Massage Therapists

May 17

9 min read

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Diajii Smith - Kinesiology B.S. - Graduate of NHI Core Massage Program

Advice

Can I Live a Comfortable Life?

I believe that a comfortable living could be made overtime even with difficult beginnings. This also depends on if you only do massage therapy [in a spa] or you work for a hospital with other certifications.

Massage Therapist

Keep in mind that massage therapy used to be considered an escort business (a luxury) and terms like ‘masseuse’ or ‘masseur’ are considered derogatory terms. When people refer to me as a masseuse, I encourage the use of ‘massage therapist’ instead because of it’s origins in the United States.

How Do You Have Empathy For Others Without Being Emotionally Impacted?

As massage therapists, we are likely to be really empathetic people. With that, we need to take care of our own mental health too. Giving too much empathy every day can be draining, so my advice would be to set an intention. This means that whatever emotions a person has on the table is listened to without a remark to try to make them feel better. It sounds difficult, but we are already helping them through our work – we cannot fill the role of a mental health therapist too. If a person gets emotional on the table, I let them cry and sit with themselves.

What Does Your Work Day Look Like?

In my situation, it is true to have more work as a massage therapist than in the school environment. My schedule is 5 days a week, working Monday-Friday for 6 hours. When working more days, it also teaches you to work with everyone – body types, skin textures, personalities ect. I currently work at a clinic, but my previous job was in a daycare environment. My clinical setting consists of working on an interdisciplinary team, which keeps people healthy holistically (interdisciplinary teams have massage therapists, physical therapists, doctors, etc assessing the various health needs of a person).

Do You Have Health Insurance?

I use Covered California for my health insurance, but when I first began my career as a massage therapist, I used Medi-Cal.

Why Did You Become a Massage Therapist?

I love helping others
My ‘love language’ is physical contact

How Do You Recommend Recovery As a Massage Therapist?

Regular exercise
Alone time
Getting massages from other therapists
Ice
Stretching

Ian Harvey - Psychology B.A. - Graduate of Florida School of Massage

Advice

Can You Have a Comfortable Life As a Massage Therapist?

Yes, massage can be a fruitful and fulfilling career, IF you avoid the most common pitfalls. I'll start by talking about the pitfalls, and then I'll talk about success stories.

Pitfall 1: A Poor-Quality Massage School

The most common pitfall is going to a lackluster massage school and winding up underskilled and pre-burned out. Make your choice of massage school carefully. Look at reviews, ask about it on local message boards, see if anyone has badmouthed it on Reddit. Because there are some real stinkers out there: Places run by One Guy who shouldn't be a teacher at all (I had a dozen excellent teachers at my school!); places that push dubious techniques to the exclusion of others, leaving you with poor flow and few options if something doesn't work for a client; places that teach to the test to try to juice their mBLEX pass rates, all while leaving you without a cohesive picture of the body. Something to know is that I have met many students who came out of a lackluster program who still forged themselves into excellent massage therapists, and I think you would be more resilient to this problem than most. But if I could spare you a bad experience I would, because massage school is supposed to be amazing!! I wish I could somehow teleport you to the Florida School of Massage in Gainesville. It's my alma mater, and I'm still hearing glowing reviews two decades after I graduated.

Pitfall 2: Working In an Unsustainable Environment

Working at a burnout factory and mistaking it for "the massage business." I honestly think that this is what your loved ones are concerned about. If you work at a Massage Envy or Hand & Stone or any other big chain, they will treat you like a cog in a machine. 6 clients over 7 hours, mostly with 10 minutes (!) between each session. I barely had time to take a breath, it was always more more more, and each hour got me something like 20-30 dollars. At 30 hands-on hours per week, that's something like 40 grand per year, before taxes, and only if you can keep up that pace without injury or burnout. Some people thrive on it, and I found it to be very instructive (lots of interesting people with interesting bodies), but I'm glad I ragequit when I did. Chiropractors are somehow worse, often lowballing you even further, and filling your schedule with 15 minute rapid fire massages that maximize their insurance income. Yuck.

Third Pitfall: A Lack of Boundaries In Self-Employment

I described this at length in my book: Driving yourself crazy with your own business practices. Working 6 days per week, being available at all hours, lowballing yourself, and trying to satisfy every client rather than referring out when someone is a poor fit. Set yourself up for success, be a little difficult to book with (on purpose!), and pay yourself well for your own hard work.

Working For Yourself

Before I move on, let me outline the alternative: Working for yourself, or finding a clinic where you keep 70+% of the income. You might even start a collective yourself. Working for myself, I typically sublease from a massage therapist who already has a set up room, and I work for the three days a week they don't use. A set-up like this is pretty easy to find, because most massage therapists have some down days where their room could be rented out. Before going on hiatus, I paid $325/month for that setup. I charged $110 for a ninety minute session (which is me lowballing myself, you should know), and I try for four sessions per day. So, 12 sessions per week is 1,320 bucks, plus a couple hundred in tips, minus room rental, winds up at over 70k per year before taxes. I zeroed out a little extra for supplies, online scheduling, and advertising,. How am I able to make so much more while working so much less? All while giving myself half hour breaks, drinking my little cups of tea, and having time to stretch and reset between clients. It is a quiet, satisfying life that leaves lots of room for other activities, whether they be hobbies or other streams of income.

Success Stories

They are everywhere, but you're unlikely to find them if you just scroll a message board. On Reddit and such, you're going to see tons of people being driven to distress by their terrible boss or unworkable work environment. But when I teach a class, I'm surrounded by people who have their own room set up, often pursuing work and clientele that they find fulfilling and fascinating. Two weeks ago I met a student just out of massage school who was specializing in tech workers (she had transitioned from that environment), and she was having so much fun basically making a modality just for them. I've got a former student/current friend who specializes in artists and musicians, which has led to her going on the road with a few different very cool bands. In that same class a couple weeks back there was someone who specialized in grief work — not because she was a mental health counselor or other expert, but because she simply invited that kind of client, talked about the potential benefits of someone holding space for you, and then gave massages with no expectation of outcome. Oh, and there was a guy who worked with a bunch of basketball players/teams because he was the only one soothing their nervous system instead of beating them up!

And then there's the people who just plug away at it like a job! Also good. You get your space, you do a little outreach, you wind up with 10 regular clients and 40 irregular clients, and that's literally enough to make a comfortable income. Maybe you specialize in prenatal clients, or athletes, or dental hygienists. Or maybe you're like me and you don't specialize at all. I always took anyone and everyone, because with the way I advertise for clients, they see exactly how I work (I post videos for clients too), and then they come in excited for that work. My people find me. Very comfy.

Additional Information

You might be right that charging 110 bucks for a 90 minute massage might be a bit much for a brand new massage therapist, but like... only a bit. The real value of a massage is that a caring and trained person is giving you their undivided attention for 60-90 minutes, which is just not something you can find anywhere else in this world. No matter the depth and breadth of their skillset, it's still a long period of skilled contact, and that sets the fee floor quite high, and justifiably so. My advice is to let your charitable work be a subset of your total work. You can absolutely have a lower rate for some of your clients, which might look like this: "I offer a limited number of discounted sessions every month for those undergoing financial hardship. If you'd be interested in information and updates about those sessions, you can sign up to be contacted here." Or you could discount certain occupations, such as nurse or student. But all I ask is that you don't discount your entire practice.

An Alternative Perspective (Related To Setting Prices)

Why? Because, to some people, 110 bucks ain't nothin. They fly first class, they have an in-home sauna, and they own a sailboat or two. For these people, it might even be off-putting to see low prices! And yeah, I kinda resent them, but I sure do like their money, and would be happy to take a bunch of it from them. In other words: For some people a discount would mean a lot, and for others, it would mean literally nothing. And when it comes to how much you charge, all I ask is that you think about your eventual retirement, and vacations, and leisure. If you're not charging enough to max out your IRA every year, you're borrowing from your future self in order to subsidize your current clients, many of whom don't need a subsidy!

What Does Specializing Mean In This Career?

Don't think of this as being the ultimate expert on a pain condition or a part of the body. Just think of it as, "what fascinates me?" For instance, I'm fascinated by the neck, and I say so in client-facing posts. Because I'm fascinated, I work more thoroughly, I spend more time there than 99% of massage therapists, and I have longer/better conversations with clients about this area. No one had to train me to specialize there, it just evolved from my own curiosity and experimentation. That said, other people who specialize do take every related training that they can find. I had a student from Alaska who is all about the jaw. She has incorporated my long slow drags up the sides of the face, but she also does intra-oral work, and thorough work around the SCMs and the floor of the mouth, etc. She's turned herself into a specialist with a broad base of experience and education. But! I consider myself a jaw specialist as well, even without a tenth of her training. Why? Because I get results. In other words, you get to decide when you're a specialist, and it can be something that develops over time. One day you'll be thinking to yourself, "man, why don't other massage therapists work with the hips in a side-lying position? It works so well!" BAM! You're a specialist.

National Holistic Institute Staff

Differences between a Spa and Clinical Settings (May vary depending on location and these were responses given by massage therapists):

Spa:

Some people may be more interested in relaxing rather than communication
Environment is for pampering rather than assessing injuries
‘Birk Williams’ is a very high-quality spa environment with more options for clients but also requires extensive training for business consistency
No requirement for a closed-door policy in some places

Clinic:

Used to treat injuries, surgery recovery, or therapeutic work rather than relaxation
Some people work in an integrative team as a way of treating a person holistically
Medical-related massage, utilized for hospitals settings

Advice From Massage Therapists
Practice self-massage (ie. purchase a foam-roller)
Purchase “Trail Guide To The Body” (recommended in ‘Paid Resources’ section)
Practice with friends and family and expose yourself to different body types and people. This also allows you to see the type of massage therapist you want to be, and it can also help in building your stamina.
There are a significant amount of avenues to go down for massage therapy
There is a 21% growth in massage therapy over the next 10 years

There are different types of contact people prefer, so keep in mind that not everyone is going to like your practice. This doesn’t mean that you should try to appeal to people who don’t like it. Focus on building a community of people who enjoy your practice, and enforce your boundaries when needed (ie. if a person prefers a really deep pressure that you know would give you an injury. Exercising your boundaries will keep you safe, and allow the client to find a person capable of better suiting their needs.)

What Are S.O.A.P. Notes?

S: Subject

O: Objective

A: Abjective

P: Plan

This acronym is used within the massage therapy world to help track client’s condition, treatment, and progress over time. Massage therapists can use it to refine techniques or streamlining the process of handing off a client to further treatment opportunities.

College Advice

I had a friend who got their massage certification before getting their kinesiology major. While I was getting my B.S. in Kinesiology, my friend already had a job in the industry and it allowed them to gain a lot of experience. That route is also an option if you want to get experience, but balancing both could be difficult and massage therapy school could be quite fast-paced.