SaveYourself.ca • Sensible advice for aches, pains & injuries
updated 11/13/07
I routinely get inquiries from people about the profession of massage therapy. Here are some answers to some basic common questions.
Not particularly, no. It’s a living, but it’s not a great living: therapists make about $80-100CDN per hands-on hour, and can expect to gross $30,000-60,000CDN annually, a little more if you work too hard. That may sound pretty good to some people, but there are several problems …
Obviously it can be tough setting up a new practice in some communities, if there are already a lot of therapists working there (Vancouver is hard, yes). Some therapists are busy immediately, others spend five years establishing a consistent flow of clients, depending on conditions in the market where you set up
Inconsistency of income can be a major problem for some therapists — even the busy ones sometimes have dud months where the regulars disappear on vacations and the new clients don’t call. I worked 40-80 hours per week marketing my practice in the first couple years, and didn’t earn enough to even make student loan payments. And this also had a lot to do with the fact that I’m was a male therapist in a home office setting up shop in one of the most competitive markets for massage therapy in the world — although it was a slow start, I have now been as busy as I want to be for a long time.
The cost of the education — approximately $30,000CDN (not including living expenses) for three years of all-consuming education — is disproportionately high compared to the earning potential. Also, many therapists are injured or exhausted and stop working full-time (or altogether) in less than five years. It’s easy to burnout, and many therapists cannot sustain that income level for even 10 years, let alone two or three decades.
However, if you’re passionate about the profession, none of this matters much.
Yes. My clients are almost always happy — their appointment with me is usually the best hour of their day. They are very appreciative, and the work is interesting and challenging. Working for myself is a dream come true, and I love being able to set my own hours. But it’s also extremely hard work. I am exhausted at the end of each day, and it’s not always a good feeling. I worry about my arms. I know that I can only do this for so many years before I’ll have to come up with another source of income, and that’s stressful.
Extremely! Beware! Three years of studying as hard as you can. Only students with a strong academic record should dare to tread here. And the government certification examinations are even harder (they are poorly written and administrated, imho): 50% of my class failed. I know good students who have failed them three and four times in a row, after spending three years in training and another full year in study, after tens of thousands of dollars of expense. This is nasty! I passed on the first try, but only because I am a savvy old student who can play the system like a fiddle. If you choke up on tests, this is a very serious hurdle.
Not without going through the whole program here, or most of it. Standards for massage therapy in BC are the highest in the world. A couple places match us, but none exceed the level of education required in this jurisdiction. Certification requires graduation from one of the schools here in BC, and credits are rarely transferrable from other programs. We’re quite an exclusive club. If you want to practice as a massage therapist in BC, you might as well think of it like starting over.
My alma mater, The Okanagan Valley College of Massage Therapy (OVCMT), is in the sleepy little town of Vernon. It’s a small school in a small town, and it has a lovely, relaxed atmosphere — sometimes almost catatonic. Generally speaking the administration is excellent and easy to talk to, and Doug Fairweather, the founder and director, is one of the most all-round decent fellows I’ve ever met. On the down side, OVCMT struggles to attract top-notch teachers, and I’m sorry to say that much of the instruction in my three years there was incredibly incompetent. I feel that I succeeded academically in spite of much of the instruction, instead of because of it.
The West Coast College of Massage Therapy (WCCMT) in New Westminster is large and “corporate” in comparison with OVCMT. The administration is notorious for being difficult to talk to. But, being in a big city with two universities and many colleges, they can attract much better instructors than OVCMT. That’s probably more important, so my vote goes to WCCMT, despite my warm feelings towards the Vernon school. There is also a campus of WCCMT in Victoria, if you prefer a medium-sized city.
The Massage Therapists Association of British Columbia has a nice website. Also, you could visit the regulatory body, the College of Massage Therapists of British Columbia. You can also read one of my articles for a more personal description of the state of the art of massage therapy in this province, or my guide to massage therapy in Vancouver for patients.
