When you lying face down on a massage table, regardless of how great a job the message therapist is doing, you might always be tempted to assume that at the end of the day the entire job entails is a pair of hands. In reality, there is much more to a massage than that. A professional message therapist must know quite a few things. First of all, they have to know exactly which tools to use whether it is the hands, fingers, elbows and whatever else. They must also know exactly which oils to use, which scents etc. Most importantly, the message therapist always has to precisely how to handle the client's body. He or she must know where to touch, how to touch it and even how long to touch it.

This is not a simple thing and to be in tune with all this, all professional message therapists must attend massage therapy spa training. If you have also been wondering how to start off on a career in this industry, you will also need to start here in order to learn massage therapy. The time it takes in massage training varies according to what it is the student wants. Some simply seek the minimum requirements needed to get started while others go the whole way and seek to master the discipline. In some cases, this period of learning time is regulated by a stated body and can range anything from 330 to 1000 hours. This will translate to programs that last anything from between a few weeks to two years.

After attaining the necessary skills needed, the next step is to start building a career out of this. There are various approaches one may take. Some start on entrepreneurial ventures and start their own business such as massage parlors or massage therapy spas while others seek employment from already established businesses. Some of the places in which a massage training graduate can attain employment include but are not limited to Spas, resorts, hotels, hospitals (as medical massage therapists), private offices, fitness centres, country clubs etc. The tourism and hospitality sector is the place where it would be easiest to find employment because massages have become an important part of most peoples relaxation routines thus the best place to find them would be where they go to relax.

Even if you are not interested in a full time job as a message therapist, it can also make for a great part time job which is a great idea for somebody seeking to make a little extra money. It is also the kind of skill that is great fun to have handy in the bedroom as a sensual massage can make for a great experience in the bedroom.

In case you wish to learn massage therapy for other reasons other than getting a job or just to simply expand your knowledge then you are in luck because this is a field that has as many variations as it could take you to learn in a single lifetime. You could take a massage continuing education and seek to learn as many different techniques as you can learn. Massage practices from the east will give you an especially good amount of work to do as they have many varying types of massage therapy ranging from Japan's shiatsu, Thailand's Hilot, the stone massage among others.

Massage continuing education may seem basic but it can also be an education in healing as many massage therapists will testify to at least one patient who claimed that the message therapist hands are what cured them after many years of ailment. When you learn massage therapy, you also learnt to heal.