Massage Professionals and Career Length - Getting to the root of the problem

Comment

Comment by Emmanuel Bistas on January 16, 2010 at 12:59pm

I am a school owner. I studied massage therapy in 1984, practiced on and off for few years, then did a bunch of other things, finished college and owned businesses before I came back to the field. In 1988 I would be considered someone who exited the field, but in 2001 I was back again doing treatments and getting ready to open my school.

Massage therapists exit the profession for many reasons. Their lives change, they move, they have children and their priorities change – some may eventually come back to massage therapy, especially those who are younger may try other things and come back to massage therapy. Some find other opportunities in the industry that do not involve hands-on work but may be suitable to their strengths, such as teaching, writing, owning a business, sales, etc and they become massage authors, spa managers, business owners, etc.

So, the short career length is not always bad. It is only bad when one wants to make a living in the profession and cannot. When people exit the profession because they cannot make it, we have “burnout”.

I would categorize burnout factors as physical, psychological, and emotional. Under physical I would include injuries, poor health, and inability to do the physical work. Under psychological I would put unmet needs and expectations, financial or other. Under emotional I would put the very personal stuff that each person brings to the table, including emotional intelligence, relationship with time/money/success, relationships with other people and power, touch history, etc. Behavioral patterns are also tied to emotional patterns, so if a person has failed at 5 things before massage therapy, chances are they may fail again.

Massage schools can do a lot to help prevent burnout by setting realistic expectations before a student enrolls, by focusing on the quality of training, and by providing continuing support after graduation. In our case, we discuss the burnout issue up front along with what we, as a school, do to prevent it (small classes, professional development coursework, mandatory information sessions for prospective students to dispel myths).

Still, schools alone cannot fix the problem. Prospective students need to understand that just getting massage skills will not make them successful. If that were the case, all skilled MTs would be successful; more is needed: attitude, commitment, perseverance, good communication skills, and a lot of other things that many take for granted, some people do not have.

Employers also need to understand that massage therapists need to support themselves and cannot be expected to work for free. I wish some schools would reconsider how they do “outreach” and examine if that adds to the impression that massage is a freebie.

Finally, advertising could be done by our associations, as it’s done by associations in other industries, to educate the public on the latest research and benefits of massage, which could in turn increase demand for services and keep therapists gainfully employed.

Comment by Ivy Hultquist on January 16, 2010 at 9:57am

I am not trying to be too hard on schools or put the sole responsibility on them. I know with the internet, it is much easier to research careers. However, with many 17-18 year old high school students making college visits to massage schools, many are going to see the school as the authority on the career and trust them to provide accurate information. I can say this because I was one of those 18 year old visitors many years ago.

When I go talk to my high school on career days, I want them to know a couple of thing I did not think about as a 18 year old.

Massage therapy is a very rewarding career and unique career that requires a lot of physical work.
For massage therapists, a 40 work week does not mean 40 massage hours - they will not be making $60.00 - eight hours a day. It is not recommended massage therapist provide 8 -1 hour massages a day.
Some jobs require experience. Often I hear students that want to work in a hospital and assume they will find one of those jobs right out of college. This is because they see that massage therapists work in hospitals on the internet.

...I am also surprised by the $41.50 an hour.

Comment by Christopher A. Moyer on January 16, 2010 at 9:25am

According to the AMTA Massage Industry fact Sheet from their 2008 massage professional survey
Today’s Massage Therapists are... Earning an average wage of $41.50 an hour (including tip) for all massage related work.

FWIW, O*Net lists the median hourly wage as $16.78. That's a huge difference between those statistics.

Comment by Vlad on January 15, 2010 at 8:52pm

My spelling is awful - it's Lauriann (without an "e") and I fat-fingered MSD (musculoskeletal disorder)!

Comment by Vlad on January 15, 2010 at 8:35pm

Stats from Laurianne Greene's Save Your Hands book are pretty alarming for injuries. A survey of MTs showed a 41% injury rate over a 2 year period that were diagnosed with a MDS, such as tendonitis. I recommend the book (or the course) since it makes you evaluate your ergonomics, self care and body mechanics.

Laurianne also indicated on another thread that the average career length is 7-8 years (I think it was on Julie O's thread on how many massage hours do people massage each week).

When I was in basic training we were told that only 25% of us would be massage therapists after a year. At the time I wasn't happy that we were told this. Basically we all sat in class and looked at each other wondering "who would make it". Then someone asked the teacher "Can you tell who will be working a year from now?". The teacher said "Yes". I couldn't believe I heard that. Of course, I was one of the old jaded ones in the class at 37 years old (I'm even more jaded now at 44). I only know of 2 others out of that class of 16 that are working as MTs. Most didn't last the year.
Here's a jaded old 44 year old's theory on why:

- unrealistic expectations on making money the first year. If you can make it that first year, you'll be OK in my opinion. Many thought they'd make money off the bat. This jaded old woman knew it wouldn't happen. I ploughed every dime I made that first year into taking more classes since I knew the basic training wasn't enough to help people.

- the reasons for going into massage therapy. I think it's a field that people have a calling to. There's a wee switch in people's heads. If the calling or switch isn't really there, then the constant need for progression won't be there - the drive, the need to help, just the love of the job that makes it so that it doesn't seem like a job. That will come through to the clients too. When you're happy in your job, the clients are happier. I remember a client telling me one time that the reason she comes see me is because I'm not grumpy! That wasn't exactly a compliment to me since I wanted the reason to be more than that, but then she told me about an experience she had with a grumpy therapist! Apparently grumpiness isn't a good thing.

- The business classes we had were very, very poor. That, plus the stress on business matters - IMHO it doesn't matter how good a therapist is, if they didn't have business acumen they won't make it - even if they work for someone else. But things like the 4 Ps of marketing and getting the basics of running a business weren't covered nearly as well as they should have been. I know this differs a lot from school to school though - it's just mine was pretty bad.

- quality of the education. Some of the teachers I had went into teaching not long after they'd graduated themselves. They didn't have a successful practice, so how could they teach how to set up a practice? Of course there are great teachers out there, but for basic training there should have been top notch ones. I/We didn't have them .

- injury. I get a flare up lateral epicondylitis every now and then that scares me half to death. Luckily mine goes away with ice, anti-inflammatories and taping. I don't know how many others in the class had injury as their reason for not working, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was high.

- As for the schools. I dunno. I mean, it's still up to the potential students to look at the schools and ask themselves "Am I being told all this just to get me to sign up". Selling lies is not good though, that's for sure. It shouldn't happen. I don't think I was told lies when I signed up, but then I probably had my jaded vibe going on that day.

It would be good if there were stats on schools available publically. You know, like x% of the MTs that graduated from this school were MTs a year after. Hard to implement though....

that's my 2 cents....

Comment by Ivy Hultquist on January 15, 2010 at 6:46pm

I also have been looking for a good reliable source for career length. Most websites or posts give somewhere in the range I gave, but how reliable those are, I don't know. I remember seeing a statistic in one of my massage marketing books, which I have been looking for this evening.

I believe it would be difficult to get an accurate statistic on career length, since so many practitioners work part-time or periodically take time off from the profession. I would also like to know how many massage graduates do not land a job in the field or do not attempt to get a job following graduation.

After reading all of the replies, I see much of responsibility of accurately informing potential students about the unique challenges of massage career lies with the school. I know it is hard for them to turn away tuition dollars, but it is their ethical responsibility.

Comment by Christopher A. Moyer on January 15, 2010 at 1:55pm

This is an interesting topic.

Ivy, in your original post you stated that 3-6 years was the average career length. I'm interested to know where you found that. I'm not doubting it; it's more that I'm curious where the data came from. Related to that, it would be interesting to know if that included or excluded persons who practiced for only, say, a month after graduating.

I thought it would be interesting to try and find such data myself. I consulted O*Net, the govt's database of labor information, but I didn't find the information I was looking for. O*Net does include information on median income, though, which can also be broken down by state. This information may be valuable if and when you need to challenge inflated claims. (Whatever else you may think about the gov't, one thing they tend to do well is compiling data.)

Here is the O*Net entry for massage therapist:

http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/31-9011.00

Comment by Gloria Coppola on January 13, 2010 at 9:17pm

I have been in this business over 20 years. I don't know how many in my class still practice because many did not stay in touch.

I did own a massage school, however and I am proud to say over 60% of my former students have been in the business for more than 10 years and very successful.

I feel because I did teach a lot about body mechanics and self care and the reality of the profession along with great business skills - this contributed immensely to their success! My program was also 12-15 months. I feel these 6 month programs have put way too many demands on the student and do not prepare them well enough for success. Often they are not confident enough in their skills to even get a job right out of school.

In response to your question, admission recruiters need to choose their student candidates appropriately. I have been in many school systems across the country and I can recall a particular school in the midwest that literally accepted anyone. They didn't explain the physical demands, ethical issues, boundaries etc. ( I happen to be assisting with admissions at a new school "Privai Academy" in Asheville, NC. I am honest with students and prepare them for the commitment by explaining the program. They need to understand the academic demands as well.)

It was a horrible experience to put many of these unaware students through at this midwest school . They didn't even know they had to receive massage. Imagine that? We had felons in the class too. Surprised? No one did anything about it until I came along. We had individuals unable to meet the physical demands because of illness, mental and physical etc. Again, I was the one that addressed these issues. I was a program director for this school and instructor. I fired many "awful" teachers as well. You can't even imagine? Or maybe you can?

School admission recruiters and owners need to be honest and realistic and selective in choosing the right candidates for these trainings. If they did that all the time and not pull them in just for money, we would have a better quality to start off. Of course, there are many other factors that do prop up along the way.

Often individuals are not good at "selling themselves" and lack the motivation.
Sometimes, there are injuries and that limits the career.

I personally pace myself, take care of myself, practice what I preach and never take on more clients that I can emotionally or physically handle. After a back injury I , too had to cut back the demands on my body and find alternate modalities to use that were less stressful.

I love this career! I am passionate about it for almost 25 years and I now get to share through teaching.

Comment by Keith Eric Grant on January 13, 2010 at 11:12am

When we consider survival in the massage profession, we need to consider it relative to other small business start-ups. Looking back at an article on Meaning Business that I wrote a few years back, small businesses, in general, have about a 45% survival rate after 5 years. To this general background, we can add the costs of health care shared with small businesses and freelance workers, considered to be a severe disincentive to entrepreneurship, and the physical demands of the work, things I considered in Staying Workable. Current efforts at health care reform, however imperfect, are likely to positively effect massage practitioners who have responsibilities to provide for family health care.

When I was looking at survival statistics back in Fall 2004, I found only a week relationship to hours of training. I commented on this in Meaning Business.

The data was broken down by hours of core education with a base of about 18,000 entrants per year - pretty solid for statistics. Five-year survival rates were 29.2 percent at a nominal 125 hours, 33.1 percent at about 250 hours, and 37.7 percent at a nominal 650 hours, the last category being 80 percent accredited career schools. The bad news is that the first doubling in training time only gave a 4 percent increase in survival rate and that the subsequent increase in training only contributed a 3.3 percent increase in survival per doubling of training hours. This is a strong indication that what's being offered on the menu is at best tangential toward keeping people in the profession.

Comment by Laura Allen on January 13, 2010 at 6:23am

I graduated in 1999, and after five years working as the administrator and an instructor at my former school, I now own a clinic that employs over a dozen people. One of those therapists was in my own class, and she still does up to 6-7 people a day (her choice, I would never force that on anyone.) Another was in the class after mine, and she does 4 a day. We all practice what we preach and get a lot of bodywork. And my staff members make anywhere from a minimum of 30. an hour up to 45. an hour plus gratuities, depending on what service they're performing. My busiest therapist makes around 50K a year.

Everyone has given good answers...all of these things are a factor. People come in with unrealistic expectations, which many times is the fault of the school owner promising them they're going to get X amount of money as soon as they graduate. Others burn out, or work improperly to the point where they're unable to do massage a year after they graduate.

Realistically, I am a business person. I owned four restaurants in my former life, and I'm very competent in that area. Not everyone who is a good massage therapist is a good business person as well, and should really go to work for someone else instead of trying to run their own practice, but they don't see it that way. There is a lot of disappointment and when people are failing to make a living, they just give up on it instead of seeing another way.

Preparing students for reality is the job of schools. Unfortunately, many of them are just out for the money and will continue to paint an unrealistic picture as long as it's bringing students (and their income) in the door.

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