Whether you choose to take continuing education classes because you need to or because you want to—or perhaps a bit of both—it is important to get a firm grasp on the potential benefits of continuing education for professional massage therapists and bodyworkers. With a thorough understanding of the many ways in which continuing education can help benefit you and your practice, you should be better prepared to make the most of each and every continuing education experience.
Becoming and staying aware of all the positive aspects of continuing education may be especially important for those practitioners who are required to earn continuing education credits. These continuing education requirements can come from a variety of sources. Often, it is those massage therapists and bodyworkers who practice in a region where the industry is regulated who are required to earn continuing education credits as a part of the region’s regulation guidelines.
However, there may be other reasons manual therapists are required to enroll in continuing education class. For example, earning continuing education credits could be a requirement for employees working at a certain place of employment such as a resort spa, massage franchise, hospital or clinic. Also, certain professional organizations may ask that their members obtain continuing education credits on a consistent basis as well.
For all of the practitioners who pursue continuing education primarily because it is a requirement, it can be crucial to keep in mind all the potential benefits of continuing education classes. It may be too easy to get caught up in thinking of continuing education simply as a box that must be checked in order to stay within the guidelines of one’s governing board, employer, professional regulation or some other outside entity.
The bottom line, though, is continuing education can be a valuable experience for professional massage therapists and bodyworkers, regardless of whether they are taking a continuing education class because it is a requirement or because they made a personal decision to enroll. By keeping the high value of continuing education in mind, one may improve his or her chances of reaping the full slate of rewards from any and every continuing education course.
One of the most prevalent benefits of taking a continuing education class is the learning experience can help to improve who you are as a professional practitioner of massage therapy or bodywork. For example, if you take a continuing education course that focuses on some form of touch therapy, whether it is new to you or simply a more advanced level of learning, you can leave that continuing education class with more skills as a manual therapist.
Of course, it is not just the continuing education classes based on actual forms of touch therapy that help to improve the practitioner, but also those courses that focus on all kinds of other topics, from ethics and body mechanics to outreach and marketing.
It is vital to remember that when the practitioner becomes improved through continuing education, all sorts of other benefits can ensue, such as bringing in more clients, getting more repeat customers, feeling a greater sense of satisfaction and making more money, to name a few.