Q. How long after graduating do I have to wait before I start specializing?

Pragmatically, you can start specializing the minute you complete any of your post-graduation training in the area you have fallen in love with. This training can run anywhere from a weekend intensive on geriatric massage, to a two-week class in manual lymphatic drainage, to a series of weekend workshops over the course of a year.

However, one quick aside here before we get into the meat of the matter: No matter what specialty you have fallen in love with, you want to get the absolute best training you can. The absolute best. If you have to get on a plane to get to your sports-massage guru, do it. If oncology massage is only taught in Phoenix, get there. It will serve you well for the rest of your professional life not to be trained by the yahoo down the road who thinks she is the best thing around simply because she’s been “doing it for 20 years.” When you are out there working in your specialty, it quickly becomes apparent who really knows what she’s doing and who doesn’t. This affects your income, your professional reputation, your referral base and your future. Do yourself a favor: do your research, find out who’s the best, put up the money and get the training. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Now, to the point. Sure, you could hop right off that graduation stage, take a solid, intensive class in your specialty, hang out your shingle and dive right in. I think that’s a mistake.

No matter how terrific your education was (and I’m saying this as an instructor in what I consider a terrific curriculum), you truly don’t know much upon graduation. The best massage therapists realize it takes time to understand how to give an effective massage, how to distinguish abnormal tissue from healthy tissue, how to handle cranky or difficult clients, and exactly how they want to spend their days as a massage therapist.

The more prudent long-term path you might consider is to touch as much human tissue as possible for one year before deciding on a specialty. You truly don’t know enough as a fresh graduate to decide what you are going to be really good at. You don’t know whether the elderly just annoy you or if they might be the loves of your professional life. You may think sports massage is glorious, fun and energetic and not realize it’s also dirty, difficult and downright hard on your poor body.

If you give yourself just one year to come into contact with a wide variety of people and conditions (a chiropractor’s office, a physical-therapy clinic, a spa, a fitness center, your own private practice) you will hone your interests. You might find real joy in the challenge of working therapeutically or you might realize, “Hey! I like working on really healthy people and just letting them relax for an hour.”

And, in that first year, you need to learn how to network, determine which is the best business association to join, solidly engage yourself in your professional massage association and find out what the massage demand is in your region.

After a year or so, you’ll have a strong understanding of what you love and what you don’t; you’ll know what your regional market needs; and you’ll have much smarter hands than you did when you graduated.

By then, you’ll be ready to get the most out of your extended training and you’ll ultimately be more employable than you were upon graduation. I believe you’ll be happier in the long run.

See Issue 117