Golden Opportunities For Massage Therapy Instructors

Blog by Ariana Vincent, LMT, MTI, NCTMB - CEO of The Ariana Institute http://www.arianainstitute.com/CE/mti.htm

What opportunities lie ahead for massage therapy instructors? The first step to answering this question is to go within and determine the type of environment that best suits your personality patterns, conforms with your personal and professional goals, and that you would find the most soul-satisfying.

Many Massage Therapy Instructors aspire to offer their CE courses in one of three ways: (1) independently, (2) by working for a national company that offers CE courses, and/or (3) by offering CE courses in a formal massage school environment.

Google and Bing both come in handy for researching opportunities for massage therapy instructors.

If you are interested in teaching for a national organization that hires instructors, you could do some online research for names and contact information. Two names that come to mind right away are the LMT Success Group and Cross Country Education. Contact the national organizations that may be hiring massage therapy instructors by presenting your cover letter, your resume, a list of three references, and a copy of your certificate of completion from an NCBTBM approved Massage Therapy Instructor's course.

Regarding teaching at massage schools and community colleges, Google or Bing your local massage schools and community colleges, and then contact them and offer to teach one-time continuing education classes in your areas of specialization. Also communicate with them about becoming a part of the part-time or full-time teaching faculty. Go to events and CE classes at the schools and community colleges so that you become known in their environment. Once the director of the school or community college program responds positively, create a proposal for each of the CE classes you wish to teach, and submit the proposals along with your cover letter, references, resume, and certification of completion from an NCBTBM approved Massage Therapy Instructor's course.

A third way of creating a successful career as a massage therapy educator is to establish yourself as an independent massage therapy instructor and continuing education provider, like I have done in creating the Ariana Institute. Design and develop your own course curriculum and market your courses locally and nationally. One way to learn how to design and develop curriculum is to participate in a Massage Therapy Instructor's course and also review the requirements set for in the NCBTMB requirements for course curriculum approval. 

While you are building name recognition as a massage therapy instructor, you can develop name recognition by presenting and marketing your own continuing education classes, as well as offering CE classes for local massage groups, like AMTA chapter meetings, and offering to go to massage schools and speak to classes on particular topics, like practice building and marketing, for example. Once you have developed name recognition, submit proposals for AMTA state conferences, AMTA national conferences, for the Alliance for Massage Therapy Educators conferences, and for The World Massage Festival.

In order to help market yourself as an educator, write a book or a comprehensive course manual on the massage techniques that you wish to teach and develop a series of videos related to your specific specializations. Creating instructional videos regarding each of your courses can help build name recognition and magnify sales of CE courses. You can consider creating both short introductory videos and long technique videos. Publish your introductory videos on the web, send them to prospective students, and place them on your website. Include your longer technique videos with your course material.

Being a massage therapy instructor and continuing education provider can be a rewarding experience on many levels. In addition to diversifying your income in the massage profession, you can have a positive influence in the lives of many massage therapists while helping them to maximize their full potential and become their best. As Pericles said in ancient Rome, "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

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- Ariana Vincent, LMT, MTI, NCTMB, is a Nationally Certified Continuing Education Provider and a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist. She is also an approved Continuing Education Provider throughout the United States. As a Certified Massage Therapy Instructor and Continuing Education Provider, Ariana offers a wide variety of continuing education classes, seminars and workshops to provide relevant, substantive information regarding massage therapy. Register for her Massage Therapy Instructor's course at http://www.arianainstitute.com/CE/mti.htm.