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How do I become a massage therapist?

How to become a massage therapist in UK?

  • Hey, First of all I'm not from the UK, so I've no clue where to start and what the requirments are. I've found some colleges offering massage therapist training courses but I haven't found any requirements and some just offer courses with a duration of 2 weeks which seems abit odd to me, since I know in some other countries you go through like a 2-3 year training. I didn't complete high school, so I wonder if a HS diploma is needed? Also if anyone could recommand me any college would be nice :) I'd prefer london or liverpool. Thanks for anything helpful :)

  • Answer:

    Depends what you mean by massage therapist - we don't have the same depth as the standard US LMT but the US system is flawed by unnecessary over-training and I speak having experienced both. You can do basic fluff and buff courses in under a month but that's all they'll be. Anything deeper or more remedial and you're looking at specialist training. That can be much harder to find, and much more expensive. If you're willing to invest years and thousands then you'd be better looking at Osteopath. IMHO. At the moment there is no central certification for MTs, that may change if the government sees money in it. So it will change but not any time soon. As it stands you could just come over, put an ad in the paper and start trading out of your spare room. There is nothing to stop you. And don't, for pity's sake, move to Liverpool :) Breaks my heart to say it as a native but Liverpool is over. The money is dribbling out of here faster than it's pouring in and the people are going with it. If you want to build a practise worth having then you're best basing yourself around a city that's still got a bit of life in it. But don't get settled - therapists unquestionably do better in suburbs and commuter towns, so if you do start in a big city you'll be moving. London is tough to live in and ruinously expensive. But everything's there. Outside London it can be a real struggle to find good training. You may want to think about Manchester or Leeds or Birmingham, not as big but still thriving. hth :)

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if you go to a college open day and speak to one of the tutors they usually require you to do a test before the course to see if you are suitable because its not just simple massage you have to learn anatomy and physiology also, theres a lot you need to know basically. i studied at city and islington college the tutor was crap but the course was really good hopefully they have a different tutor now. also depends on what type of massage you want to do.

TheQuestionIs...

I took my qualifications at night school. I had to gain Swedish massage with Anatomy and physiology first and then went on to take sports massage. It took me 3 years. Look up any good collage that's sports related on line. Once you have those qualifications it's easy to branch out into the other therapies. I wouldn't go into the holistic therapies first.

BmrsMarpelly

try this

Emily

"2 weeks which seems abit odd to me, since I know in some other countries you go through like a 2-3 year training." It's massage, not rocket science! Other countries might be able to con students out of 2-3 years training, but such scams are banned under UK law. 2 weeks sounds like a feasible amount of time and yes, they'll be none or very little entry requirements. Some sports massage courses last a year, but are only one day a week (mainly for people who already work in that field, their employer gives them a day off a week for this training.) Employment routes for massage therapists are limited, if you call it 'sports massage' then you might have better luck, but again most of your work will involve you being self-employed, so no guarantee of any income. London is a very expensive place to live, I'd recommend Liverpool if you really want to live in a city.

dave

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