By Robert Vignoli – Owner: Roman Paradigm Massage, San Jose, CA
When I became interested in massage therapy, I had no idea that I would make a 12 year career of it, nor did I ever think that I would own a small massage business in San Jose, California.
I became a massage therapist while I was working as a PT assistant for a local Physical Therapy clinic, the PT clinic that I worked for offered massage therapy as part of their treatment protocol. One day, I was asked to help out the massage department, when one of their massage therapists did not show for work. I was asked to do a “spot massage” on a patient that had lower back pain, I had done such a good job on him that when it came to his next massage treatment he asked for me.
I was hooked, I thought this is pretty cool, to have someone request you and to top it off, my massage rate for that clinic was more than what I was making as a PT assistant. So I looked into taking more massage classes and found a college that gave me a student loan and a grant for my massage training. I went to massage school part-time and worked 32 hours a week.
I have lifted the title of this post directly from a blog post that I came across. It was an intriguing title and I was curious about the subject matter. Toilets and massage didn’t quite seem to go together.
Apparently, the author of the post is a young lady who is traveling the globe by working on a ship. She posts about her travels and I really enjoyed reading about some of her adventures in Southeast Asia.
She seems to have the kind of spirit that makes for a successful massage therapist, an innate curiosity about life, people and the world we live in. I will be very interested in reading more about her experiences at massage school as a student at the Vancouver School for Bodywork and Massage.
I have been following the progress of Massage Envy, the national franchise chain of massage therapy clinics. I think that the success of Massage Envy is a good barometer of the level of acceptance now enjoyed by massage therapy as a mainstream approach to overall wellness.
Recently, Massage Envy introduced a program of discounts to active military personnel. This is an excellent PR move by the company with the pretty much universal support for members of our armed forces. It presents an image of the company as generous and patriotic. From a marketing perspective, it is also a good means of generating new business and establishing a presence within a community that is close knit and can share information about a positive experience readily within its ranks.
Although this blog focuses primarily on news and information that will benefit prospective students of massage schools, I think that it is important to stay connected with the industry in general as new and emerging trends alter the way that massage is perceived and received by the public. Massage Envy apparently wishes to be the McDonald’s of massage and that certainly raises the awareness of the benefits of massage therapy. That is a good thing for massage school students and recent grads.
Even as job opportunities expand for massage school grads, it is still a challenge when trying to determine which path to choose for a career as a massage therapist. Some therapists opt to start their own business, some go to work in a spa environment and others pursue opportunities in a more clinical environment.
One seemingly glamorous option is to hire on as a massage therapist on a cruise ship. Going on a cruise is a personal luxury that virtually everyone aspires to, but what about working while cruising?
Lovelyn Bettison is a massage therapist and she provides a pretty frank assessment of the position of massage therapist on a cruise ship on her blog. Seems that the work is hard, the hours are long and the living accomodations are less than ideal. Still, Lovelyn finds a few bright spots in her position profile and it is helpful to have as much information in hand as possible before making a decision and a committment that could have you away from home for close to a year in some cases.
Prospective attendees of a massage school have another professional sport to target for their services. Another massage therapist has shown up in a media story about the benefit of massage therapy for professional athletes. Inar Treiguts, a native of Latvia, keeps the members of the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers loose and limber. Apparently, the team is pleased with his work since he has been with the Thrashers since they began playing in Atlanta in 1999.
More and more opportunities appear to be developing for massage therapists in mainstream institutions. The ages-old healing form no longer resides under the mantle of alternative medicine.
One of the schools featured on Massage Schools Guide is the Heritage School. The school features massage training and has multiple locations throughout the country.
The Heritage School took the intitiative to place a video on YouTube that features one of their instructor presenting an introduction to massage techniques. I applaud Heritage for their utilization of online resources to promote their massage school and gain exposure for their school and instruction techniques.
MassageMag.com is reporting that the group charged with developing the body of knowledge (BOK) will be meeting again in November. The group is meeting to develop and define the skills and the knowledge that are required to practice massage therapy.
The group is made up of representatives from Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals, American Massage Therapy Association, AMTA Council of Schools, Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, Massage Therapy Research Consortium, Massage Therapy Foundation, and National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork will attend the meeting.
I beleive that the decisions arrived at by this group will have an impact on the curriculum and teaching standards currently in place in massage schools throughout the country. Just as licensing and certification standards are becoming the norm in each state, similar standards will be applied to massage schools seeking various certifications and approvals.
A blind Chinese massage therapist borrowed about $10,000 and opened a massage parlor in 1997. Now the therapist is a millionaire with services in hotels restaurants and massage schools.
The therapist now plans to open a massage school to train blind students to be massage therapist. I saw this story on the website ChinaDaily.com.
When a student makes a decision about entering massage school, he or she usually has some idea what path they would like to pursue after graduation. But in the case where a student is not sure what to do with their new found skills, an article posted by a massage therapist may be helpful in finding some focus.
The therapist presents the cold, hard facts about experiences working on a cruise ship, in a high-end resort, at a spa and for himself. He presents the various monetary realities of each sector also.
I found the article really helpful based on the candor of the author.
Massage therapists normally lead a fairly nondescript existence, taking good care of clients and flying under the radar. Some local promotion and positive word-of-mouth is a fairly reliable approach to building a solid client base. But Kelly Calabrese got more publicity than she bargained for simply by doing an excellent job.
In 1995, Kelly was taking a course at a Cleveland massage school. A client referred some athletes to Kelly, some of whom were members of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. As described in this post on a baseball-oriented blog, Kelly went through a dizzying set of circumstances that placed her in the eye of a minor media storm based on her gender. It seems that former baseball star and current broadcaster Keith Hernandez took issue with Kelly’s presence in the Padres dugout during a game.
Ah yes! Another enlightened jock. What century is this?
Check out Kelly’s story. It is an inspiring tale of a massage therapist’s rise to prominence based on her ability to help professional athletes maintain peak physical condition and recover successfully from the wear and tear of the game.
By Robert Vignoli – Owner: Roman Paradigm Massage, San Jose, CA