No matter what massage therapy or bodywork modality you practice most often, rarely can it hurt to gain advanced knowledge of the human body and the various ways in which healthy, professional touch can affect it for the better. After all, the more knowledge you possess, the more you can offer clients, thereby improving the services you provide to them and even boosting your business.
For most massage therapists and bodyworkers, continuing to learn about the broad and varied field of healthy touch is a given. This is not only because most practitioners of professional touch wish to advance their skills, but also because earning a certain number of continuing education units is typically required of massage therapists and bodyworkers in order to secure a legal license to practice in most states and regions where the field of touch therapy is regulated.
Regardless of your personal reason for seeking continuing education classes in the realm of massage therapy and bodywork, the point remains that advancing one’s knowledge in his or her chosen profession is frequently a fantastic idea. The reason learning more advanced levels of your current skill set is so helpful is it allows you to bring more confidence and comfort into the work you do, and this can actually increase the value of your services.
Those who practice relaxation techniques, such as Swedish massage or Healing Touch, may be wondering why they might need to increase their current knowledge of the human body, how it works and how healthy touch can affect it. Even the massage therapists and bodyworkers who perform these “lighter” brands of touch therapy can benefit from deepening their understanding of the human bodies they work on each day.
For instance, by enrolling in a continuing education course on sports massage or another deep form of bodywork, those who practice techniques that aim for relaxation might gain a greater understanding of how to elicit other body benefits that might help enhance a client’s state of relaxation that much more. At the very least, students of such continuing education classes might be able to better pinpoint why certain areas of a client’s body are especially tight or tender.
This same push for knowledge also applies to those massage therapists and bodyworkers who already are doing the deeper work with clients, whether that work addresses chronic pain, a recent injury or maintenance for top athletic performance. Within these advanced categories of massage therapy and bodywork, there is nearly always another level of knowledge to gain.
Those practitioners of healthy touch who are beginning their search for a continuing education course—whether that search is driven by the desire to learn more, the need for continuing education credits to renew a credential, or a little bit of both—should look for those classes that will take their knowledge to the next level.
In the end, completing one of these advanced continuing education courses should provide a refreshed sense of awe and enthusiasm for this noninvasive healing work, as well as a sharper set of skills.
–Brandi Schlossberg