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The Pressures of Being a Massage Therapist
Hello! I am new the the massage professionals forum so hopefully I am doing this correctly! I am looking for some perspective/insight on the topic of what it means to be a massage therapist in terms of the expectations we place on ourselves and our profession as well as those our clients impose on us as professionals. One of the reasons I have joined online is that I live in a smaller rural community where I work with a lot of other massage therapists but rarely seem to be able to engage in a professional discussion about the job. Usually the talk is abruptly ended because no one seems to want to talk about the possibility that they are not giving their clients what they want or admit the uncomfortable feelings that come with learning to provide effective massage work. Its as if everyone has popped out of massage school knowing it all. I feel quite the opposite! I have been doing massage therapy for five years and I feel like there is so much more to know that I haven't even touched upon the amount of information I have yet to learn. I feel like I am the only one who thinks that. I have noticed that there is a label placed on massage therapists to be "miracle workers." Although, I undoubtedly trust the power of touch, I also am aware of the limitations of a year of massage school and a couple introductory CE classes. When I look into professionals who teach in specific areas of bodywork, I see that they have practiced for years and years to get to the point to where they are able to effectively address complicated issues that many clients come to me for relief from. I guess I am feeling a bit overwhelmed as I am moving beyond basic relaxation massage into the more advanced massage that our profession is demanding of us. I can only take continuing education as I can afford it so any insight or perspective to boost my morale at the moment would be great.
Thanks!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Sadie, as you are feeling now. If you are serious about what you do, this is not an easy career field. I think the average career span is now only six of seven years. Can't make enough money, or physically break down, or both. I've been doing this for 30 years. I always thought I was good. But that thought has every few years been broken down to the point that I wanted to quit. But I never did. Now, after 30 years I'm very confident and secure as to what my capability is. But that's only been in the last two years. Experience really does make a difference. Only a serisous therapist who has not yet reached their maximum potential, feels like you. Don't worry.. Keep yourself strong fit and never stop learning. In my thread " A typical Experience", if you read it from begining to end. You may get some ideas or insparation. Read all the attachments. This is a challenging career field. But there are tons of potential. PS- There are therapists I call technitions, then there are those that have passion and worry if they are doing it good.
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Permalink Reply by Sadie Haney on
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Thanks! That is very reassuring.
P. Warring said:Sadie,
It sounds like you have the right attitude when it comes to your profession. I am not a massage therapist, but a physical therapist who did a great deal of "hands on" with my patients. When I came out of physical therapy school, I felt like I should look like I knew everything and not ask any questions of the other therapists that would make me look like a new therapist. Thankfully, my first job out of school was with a PT owner of his own clinic who had been in the field for more than 25 years. He had no problem asking questions, even of me, if I was talking about some new therapy we had learned in school. His transparency and life long love of learning was (and still is) very inspirational to me. He knew he was a good therapist, but he also knew that the field is constantly changing, and he wanted to keep up with it for the benefit of his patients. The only way to keep up with it is to ask questions, and keep a learning attitude. Sounds like you are on a good track to be that kind of professional!
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It definitely helps to know that experience is a huge key. Like I said, I seem to be the only therapist I work with who feels like I have so much more to learn. I will check out your thread for sure. Thank you.
Gordon J. Wallis said:Sadie, as you are feeling now. If you are serious about what you do, this is not an easy career field. I think the average career span is now only six of seven years. Can't make enough money, or physically break down, or both. I've been doing this for 30 years. I always thought I was good. But that thought has every few years been broken down to the point that I wanted to quit. But I never did. Now, after 30 years I'm very confident and secure as to what my capability is. But that's only been in the last two years. Experience really does make a difference. Only a serisous therapist who has not yet reached their maximum potential, feels like you. Don't worry.. Keep yourself strong fit and never stop learning. In my thread " A typical Experience", if you read it from begining to end. You may get some ideas or insparation. Read all the attachments. This is a challenging career field. But there are tons of potential. PS- There are therapists I call technitions, then there are those that have passion and worry if they are doing it good.
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Your coment.. Thats its like everyone popped out of massage school knowing it all( I felt like that). I still do.. But this is one of my favorite quotations. And its a quotation by an expert sword fighter from the 1600s(he never lost a sword fight). "The purpose of today's training is to undo what we learned yesterday" - MIYAMOTO MUSASHI
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Gordon,
Do you feel like you popped out of massage school knowing it all because you are talented or just confident? Just curious.
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Well, ever sense I was a massage therapist, I thought I had my "POOP" together. I was a Shiatsu Therapist when I got my license. There was only one Shiatsu therapist on Maui at the time, and he was 68 years old. So I had a nich market. He ended up retireing after I got my license. But many many times sense then my cockyness has been humbled. And I knew I did not know everything by a long shot. But after a short while of being depressed and wanting to quit. Someone would tell me that I gave them the best massage in their life. And that boosted me again, and I kept going. And its been like that for the last 30 years. I've made huge amounts of money doing this kind of work. And I have also been on food stamps doing this kind of work. I know I'm an advance therapist now. I can look back over 30 years. I'm better then I ever have been at this kind of work. But I'm alwayss aware that If I keep going. At some time in the future. I will realize I did not know it all. I may post another video of the advanced work I'm doing now on this thread or another one. You have to have confidence at what you know now. But at the same time.. There is more to know. If I post another video, you will see what I mean.
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I tried posting a brief 40 second video of some of the work I'm doing. And this site wont accept it.. Too bad..
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Gotcha :)
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Sadie, don't restrict yourself to studying modalities taught by massage therapists. Open your mind, reach out, study everything you stumble across without judgment till you have tried it yourself.
P. Warring is a PT, and I'm sure a very good one (he is posting here, and reading--wanting to learn even from what his colleague think is inferior, massage therapy). There's a lot of PT shops, and a lot of chiropractor clinics who seem more interesting in building a nice nest egg than they are about the quality of the care they provide. Alas, our profession also is tainted by therapists who stink of greed.
Youtube is an excellent resource. Top therapists of every manual therapy offer video demonstrations of their work, and for free. Watch, but with a discerning eye-- for, like the fairy tale says, to find your prince you have to kiss a lot of frogs. Don't snub chiropractors, physical therapists, TCM practitioners; you will pick up tidbits of valuable techniques from those free video clips. Now, some of them, at first glance you may be tempted to discount as just so much BS. Give them a trial...experiment on yourself and on family volunteers, and when you become confident, try the new thing with paying clients.
Pay extra special attention in your search to any source that will teach you to recognize and treat trigger points. For Gordon is 100% right: Every myofascial pain either originates with a trigger point, or will cause the development of trigger points. If you studied NMT (the "official" label applied to trigger point therapies) in school, you were taught to dig in hard, pressure of 7-8 on the 10 pain scale, correct? I was too. But as you explore what 's available, do remember that if your pressure hurts enough to cause the client to flinch, you've just caused muscle guarding, making your work so very much harder on you and unnecessarily painful for the client.
The one thing I advise you not to branch off into is anything involving electric tools or magic amulets or "extra-pure" essential oils-- you are a massage therapist: the only tools you need are your hands, elbows, feet, but especially your mind.
Buena suerte-- good luck. But, no, you won't need luck! You're gonna put in the work, and before you know it begin reaping rewards-- maybe not in greenbacks, but certainly in job satisfaction and the knowledge that you are doing a lot of good in this world.
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Gary,
Thanks for the feedback! I didn't study trigger point work in my massage therapy training and I am recognizing the importance of learning to address them. I am beginning a Thai massage course that advances into trigger point work and I am really excited about it! You mentioned the digging in hard with pressure. This is where I think I am most frustrated with in my career right now because, I am more drawn to and better at holistic massage that combines mind/body modalities. The school I attended was focused on this too. It seems like I keep facing a split within the profession to either be a relaxation therapist who does mind body/holistic massage or a "tough" therapist who digs into their clients tissue to treat the physical problem. I don't like this because for me, healing is holistic and I am not just interested in being labeled or pressured to do the job the "right" way.
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I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression. NO, I do not believe it is necessary to dig in brutally to cure pain and dysfunction-- in fact, I believe doing so is harmful to the body. And there certainly is a place for pure relaxation massage, it too provides benefits for the mind, and the body. I'm not familiar with Thai Massage. Gordon is, I'm sure.
On your very next client, try this. Even if the client doesn't report pain anywhere, search for tender spots with thumbs and finger tips hard enough that she can feel a bit of pain. Notice the texture of the tissue compared to the tissue a few centimeters off the tender spot. Do you feel a little bump or knot? That'll most likely be a trigger point. Doing diligent research on your own you'll pick up techniques that work faster and less painfully, but for now, use just plain ol' ischemic compression into the knot. Maintain the pressure and maintain your concentration on the spot, and in a few seonds you'll feel that knot literally dissolve beneath your thumb. Hold it a couple more seconds, ask the client to report when there is absolutely no pain emanating from the spot. It's a fabulous feeling, knowing that you have just eliminated pain.
What could possibly be more holistic, more relaxing for the mind than relieving the body's pain? The tightness most people have across the shoulders? The trapezius is where most people store their emotional baggage. You can relaxation massage it all day long, you can twist and stretch till the cows come home and not get it to relax...or, in the absence of a single tender spot in the trapezius, you can pinch a handful of the hardest part of the muscle as if it were one big trigger point, and wait a few seconds for the muscle to relax. THAT is holistic, for when that muscle relaxes, the tension drains from the body--and the mind.
You don't have to be one or the other-- provide both pain-relieving therapeutic massage and mind-relieving holistic, relaxation massage. You can provide both in every session! Gordon does, I do. Everyone who can locate and release trigger points does, those who cannot, either ignore or deny their existence. I assure you that holistic benefit-- relaxing, tension-relieving benefit-- is only possible when the body isn't in pain. Become an addicted follower of Gordon's thread: he will teach you well.
Sadie Haney said:Gary,
Thanks for the feedback! I didn't study trigger point work in my massage therapy training and I am recognizing the importance of learning to address them. I am beginning a Thai massage course that advances into trigger point work and I am really excited about it! You mentioned the digging in hard with pressure. This is where I think I am most frustrated with in my career right now because, I am more drawn to and better at holistic massage that combines mind/body modalities. The school I attended was focused on this too. It seems like I keep facing a split within the profession to either be a relaxation therapist who does mind body/holistic massage or a "tough" therapist who digs into their clients tissue to treat the physical problem. I don't like this because for me, healing is holistic and I am not just interested in being labeled or pressured to do the job the "right" way.
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