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Massage Therapist Job Description

What is a massage therapist? It is someone who is trained in providing massages to people for healthful or medicinal benefit and advantages in an art with many facets known as massage therapy. They work with soft tissues in branches of expertise and styles. Some of them work with superficial layers of skin, some of them with deeper layers, and some with both, or more styles.

There are many variations when it comes to massage therapists. You have those who focus on Thai massage, and contrarily, those who focus on Swedish massage. These styles can be rigorous or gentle, but they must be firm enough to make a difference in the client – and this is where the diversity between each therapist comes into play.

You will not find two who have the same exact manner of massaging, even if their approaches resemble one another, so the experience will be different every time you go. The thing is though, their goal is to always make each massage pleasurable, relaxing, and beneficial to their clients.

As with the styles, the ways in which each massage therapist operates can differ as well. Some of them use massage chair for their clients to offer more freedom to move and contort it to their liking. Others feel that tables are more suitable, as it allows them to better focus on certain areas that they are giving the massage to. Sometimes the floor is the best option, such as with the previously-mentioned Thai massage, as there are therapy branches that require yoga-like stretches.

How to Become a Massage Therapist

Becoming a massage therapist means dedicating a few years of your life to training and higher education disciplines. These include fields in anatomy, kinesiology, ethics, and most importantly, physiology. Each state or district in the US and Europe have different standards for what constitute a qualified massage therapist. Each one must have their high school diploma or equivalent and undergo massage therapy training in their chosen branch.

Sometimes a business management course is necessary. There will definitely be hands-on training and practice involved on pseudo-clients before the hopeful therapist passes qualification. Aside from that, the right mindset is needed.

Average Salary for a Massage Therapist (US and Europe)

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, massage therapists earn a median hourly wage of $16.78 as of May 2008. The surveys showed that the middle 50% earned between $11.36 and $25.14 per hour. The lowest 10% only earned less than $8.01, while the highest 10% earned more than $33.47. These are adjusted to include those who work part-time, so this may not be an accurate representation of what can be earned with this type of position on every account – but it is a reasonable study to follow by example.

According to the PayScale directory, the salary for massage therapists in Europe is between £8,529 and £18,972.