If you are considering a career in massage, this article prompts you to ask yourself five vital questions. Answering these questions will not only give great insights into many important aspects of what a massage career entails, it will also help you determine if a massage career is right for you.
Do You Care About People?
Firstly let me elaborate on the question. Everyone cares about at least some people. I mean, do you generally care about people, do you enjoy caring for people.
This is an important first question to ask. If you want a long term career in massage, you want to be able to answer honestly that you do, because it's the primary role you will have in your career.
Are You a Good Self Manager?
After embarking on your career in massage you will need to be a good self manager. While some will find employment in spas, sports facilities or medical clinics, most will enter into their own business which means you are the boss of you.
You will need to have good time management skills and manage your bookkeeping, although you will be able to outsource some of that if you wish. Also you will need to manage your discipline as you will predominantly be working unsupervised.
Do You Have Good Communication Skills?
This is an important question. Some people think that a massage career is perfect for a quiet, maybe even an introverted person. In many ways this is true, but keep in mind that you will need very good people and communication skills for 2 reasons.
You need to deal with clients before and after treatments, including dealing with an initial face to face or phone inquiry. If people don't like you, they will not book a massage with you, no matter how good you are as a massage therapist.
You need to effectively communicate to find out any health issues they may have prior to treatment. Sometimes health issues are of a sensitive nature and they will not divulge them unless they feel very comfortable with you, so people skills are vitally important to ensure the best treatment for your clients.
Do You Enjoy A Quiet Work Place?
Obviously working as a massage therapist means working in a quiet work place. No busy office chatter, and during treatments it means up to an hour of quiet, although it is common to have relaxing music in the background.
Most massage therapists actually love this environment and enjoy the quiet of treatment time. They even find it meditative and it can be very therapeutic for them even while they perform the treatment.
Do You Have Any kind Interest in the Human Body?
This might sound like a strange question. I recommend you ask it to yourself for two reasons.
During a career in massage you will spend many hours per week in personal contact with human bodies, not working near people like in most jobs but actually touching their bodies. You can also choose to make a career in adult massage or erotic massage, but these are not sexual at all and you do not have to perform sexual acts on the clients.