If you are ever unsure which continuing education class would be of the most benefit to you and your practice, there are several ways to tune in and find out. One of these methods involves paying extra attention to any trends or patterns in what your clients are presenting with when they arrive for a session.
For example, if you begin to notice that quite a few of your clients are complaining of insomnia, you could look around and see if there are any continuing education classes for massage therapists and bodyworkers that offer techniques to help address sleeping issues.
Another example may be a rise in clients who are presenting with neck pain, perhaps due to the increased use of hand-held technology in today’s culture. If this is the case, then you could search out continuing education courses designed specifically to teach massage therapists and bodyworkers how to treat this type of neck pain.
The possible examples are endless, and the continuing education class you choose to take should depend on what you notice among your own clients as far as any trends or patterns in what they are looking for in a session. Some massage therapists and bodyworkers may even experience clients requesting a certain technique or calling to ask if you offer a particular modality, such as shiatsu or trigger-point therapy.
If people are requesting certain types of massage therapy or bodywork again and again, you may feel somewhat compelled to learn more about those techniques or modalities via continuing education. Also, even if you are not getting numerous requests for a certain modality, one client asking may be enough to make you think about enrolling in a continuing education class, especially if the technique is one you have thought before about learning.
Looking to your clients for insight about the kind of continuing education class you should take does not only apply to figuring out what new techniques or modalities to learn. It can apply to other aspects of your practice as well, such as community outreach and marketing procedures, accounting and sales.
For instance, you might find yourself seeing one or more breast cancer survivors, and feeling inspired and rewarded by working with them. Besides considering a continuing education course that focuses on massage therapy for breast cancer survivors, you might also consider making a short presentation to a local hospital or clinic that serves breast cancer patients, all about the benefits of massage therapy or bodywork for such patients.
If this is the case, there are continuing education classes designed to help massage therapists and bodyworkers make these kinds of presentations to the public, so enrolling in such a continuing education course could be the perfect way to prepare a powerful presentation.
As you can see, the key is to pay extra attention and be incredibly mindful of any trends or patterns occurring among your clients or even any thoughts or inspirations that seem to be cropping up in you repeatedly as you see certain clients. Using this method, you may be able to find continuing education classes that offer big benefits to you and your clients.