I want to be a massage therapist because it will give me the opportunity to have direct contact with people for the sole purpose of making them feel better. As a people person, it doesn’t get any better than that!
My journey to massage school began nearly 40 years ago when I earned a degree in nursing. It was a career choice that allowed me to work closely with people in managing their health and well-being. Unfortunately for me, the responsibilities of an RN have become less hands-on and more supervisory in nature. And so, with a growing sense of professional dissatisfaction, I decided in January to retire from nursing and pursue a better way to connect with people physically, emotionally and spiritually.
I was introduced to massage therapy while taking a couple’s massage course with my daughter several years ago. When asked why we were taking the class, I said something out loud that I hadn’t fully recognized before – massaging other people relaxes me. And while the focus of massage therapy is on massaging body tissue, the therapeutic atmosphere created by gentle, purposeful contact allows people to relax and release emotional as well as physical stress.
As I began researching the field of massage therapy, I was excited to learn how the profession is evolving and growing. It is a wonderful time to become a massage therapist! The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) reports that massage therapy jobs are expected to grow 26 percent between 2016 and 2026. People are recognizing the positive effects of massage for relaxation and pain relief. Massages used to be a luxury only the wealthy could afford on a regular basis, but the expanding number of wellness spas has made massage therapy more visible and more affordable for the average wage earner. Access to the Internet, has also led more consumers to seek knowledge about alternative therapies such as massage, for the aches and pains of our modern lifestyle which includes repetitive and postural injuries (hunched upper bodies from texting, driving, computer work) as well as stress. Additionally, as a result of the growing opioid crisis, more pain sufferers and medical professionals are employing the use of complimentary therapies to help manage symptoms. Even health insurance programs are beginning to re-evaluate their reimbursement of massage to manage symptoms. All of these trends are helping massage therapists gain much deserved respect for their knowledge of human anatomy and their ability to use this knowledge to help alleviate symptoms.
I initially thought that my knowledge of human anatomy and symptom management would mean that what I was to learn in massage school would just be a review. Boy was I wrong! The classes in kinesiology are teaching me more about the complex details of structural human anatomy than I ever learned in nursing school. It is amazing to me that I never appreciated the intricacies of muscles overlapping and intertwining with tendon, fascia, nerves and blood vessels. How did I not need to learn that in nursing school? More amazing than seeing how the body fits together is to feel it! The process of learning where structures are by palpation has taken my knowledge of the human body to a level where I am observing the uniqueness of each person’s body with my hands. The terms in the massage anatomy textbook are intimidating at first, but they are not as unfamiliar as they first appear. We have all been using abbreviated names for these body parts our whole lives, and so we are already innately aware of how they interconnect. Learning the long anatomical names for structures of the body does take effort, but the terminology builds on itself. For example, the acromioclavicular joint joins the acromion and the clavicle. The superior and inferior angles of the scapula are at the top and bottom of this commonly known bone. Additionally, the focus on learning structures through palpation is made easier by our ability to learn by palpating our own bodies. We are walking cheat sheets!
This “cheat sheet” is also our personal teacher as we experience the wear and tear of living. Recently my massage instructor used me as her model while demonstrating massage to the suboccipital and erector spinae muscles. For the past 25 years, I have been treated with physical therapy, medications and chiropractic therapy for degenerative disc disease of the neck. Following the class demonstration, I was once again amazed to discover the very immediate and measurable improvement in my head and neck range of motion. I could turn and look over my shoulders for the first time in years. It really drove home to me that massage therapy offers a very effective tool for improving chronic symptoms and enhancing the quality of life. And I certainly can’t disregard that in the process of learning to heal others, I am also being healed!
This inherent “cheat sheet” is also the tool of our trade, and I was surprised and pleased to learn that instruction on proper body mechanics while giving a massage is emphasized in our massage school curriculum. In attending to a client’s complaint of shoulder pain, a massage therapist has to be aware of how to apply therapeutic techniques that don’t cause the therapist to develop a problem of their own! Learning how to adapt massage strokes to each client’s unique physique is recognized as important in caring, not just for one’s clients, but for oneself.
For me, the personal impact of this new career path is even more than I ever expected. I see so much more clearly the connectedness between how one uses their body, and how one feels at the end of the day. I am more observant of how strangers on the street walk, hold their head and move their extremities. When I go to a Pilates class, I am able to better engage my transverse abdominus, because I know where it is! Yeah! Being a massage therapist is making me stronger and healthier all over!
I am absolutely excited about all the changes I have experienced since I began this journey. I am physically stronger, mentally stimulated and I am just beginning to explore the potential of my new profession. And of course, it is preparing me do what I set out to do, make others feel better through my touch. It doesn’t get any better than that.
