Please tell me about being an MT...

Hi there! I "bumped" a thread up (wanna be wants advice) that you may want to look at. I answered (rather lengthy answers) a few questions someone else had about getting into massage. If you still have questions after reading it please feel free to ask more and I'll be happy to answer them (I've been a massage therapist for about 10 years).

By now you might be almost done with your nursing. I'm a nurse that has completed schooling for massage therapy. It's very easy making a living as a nurse for sure. I've been a nurse a very long time. Decent pay, plenty of overtime if you want it, and benefits. As a massage therapist, and I love the art of and benefits of massage, I knew getting into it, that it would not be something I would try making a living out of. It's very difficult to do...and for those who do it, more power to them. It's something that to do, takes a LOT OF HARD WORK!!! I would be very hard pressed to make the money I do now as an LMT. Ideally, I would love to combine nursing and massage therapy, but for now, I am working on building some side work.

I do see a future for nurses, LMT's, and nurse massage therapists in health care, so I would still encourage it.

Speaking only for myself, massage therapy has been very rough for me. As a massage therapist, I have worked for chiropractors, neurologists, Massage Envy, day spas at Disney, and countless other places. I have also worked for myself. I don't know if it's just the area that I live in or what, but I have constantly -I mean CONSTANTLY- had to deal with creeps and perverts. They didn't really go over any of this kind of stuff in massage school, so when I got my license and started working, this was all a complete shock to me.

I've had people ask for happy endings (subtly and not so subtly) in every single place I have worked, even Walt Disney World. Working for myself has been the worst.

Like I said, it might just be the area I'm in or the people I'm attracting or the economy - I don't know. I will say that I have found it extremely difficult to support myself on massaging alone. I'm always just barely breaking even with my bills. It has been very stressful, especially since the economy has soured. The calls have really dried up recently.

Personally, as soon as I'm able, I'm out of the massage business. It's just not for me.