Continuing education for massage therapists and bodyworkers should be viewed as an opportunity, rather than a chore to be checked off one’s to-do list. Most successful practitioners of healing touch modalities understand continuing education classes offer them the chance to hone and direct their careers as necessary.
It is important to make sure your own mindset about continuing education is a positive one. Even if you are one of the many massage therapists and bodyworkers who is required to earn a certain number of continuing education credits in order to maintain your license to practice, continuing education should still be viewed as a wonderful opportunity to enhance your career.
There are several ways to make continuing education classes work for you, in terms of improving your daily work as a massage therapist or bodyworker, from your hands-on skills to the amount of money you are capable of making. In fact, your skills and your bottom line typically are closely tied in the world of massage therapy and bodywork. The practitioners of healthy touch who offer the most satisfying, effective sessions tend to be the ones who bring in the most money as well.
However, there is another link that usually needs to be in place if a massage therapist or bodyworker wants to reach the peak success of a large, loyal client base and plenty of income. That link is marketing, and fortunately, massage therapists and bodyworkers can find continuing education classes devoted to teaching touch therapists the marketing skills necessary to keep a steady stream of new clients coming in to experience your top-notch skills—and consistently coming back for more.
Take a good look at the foundation for success you have set up within your massage therapy or bodywork practice, then select the right continuing education classes to shore up any possible cracks or soft spots in that foundation. For example, if you feel you could do more business and provide better sessions if you advanced your current skills, or learned another technique or two to add to your menu, then start there.
Find continuing education classes that will allow you to build on your main modality and become an expert in that specific hands-on protocol. If you already have reached advance status in one modality, then think about whether your clients—and your business—would benefit from adding a different technique to the mix. The hands-on skills of a massage therapist or bodyworker will always be the heart of a solid practice, so use continuing education classes to make sure your own skills are spot on.
Once you are feeling confident about the services you can provide for clients in your area, it may be time to enroll in a continuing education class that will give you the marketing know how you need to bring in and keep clients to experience those services. Remember, you could be offering the best massage in town, but if no one knows you are in business, then no one will be able to experience it.
Start building a rock solid foundation for success today by looking into continuing education classes relevant to your practice as a massage therapist or bodyworker.
–Brandi Schlossberg