When you break the phrase down to the basics, the words continuing education can tell you a lot about the purpose and benefits of these classes for professional massage therapists and bodyworkers. An important factor to keep in mind is continuing education courses are for those members of the field who already have graduated from massage or bodywork school and entered the workforce.
We can begin this word-based exploration with the first part of the phrase continuing education. Here, the point is that massage therapists and bodyworkers are choosing to continue their education—they are choosing to continue to learn and grow. In other words, education does not end after one graduates from massage or bodywork school.
For the practitioner who wishes to stay vital within his or her career, continuing education is an ideal means for achieving this goal, for it allows the professional massage therapist or bodyworker to keep learning and gaining useful information. With the vast array of continuing education classes available, manual therapists can even pick and choose the specific ways in which they would like to continue their education.
This brings us to the second part of this word-based exploration, and the focus on the notion of education. This is a broad word, but we can take a closer look at education as it applies to professional massage therapists and bodyworkers, and especially as it pertains to continuing education courses. After graduation from massage or bodywork school, the meaning of the word education can become much more personal to the practitioner.
Within the realm of continuing education, one may choose to receive further instruction on an incredibly wide variety of topics. Which continuing education classes the practitioner chooses to take will depend on a number of factors, all somewhat personal to that practitioner. The least personal of all these variables would be whether the state or region in which the practitioner lives has specific rules or guidelines as to which kinds of continuing education classes the professional massage therapist or bodyworker must take in order to maintain his or her license to practice.
However, even the practitioners who are governed by these more specific rules around continuing education can choose to take whatever continuing education classes they would like on their own time, as long as the other requirements are being met.
Beyond the influence of any state or regional regulations, massage therapists and bodyworkers are free to choose what kind of education they wish to receive via their next continuing education experience. This is where the individual’s wants and needs really come into play, as it is up to the massage therapist or bodyworker to decide where his or her education needs to be continued.
For example, one massage therapist may see a weak spot in her practice when it comes to dealing with clients who present with low-back pain. This massage therapist may be wise to pursue continuing education on the topic of addressing low-back pain. Another example might be the bodyworker who is having trouble marketing his practice. This person may do well to take a continuing education class on marketing a bodywork practice.