Internal healing is an essential part of holistic medicine in a massage therapy career. While allied health fields have employed several healing methods like somatic insight, yoga, and psychotherapy, massage therapy remains one of the oldest practices among these.
Massage therapy can be broadly defined as a technique that allows the practitioner to use different motions like rubbing, striking, and manipulating muscles and pressure to help alleviate physical pain and mental distress.
The profession of massage encompasses almost 80 different types of practices. There are special certification courses for all of these treatments. Some of them are reflexology, deep tissue massage, orthopedics, sports massage, etc.
Massage Therapy as a Career
A career in massage therapy sounds both interesting and rewarding. If you are wondering what are your career prospects in massage therapy, the first thing you need to do is research. As mentioned earlier, there are a plethora of treatments in massage that you can specialize in.
But, you can’t choose your specialization unless you know all the possibilities. Therefore, to begin with, we are going to talk about the three primary categories of massage therapy.
Therapeutic Massage
Many novices make the mistake of confusing massage therapy with therapeutic massage. While the nomenclature may suggest that they are similar, that’s not the case. Massage therapy encompasses a wide variety of therapeutic practices, and therapeutic massage is a sub-category of massage therapy.
Therapeutic massage is a type of medical massage which is often used by therapists to treat physical pain with the help of their hands. This is done by manually manipulating the muscles to alleviate their pain.
It’s important to remember that there is no particular method when it comes to therapeutic massage. This is because each treatment plan is catered to the specific needs of the individual.
Sports Massage
As thrilling as it can be to be an athlete, more often than not, it leads to injuries. One little slip can cause a significant amount of damage. This leads to unbearable pain which is mostly treated with painkillers, heating packs, rest, etc.
In more severe cases of sports injury, these methods may not work. In the case of painkillers, athletes end up developing a high tolerance to the specific medication, which in turn makes the medicine less than effective. This might urge them to self-medicate by increasing the number of tablets they are prescribed.
Such practices of self-medicating can lead to drug abuse. Hence, many doctors suggest sports massage to help manage the pain. Sports massage acts as a non-invasive and drug-free approach to pain management which allows the body to speed up the healing process. This helps the athlete get back on their feet sooner rather than later.
Deep Tissue Massage
Deep Tissue Massage uses techniques to target the soft tissues hidden deep within the body. This is done with the help of firm pressure, gentle strokes, and specific movements to stimulate the tissues. Deep tissue massage is highly effective in dealing with musculoskeletal sprains and injuries.
Career as a Massage Therapist
If you like the prospect of healing through massage, you will find that the career options for you are exciting and abundant. Some of these fields are as follows:
- Athletic Trainer – As an athletic trainer, you will be responsible for teaching the athlete how not to get injured, i.e., protect their muscles and bones from severe injury. Furthermore, you have to help them correct their posture so that they can give their best on the field.
- Physical Therapist Aide/ Physical Therapist – A PT aide works alongside a physiotherapist to help treat patients who are suffering from severe disabilities. Some of your daily duties will be massaging tendons, holding walkers for people to make sure they are steady, and maintaining medical records. You could also choose the path of becoming a licensed physical therapist. Please remember that this specialization requires a doctorate-level certification.
- Private Clinic/ Spa – A large number of massage therapists choose to establish independent clinics and spas. The clinic can contain several treatment areas like steam rooms, saunas, mud baths, etc. As your brand starts to grow, you could also start bringing in more massage specialists depending on your clients’ needs.
In other words, these are just some of the professions you can take up as a trained and licensed massage therapist. Massage therapy is an exceptionally versatile area of allied health practices. Furthermore, you can opt to work in various occupational spaces. For example, chiropractor’s offices, hospitals, wellness centers, nursing homes, hospices, hotels, resorts, spas, and many more!
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