Signing up for your next continuing education class can be an exciting prospect, as long as you have done the leg work to make sure the massage continuing education course you are about to take is one you are truly interested in and can benefit you and your practice. If you are not feeling enthusiastic about your upcoming continuing education class, that may be the first sign there could be a better continuing education course out there for you—if you are willing to do the work to find it.
At first, picking out a continuing education class may sound easy, and sometimes it is a simple and straightforward process. For instance, you may have been wondering about a certain modality for months, and even received a session by a fellow massage therapist or bodyworker who uses this modality. In this instance, when you’re ready to sign up for your next continuing education class and you see a course about this intriguing modality, you will most likely feel confident about signing up.
Another time when choosing a continuing education class is easy is when you work in an area or for a particular employer that dictates exactly which continuing education classes you need to take in order to maintain your license to practice or to keep your job and be eligible for promotions. Fortunately, there are many ways to make the most of these mandated continuing education classes, and there is usually time to take some of your own chosen continuing education courses as well.
When it comes to picking out a continuing education class on your own and you do not have a specific modality or topic in mind, then it is time to begin the leg work of figuring out which continuing education course might best suit you and your practice. This involves, primarily, a willingness and ability to look deeply at the work you do and become aware of any areas that could use a bit of improvement.
Of course, improvement can mean many things to different people. For one bodyworker, the vague sense of boredom she has started to feel during the work day could be the area that needs to be improved. In this case, she could begin looking into continuing education classes that could teach her a new and exciting technique, something different to begin weaving into her session work.
For another practitioner, the sense of not being to help certain clients as much as he would like might be the where he feels he needs improvement as a professional massage therapist. Therefore, he may do well to seek out continuing education classes that advance his skills or teach him to better address some of the issues these clients present with in the session room.
Still, another individual may feel perfectly fine about the work that takes place within her session room, but awful that her accounting procedures are a mess. Here, a continuing education class on accounting or office management for massage therapists and bodyworkers might be the best bet for improvement.