How to Become a Massage Therapist at a Luxury Spa

If you’re looking for a flexible and rewarding career, then you may want to consider becoming a massage therapist. Besides paying well and giving you a chance to improve other people’s lives, you can choose to work in some interesting places, like a well-known, luxurious spain a beautiful natural setting.

If you later decide to work for yourself, that’s possible too. All you’ll need to do will be to create a comprehensive business plan; shop around for a reasonable loan; rent office space in a quiet part of town; invest in high-quality equipment, like Living Earth Crafts massage beds; and focus on marketing your freshly-minted business, using a combination of online marketing techniques and good-old-fashioned networking to get clients.

To qualify to work in a spa as a massage therapist, you will need to research different types of massage therapies, find a good massage school, and get all necessary certification and licensing to work legally as a massage therapist.

Do Your Research

Before committing time and money to go to a school for massage therapy, it’s always a good idea to do some preliminary general research about your topic of interest. This will help you make a good decision about whether or not this is something that you want to do as a full-time career. You will need a strong enough “why” to take on all the studying and training necessary to become fully qualified.

Besides surfing the Internet to find out more about massage, also go for a massage at a spa, and talk to a few massage therapists. After researching the field, then research what type of massage therapyyou want to specialize in.

Do you want to learn reflexology? Do you want to learn about sports massage? Do you want to learn Swedish massage? Do you want to learn deep tissue massage? The only way to decide what to focus on is to do plenty of research to be able to make an informed decision.

Find a Good Massage School

After you’ve decided what you want to learn, then you need to find a school accredited by the government.

How do you decide on the right massage school?

Here is a short list of some of the essential steps to take:

1. Contact the agency in your province that oversees licensing for massage therapists and find out what you need to do to get licensed.
2. Apply for catalogs to find massage schools that offer the type of massage you’re interested in learning.
3. Choose a school that offers the best program based on criteria like cost, credentials, experience, and faculty.
4. Contact the school to find out when they will have an open house.
5. Get the contact information of some graduate students, then ask them about their experience with the school and how their career unfolded after they got their diploma.
6. The final steps are to audit a class, find out about financial aid, and ask about job placement assistance.

If you find the school offers exactly what you want and that you can afford the time and money to attend, then enroll.

What you can Expect as a Massage Student

Although each school is different, here is a rough outline of some of the things you might expect after you enroll as a student:

• Each course will probably demand about 10 hours a week of your time, and it may take you a year to successfully complete all the courses.
• On average, each course will be about 4-5 weeks long and there will be weekly assignments to fulfill.
• Besides classrooms education on anatomy and physiology, you will also be receiving plenty of intensive hands-on intensive training on exactly how to apply the various massage therapy techniques.

Obtain all Necessary Certifications and Licenses

In order to become a fully qualified massage therapist, you will need to earn a certificate in massage therapy, take an approved national examination, and apply for state licensure.

In summary, to work at a luxurious spa as a massage therapist, you will need to decide what type of massage technique you want to specialize in, spend between 330 to 1,000 hours studying and training at an accredited massage therapy school, and then obtain all necessary certification and licensing.

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