My Massage School Experience

My name is Angela, and I am from a small town in Iowa of about 200 people where life is slow, and after a semester of college I ultimately still wasn’t close to knowing what career path I wanted to take because I felt limited. I wanted more opportunity and adventure, so I made the decision to move to Dallas, Texas, which was a big adjustment. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I would figure it out. At first, I worked for the post office and for about two years after and while it was a good paying job with good benefits, I realized it was not the kind of career I wanted to have in the long run. 

I had always thought about working within the medical industry to help others, but I wasn’t entirely sure what field because there are so many. One day it came to me after visiting the massage therapist at my boyfriend’s work and I realized how helpful massage therapy is. The therapist told me all about the process of becoming a massage therapist and I was excited because I knew it would be something I would be able to do. I really like the environment of massage because I believe in more natural healing instead of just taking pills to cover up pain. I researched massage therapy endlessly getting more and more excited as I went until I applied to Parker University. Once I finally was accepted, I left the post office because it would conflict with my school schedule and while it was a huge pay cut to adjust to, I figured it was worth it to change my direction. When everything came together for me to start the program, I was excited to start learning new things again and to learn how to help people feel better! I chose Parker University because they have such a good reputation. 

The massage program at Parker University is 8 months, 600 class hours and 80 clinical practice hours and I was able to take on the program full time and wanted to complete my requirements as soon as possible so I could start my massage career! I attended the night classes and we started out as 9 people total in the class but by second trimester, we were down to 6 people. Over two trimesters we had 6 teachers and some of the teachers taught more than one course. Overall, I am happy with the teachers I had because they were all helpful and had a lot of massage experience. My favorite teacher was Kathleen because she really cares about her students and is always there to help and willing to dedicate extra time individually to help things make sense. I liked how after we took quizzes in her class, she would go over them for any questions that still didn’t make sense before we moved on to new material. She applied what we were learning in anatomy & kinesiology to massage and gave us tips that will help us throughout our massage career. While anatomy & kinesiology was difficult, she really helped me understand it even with having difficulty in first trimester Anatomy part of the reason being the class was online. Luckily, second trimester classes changed to being in person again which is great for a hands-on learner like myself. A tool that really helped me through my classes was the Anatomy trail guide to the body because it had good pictures of the muscles and details. Also, the teachers having a skeleton in the class and showing us where the muscles were helped too. My favorite learning method was the hands-on learning with the teacher demonstrating then being watched as we demonstrated and were corrected.

  The program stayed fast paced with at least two or more quizzes a week with midterms and a final for every class. What helped me a lot was my classmates, and I would get together and have study groups to review the quizzes online and it helped a lot for the midterm and finals tests.  Also, watching videos and having them to look back and reference was helpful. Anatomy had to be the most challenging class for me but as for the most challenging aspect of this program, it was working with a person in a different way than I am used to outside of my comfort zone. Over time I have become more comfortable with it and with more experience I know I will be completely comfortable. My unexpected experiences throughout this program have been being pushed outside my comfort zone and learning that there is a lot more to massage then I thought. 

I had a new experience with a teacher who was tough on me while I was massaging. She was very critical and said “no” a lot but in the end with the practical massage of massaging her for 15 minutes she told me how surprised she was with the amount of pressure I was able to give, and she said enjoyed my massage in front of the whole class and it made me feel reassured. Another unexpected part of the program is what I learned about my own body while practicing massage on each other in class. I learned I have some trigger points in my back that have yet to go away, and I was in rougher shape than I had thought. 

I would have to say the most interesting thing about massage school would have to be learning all the different options of careers and modalities that come with massage. It’s interesting how people think they know massage therapy but once you start school it really opens your mind up to even more possibilities. A tip I would give to other massage therapy students who are just beginning their massage program is to keep practicing every massage technique you learn so you don’t lose it and record the massage techniques you are learning if you can. Take anatomy seriously and make sure you have time set aside time to study each part you learn.  Do not delay your internship hours because they help a lot and its good not to leave your hours for the end of the program and rush to get them done. 

Now that I am finishing the massage program, I do feel ready to begin applying my new massage therapy skills as a career with all the internship experience and what I have learned from my teachers. I do feel like I have a lot to learn yet, but I plan on continuing my education very soon and I’m sure some of it will come with experience. Overall, I had a really good experience at Parker with what I have learned, the events I was able to attend and my clinical experience. My school administrators positively influenced me on my journey of becoming a massage therapist with their positivity and wanting to help others with the care they have shown us. They shared their experiences with us and some of them have been massaging for around 20 years, so they provided a wealth of useful knowledge to be successful. So far, my massage therapy journey has been great, and I am excited for the future.