The stress of coping with living conditions in huge metropolitan areas gave rise to the popularity of paying a psychotherapist to hear you out. The same stress has also benefited the health and fitness industry, as the population is gaining more positive experience in the therapeutic benefits of structured exercise. Quite ironically, sports injuries are likewise giving rise to massage therapy careers, on top of the usual massage therapy driver – stress.
One of the earliest needs for massage therapy came about when Buddhist monks in ancient Thailand needed relief from sore muscles after hours of repetitive meditative posture. The practice has been codified to what is now known as Thai massage. This kind of massage is just one of the modalities, or approaches of tissue manipulation by hand, that a massage therapist is likely to practice. There are about 80 modalities, and massage therapy careers are as diverse as these modalities.
One example of that diversity is in the area of remedial and rehabilitative care. The approach massage therapists utilize in soft tissue manipulation to correct sports injury is entirely different from the modality they employ for relief of sore muscles due to repetitive strain.
Massage therapists often find work by private appointment, or in more structured environments like wellness clinics, health clubs, spas, hotels and resorts. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recorded 55,920 massage therapists working in a broad spectrum of settings as of May 2009. More than half of them were employed by personal care service providers, while 14,220 of them found work in offices of other health practitioners. Travel, and amusement and recreation, were other industries where they were employed the most.
The nature of work is physically demanding. Hence, those planning to enter the profession have to be physically fit to handle clients of various body frames. The work of a therapist also entails flexible hours, which could easily mean after-office, on weekends, and on holidays. These are the only times when the mass of working population seeking relief from stress would have sufficient time to unwind.
Holiday vacationers also tend to incorporate wellness activities in their travel plans. Thus, a good number of well-paying jobs in the tourism industry includes massage therapists. They typically earn minimum wage, but could earn more from gratuities, especially if they already have attained a level of skill that leaves the customer completely satisfied.
Training and education to enter the profession greatly vary by State and locality in the U.S. Some states only require high school diploma and a completion of post-secondary education requiring 500 hours of hands-on training and coursework. The body of coursework typically includes anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, motion and body mechanics, and massage techniques. Accreditation is usually conferred by local regulating agencies where licensure program is not available.
Massage therapy careers can be as financially rewarding as white-collar professions. In Alaska, massage therapists earned more than $85,000 annually as of May 2009, according to BLS. Nationwide, annual mean wages as of the same cut-off period were close to $40,000. Considering the minimal training initially involved to get into the profession, the physical nature of the job is all worth the effort.