For the most part it will take a hard lesson for practitioners manifesting the poor attitudes you describe to “get it” and wake-up to what is necessary to be successful and make a consistent living in this field. As for yourself and the sake of your position, you’d probably be best off to keep the practitioners that demonstrate the best attitudes for learning and growth and rid yourself of those who are not up to the job. That will help you develop a stronger team, ultimately make you more successful in your job responsibilities and at the same time, hopefully, will wake up those therapists you let go of.

I could not agree with you more regarding your statements on the importance of serious reading, studying and practice. It’s part of what I addressed above in some of my responses to comments regarding “consolidation of knowledge.” It seems that will provide a real good prerequisite and foundation for practitioners to have before adding and integrating new areas of the field into their practices.

I will take issue with your last remark however and just say in response that boredom with work at times is very common and certainly does not mean that practitioners are on the wrong path. It’s really, as I am sure you will agree, not just that simple. But I do certainly agree that everyone should once in a good while sit back and reflect on the path they have taken!

Certainly being present, energized and committed to every treatment you provide for a client is essential for success in this field and maintaining that level can often lead to burnout. So a well deserved and needed vacation, if you can afford to take one, especially with CE, is a great idea. But it won’t necessarily resolve the ups and downs in your client attendance. Sometimes it’s just out of your control and has to do with economic trends. But more often then not it appears to be the result of weak marketing skills and business acumen on the part of practitioners. It’s a well known fact in this profession that massage therapists, who love to give with their minds and bodies, have a lot more difficulty learning and manifesting all the ways necessary to assure a consistently successful practice regardless of the outside forces. Perhaps if you haven’t already take some CE courses in these areas, pick up some books on the subject, etc… Good luck!

And yes I certainly do agree that just picking up an A&P book, or a palpation book can also revitalize your attitude and relationship to your work as much as taking a workshop.

I realised a few years ago the importance of keeping abreast of current knowledge, I felt I was getting stale and doing the same old thing and needed a change. I am 69 and began my massage career 20 years ago. In 2000 I began teaching at a Natural Therapies College and in 2005 I did a 6 month course to upgrade my Diploma of Remedial Massage - in 2006 and 2007 I went to Thailand and studied Thai Massage - and recently redid courses in Lymphatic drainage and Reflexology. I am usually the oldest student in the class but don’t feel old when I am with young people. I love massage therapy - even though it has damaged my hands in the process - I keep fit by teaching yoga and still work as an RN. This year i will be doing a Uni course to learn how to teach in Higher Education as the college where I teach becomes a University soon. It is all very exciting and challenging and I endorse everything Steven says.

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Hello Steven,

I am currently a Massage Dept. Manager for a very prominent day spa….I have been having trouble trying to keep my Therapists motivated. I am in charge of helping them to grow, to learn new, or more massage modalilties, and to give them ideas to market themselves. But all I continue to hear is how slow it is at times, or why do I have to stick around for walk-ins and/or add-ons? They do not take into consideration that these slow times are good times to catch up with Thank you cards, home care reccommendations, or other marketing skills. We have monthly meetings and I do my best to bring up motivational skills or ideas from other therapists but still a no go. What can I do to help them understand that a Massage Therapist has to continually market themselves so as to keep client retention strong? I give them incentives, tools and contests but not everyone is motivated. I have also tried to let them know that if a Massage Career is going to be their livelihood, then they are going to have to come up with uplifting, imaginary strategies and self motivation to keep client retention strong. Out of ideas…….C,

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