you to see.  I will be forming classes of four students maximum.  You must be 25 years of age as a minimum so that, hopefully, you are serious and committed about pursuing this career.  I am able to set the class schedule with some degree of flexibility based on what works for you.  Call or e-mail me if this seems to be of interest to you and we will discuss the details.