Why Continuing Education Is Important for Massage Therapists

Becoming a massage therapist requires that you learn and practice a lot of different techniques and modalities. Becoming a massage therapist means you will have to learn about the human body, how it reacts to stress and tension, and ways to release and prevent future strains and injuries. There is a lot of learning that goes into becoming a massage therapist, and once you become licensed it is important to continue learning.

What is Continuing Education?

Many massage therapy schools, like San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork, offer classes or workshops on a regular basis for people who want to expand their knowledge and skills. These workshops can also be open to people who have little to no experience in massage therapy but are curious and want to learn a little bit more. You can check out the classes available at San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork here. You can also use this link to sign up!

Why is Continuing Education Important?

Continuing education is important for many reasons. One of these reasons is that there are so many techniques and styles of massage and not every technique is appropriate for every client. Also, new things are being discovered and developed all the time so there will always be something new to learn. Keeping up to date with industry changes is a key ingredient to being a great massage therapist. As a matter of fact, the average professional massage therapist takes 22 hours of continuing education a year. Additionally, if you have board certification or a similar designation, continuing education is required to maintain that credential.

How Can Continuing Education Help Me?

At San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork we strive to ensure that the workshops are valuable to you and can help you with your everyday work and personal development. These workshops can provide exposure to a variety of different styles and techniques. Our classes are taught by industry leaders who can offer a specialized skillset to continuing education students or by our own talented instructors. The workshops are designed to give you more tools you can use when you encounter people who may need something a little different.

Additional Skills and Knowledge

Adding new understanding, techniques, and knowledge to your tool belt as a massage therapist is important. For every workshop you attend you will be able to add another skill to your resume or portfolio. This can be a big help when you’re looking for jobs or trying to move up the ladder where you are working. It can also enable you to help others to a greater, more effective degree and the satisfaction that comes along with this can be tremendous.

What Can I Learn?

A variety of workshops are offered throughout the year, so you could potentially learn something new every class! There are a wide variety of topics, one of which is deep tissue massage and myofascial release. In this workshop you will learn about using myofascial techniques to target areas of the body with lots of tension, dysfunction or injuries. Another example of a workshop topic is prenatal or pregnancy massage. Massage during pregnancy can ease many of the uncomfortable symptoms that come with it such as low back pain, joint discomfort, and can even ease the pain of delivery. Pregnancy massage is also a skill that is highly sought after by spas, clinics, and other people who employ massage therapists. Learning these techniques can help you provide a specialized massage for your clients. There are more topics that you can look at and choose which one interests you.

Practical Experience

Another great aspect of these workshops is that they are designed to give you practical experience immediately. Classes are filled with demonstrations and opportunities to practice what you are learning. This is done so that you can leave the workshop with practical experience and confidence in the new technique under your belt. This can make it a lot easier to tackle when you need to do it on the job.

Check With Your Employer

Sometimes employers will play a role in your continuing education. They may encourage you to attend workshops occasionally and some may even require a certain amount of continuing education be completed each year by their employees. It is important to check with your employer to see if they do either of these. If they do, you can coordinate with your employer about which ones might be most beneficial for you to attend and when an optimal time to attend would be. If you are changing jobs or just getting into the industry, you should ask about this during interviews.

Where and When?

San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork continually hosts workshops that you can attend if you want to hone your massage skills. To attend any or all of these workshops you just have register. Read the description of the workshop that you want to attend because often times it requires that you bring a few things with you to help with the experiential learning portions. So, pick a workshop, register, and show up ready to learn!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and skill of massage therapy. Call us to learn more or ask questions about the workshops offered at San Francisco School of Massage & Bodywork. We can’t wait to help you get to the next level in your career!