Saturday, October 18, 2008

Massage Therapist-Become One And Start Your Own Business

By GH Williams

If you like working with your hands, then you may want to be in a profession that does precisely that and massage therapy is one such profession that may be ideal for you, in fact, the US Department of Labor has established in their latest report, that their is a high call for in this field and will be for the predictable future. If this type of employment is appealing to you, then you will desire to know how to become a massage therapist.

Anyone who wishes to become a massage therapists needs enter in a training program that is accredited by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork or NCBTMB. To become a accredited professional, you must complete at least five hundred hours of schooling, including subjects such as ethics, anatomy and physiology.

If you happen to study massage therapy in a school that is not authorized by this body, you will not be allowed to take the national certification exam. This may prevent you from practicing in states that call for 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 employment without acquiring a license and are caught, you will be fined and could even be prohibited from practicing again.

The main gain of enrolling in a program under the NCBTMB scheme, is that you will be able to apply for federal financial assistance, that is if you do not have the funds to pay for your schooling.

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

If you do pursue this as a career, ask yourself some questions first. Are you patient? Are you customer oriented? Do you really want to help the patient? If your response to all three questions is yes, then the next thing you need to do is find what you may wish to specialize in after your graduation.

Just like medicine, massage therapy has various 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 desire to specialize in after your graduation.

It is a great 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 written and plenty of internet sites about the profession.

Once you get your degree and the license, you have the choice of working for someone or starting up your own establishment. This will be easy if you had the capital since you will want to buy 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 training because with that you will be able to understand the techniques in helping a client. - 15431

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