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Selecting a Massage Therapy School

Greetings!

I'm strongly considering a career in massage therapy and want to make sure I invest my money and time in a school wisely. What accreditations in a school are absolutely necessary to be well-respected within the profession and to be eligible for a job with almost any employer? I've been getting mixed information from the internet and from the schools themselves (unsurprisingly... at the end of the day they have to pay their bills, too).

Namasté

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Permalink Reply by Beatrice Ghiglione on December 22, 2016 at 8:12am

Firstly it depends on the kind of legislation. I am writing from Italy where there's a pretty wide regulation L. 4/2013 which concerns not only massage but also other professions and according to this legal frame there are several schools teaching massage. How to evaluate the best school? It mainly depends on the training program, the teachers' qualification: in the end what it's really relevant is that you get the competences in order to be an excellent masseur. I live in Genova (in the north of Italy) and I have been lucky enough to have an excellent massage school near to where I live (Scuola di Massaggio ArteCorpo www.artecorpo.it) where I took all the first level and specialization massage courses that I needed in order to start working a massotherapist, which now I am. So, I think that the best is to look very carefully for information, visit the school, and check all the details.You won't miss the right choice!

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Permalink Reply by Mattias Crispién on May 17, 2017 at 11:49pm

Glad i found this thread. Im a bit curious about this too.

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Permalink Reply by Bob MTN on July 13, 2017 at 8:28am

I agree with one of the previous answers. It depends on which state you plan to practice massage.

It probably would be helpful to work backwards. Reach out to companies to see what requirements/certifications they have. They will give you a clearer picture than the actual schools. You can also contact alumni of massage schools to get their perspective. Here is a list of some of the more well known massage schools in different states: