Dan Vallejo
2006-05-02 17:57:10 UTC
Greetings fellow students, MTs, and all of the assorted goofs that seem to
hang out in this NG. I have been a student of massage therapy since January
of this year and used this group (and other resources) as a source of
information in making my decision to attend MT school. I'm a 45 year old
male that is making the transition from the world of high-tech (I'm
currently a web developer) to the "hands-on" world of massage therapy and
couldn't be happier about it. This NG provided a pretty good "snapshot" of
the benefits and barriers to becoming an MT and I hate to say it but some of
ts the idiots that post here actually do a pretty good job of representing
all of the distorted thinking that exists around the MT profession. Now that
I've been in school for 4 months I feel like sharing some of my experiences
and learnings so far. Maybe it will help others thinking about MT.
Choose a good school. I attend a privately owned school; the Colorado
Institute of Massage Therapy and I feel like I made a good choice. There are
several other MT schools here in Colorado Springs but this one seems to have
a wonderful reputation here in the community. They have a very solid
curriculum and go out of their way to promote professionalism and high
ethical standards both in the classroom and in the community. Prior to
enrolling, one of my biggest concerns was how I, as a 45 year old man, would
fit into a class made up primarily of women. WOuld they want to work with
me? I read some real horror stories in this forum about that but I have to
say that in my case I have experienced very little in the way of prejudice
from the women in my class. My class consists of 18 women and 5 guys and in
general everyone gets along fine. I haven't seen any hesistation from anyone
about our weekly partners and I'm sure this stems from the professionalism
instilled in group from the onset.
Make a committment to succeed. I get the impression that many of my fellow
students are/were pursuing MT because it is perceived as a quick, easy field
to get into. This isn't the case with CIMT. Out of the 23 that started the
program in January, only about 12-14 are still in the program. You really
only get out of it what you put in. I find that I am putting in 20-30 hours
per week into my training. This includes class time, study time, marketing
events, community service, study groups, workshops, and of course, massages
given. It's quite a committment if you pile that onto a 40-50 hour work
week.
Men DO belong in the MT field. One of the requirements of CIMT is that each
student must received 2 "professional" massages per month to get an idea of
other professionals techniques and methods. Of the 10 or so massages that I
have received, the best ones have come from male therapists. That's not to
say that the women aren't good but in my case I really prefer "deep" work
and the women therapists that I have worked with have had a problem going
deep enough for my liking. I realize that's a very general statement and by
no means is it true across the board. There is a PT in our class and she can
easily bring tears to my eyes when working on me.
Straight men aren't as "homophobic" as some would lead us to believe. As a
"straight" man I was nervous about working on men and also worried about
whether or not I would be able to get men on the table for practice. Well, I
am pleased to say that working on men hasn't been an issue at all and that
some friends of mine that I thought would run away when I asked if I could
practice on them have been very willing and most are bugging me to work on
them on a regualar basis. I've only run into one situation so far where this
was an issue. A 19 year old guy wouldn't let me give him a chair massage at
a marketing event. He decided to get vocal about it "No offense man but I
don't let guys touch me" so I handed it right back to him; "No offense
taken, homophobia is a tough thing to overcome". I really embarrassed him in
front of his co-workers and it felt really good.
Anyway, I wanted to take some time to add my $.02 to the group. I encourage
questions or comments. Have a great day!
Dan
hang out in this NG. I have been a student of massage therapy since January
of this year and used this group (and other resources) as a source of
information in making my decision to attend MT school. I'm a 45 year old
male that is making the transition from the world of high-tech (I'm
currently a web developer) to the "hands-on" world of massage therapy and
couldn't be happier about it. This NG provided a pretty good "snapshot" of
the benefits and barriers to becoming an MT and I hate to say it but some of
ts the idiots that post here actually do a pretty good job of representing
all of the distorted thinking that exists around the MT profession. Now that
I've been in school for 4 months I feel like sharing some of my experiences
and learnings so far. Maybe it will help others thinking about MT.
Choose a good school. I attend a privately owned school; the Colorado
Institute of Massage Therapy and I feel like I made a good choice. There are
several other MT schools here in Colorado Springs but this one seems to have
a wonderful reputation here in the community. They have a very solid
curriculum and go out of their way to promote professionalism and high
ethical standards both in the classroom and in the community. Prior to
enrolling, one of my biggest concerns was how I, as a 45 year old man, would
fit into a class made up primarily of women. WOuld they want to work with
me? I read some real horror stories in this forum about that but I have to
say that in my case I have experienced very little in the way of prejudice
from the women in my class. My class consists of 18 women and 5 guys and in
general everyone gets along fine. I haven't seen any hesistation from anyone
about our weekly partners and I'm sure this stems from the professionalism
instilled in group from the onset.
Make a committment to succeed. I get the impression that many of my fellow
students are/were pursuing MT because it is perceived as a quick, easy field
to get into. This isn't the case with CIMT. Out of the 23 that started the
program in January, only about 12-14 are still in the program. You really
only get out of it what you put in. I find that I am putting in 20-30 hours
per week into my training. This includes class time, study time, marketing
events, community service, study groups, workshops, and of course, massages
given. It's quite a committment if you pile that onto a 40-50 hour work
week.
Men DO belong in the MT field. One of the requirements of CIMT is that each
student must received 2 "professional" massages per month to get an idea of
other professionals techniques and methods. Of the 10 or so massages that I
have received, the best ones have come from male therapists. That's not to
say that the women aren't good but in my case I really prefer "deep" work
and the women therapists that I have worked with have had a problem going
deep enough for my liking. I realize that's a very general statement and by
no means is it true across the board. There is a PT in our class and she can
easily bring tears to my eyes when working on me.
Straight men aren't as "homophobic" as some would lead us to believe. As a
"straight" man I was nervous about working on men and also worried about
whether or not I would be able to get men on the table for practice. Well, I
am pleased to say that working on men hasn't been an issue at all and that
some friends of mine that I thought would run away when I asked if I could
practice on them have been very willing and most are bugging me to work on
them on a regualar basis. I've only run into one situation so far where this
was an issue. A 19 year old guy wouldn't let me give him a chair massage at
a marketing event. He decided to get vocal about it "No offense man but I
don't let guys touch me" so I handed it right back to him; "No offense
taken, homophobia is a tough thing to overcome". I really embarrassed him in
front of his co-workers and it felt really good.
Anyway, I wanted to take some time to add my $.02 to the group. I encourage
questions or comments. Have a great day!
Dan