Hello!

Does anybody know a good massage school for beginners in London? I was looking for this in the Internet but most of the schools offer courses for people who already have some cetrificates / experience.

Thanks,
Katia

Hi Katia

I'd recommend the London College of Massage:

Regards

Alan

Hi Catariinka,

What ever you do and who ever you choose to go with, don't do one of those weekend courses they hold zero credibility within professional establishments.

If I were you I'd enroll at a proper college and study either ITEC, or VTCT.

All the best.

Hi Catariinka,

What ever you do and who ever you choose to go with, don't do one of those weekend courses they hold zero credibility within professional establishments.

If I were you I'd enroll at a proper college and study either ITEC, or VTCT.

All the best.

unfortunately ITEC/ VTCT should not be taken as a measure of standards of training, there are vast differences in the delivery and standard of tutor, research, then speak to training providers, ask lots of questions and then ask some more... see if you can go in and view a c lass taking place, speak to current students,
In FE there is a pattern emerging of last years student is this years tutor( but not always). I know it because I see it week in week out when I go around assessing.

read through the posts on the forum that have been started by "sportstherapy" about standards in massage training, it gives minimum amounts of classroom time etc you should be looking for
regards

Totally agree with ectomorph about weekend courses, they are fine for refreshers, workshops, CPD, but not as an initial training vehicle.

BGFL

read through the posts on the forum that have been started by "sportstherapy" about standards in massage training

BGFL

Sportstherapy and Reiki Pixi seem to know their stuff on here.

Massage schools in London

Hi Katia,
You don't mention any specific massage but whatever you do, get a good understanding of the qualifications before choosing carefully! The ITEC and VTCT qualifications (run by schools registered with them) have been mentioned but there are a range of good private schools out there that you should also consider. The essential difference between the large awarding bodies as above and private schools - in sports massage at least is: 1) Fees, 2) that ITEC/VTCT have relatively new progressive qualifications where you can start from scratch on a Level 3 course and should eventually (when fundable) be able to progress to Level 5 QCF (Qualifications and Credit Framework). The level 5 qualification is at a higher level than the Level 5 BTEC Diploma that private schools self design and where no two courses are the same but the qualifications are generally well tried and some are offering bridging courses to Level 5 QCF.
Descriptions. It's generally pretty clear what Sports Massage, Swedish Massage, etc, mean and they carry recognised qualifications but underneath they necessarily use the same range of techniques. Remedial massage/therapy is a non-sequitur so don't be sidetracked by that, there is no such qualification, consider it window dressing. As stated higher levels of massage require more or less the same techniques.
Do your research and if you can be more specific about what you want to do that would be helpful.
Regards

Sportstherapy and Reiki Pixi seem to know their stuff on here.

Wot!!! That's the second time I've been mentioned this week 😮

Must be getting a reputation 😎

Hi Catariinka

Yes, I agree with the others to pick your training wisely. Massage is both a science and very importantly an art, so don't rush into it until you are sure.

Typical courses to look for are BTEC/C&G/ITEC/VTCT (or similar format) with a proper amount of contact time in class, and check out the tutor/school also. A good course should lead to membership of a professional association that leads to CNHC registration if you wish to go that direction.

Courses are generally as good as the tutor that leads it and the student who is prepared to study hard. Diploma in Massage with A&P is a good start into the industry, so good training at the beginning hopefully will help you to become successful and professional.

Best wishes

RP

Remedial massage/therapy is a non-sequitur so don't be sidetracked by that, there is no such qualification, consider it window dressing. As stated higher levels of massage require more or less the same techniques.
Regards

Sorry to disagree but there are remedial massage qualifications, core curricula and course syllabus.

they are usually delivered along side sports massage, ie sports and remedial massage

Four of the leading professional associations involved in sports massage verifiy several sports and remedial courses at both private training companies and CFE

I recently met with two major awarding organisations who are reintroducing remedial qualifications and sports therapy qualifications

The above quote would also offend many HPers who regard themselves as remedial therapists. See various threads that have disussed this topic over the past year
regards
BGFL

just found this from one of our esteemed moderators; obviously he was mistaken according to "makesense" post above

Interesting thread...

I started my course at Barnfield this last Tuesday it's over subscribed due to being half the price of most other colleges.

QUOTE" Last year I took remedial massage at Barnfield with the same tutor and thoroughly enjoyed it, we learnt far more than what was in the syllabus.

Myarka"

( smiley face with a little wink)BGFL

Sorry to disagree but there are remedial massage qualifications, core curricula and course syllabus.

they are usually delivered along side sports massage, ie sports and remedial massage

:confused:Thanks. You make my point that there is no stand alone 'remedial massage' qualification. The usage is a 'non-sequitur'.
That apart any claim by a vocational therapist to 'remedy' is fraught with danger. A quick dictionary check for the meaning of remedy suggests Something, such as medicine or therapy, that relieves pain, cures disease, or corrects a disorder; to correct a wrong, etc. .
Great if you'd like to expose your insurer to an indefensible claim but it's not for me.

just found this from one of our esteemed moderators; obviously he was mistaken according to "makesense" post above

( smiley face with a little wink)BGFL

Strange that, maybe only half the story got through. However Barnfield, assuming Luton, seem to have recognised the potential for problems with that indefinable remedial massage so now only seem to list VTCT Level 3's in Sports Massage, Swedish Massage and Indian Head Massage.:(

I didn't see this thread before posting my own similar question.

Very helpful is everyone EXCEPT Ectomorph who was incredibly rude and failed to read my thread properly before trying to reply.

My first experience in a forum all I can say is SHAME ON YOU Ectomorph with your negative energy and nasty attempt to ridicule me.

The title of my question was simply 'Please Help'... Next time please read the question thoroughly before replying.

All I asked was for some friendly advice and not an unwelcoming attack.

Everyone else I would like to thank for posting this information.

Drew

Strange that, maybe only half the story got through. However Barnfield, assuming Luton, seem to have recognised the potential for problems with that indefinable remedial massage so now only seem to list VTCT Level 3's in Sports Massage, Swedish Massage and Indian Head Massage.:(

I wouldn't draw your conclusions from what you read on their webpage, because you can give a misleading picture.

It's true that remedial massage is not running this year and sports massage is. Last year remedial ran and sports didn't. There is a simple reason for this, the college needs at least 10 students to run a course. Lower than that, they don't run it. This year they cut the sports massage course cost by at least £100, if I remember rightly, and hence the over subscription. It's likely that remedial massage will run in September because those doing this year's Sports Massage will want to carry on doing Remedial massage. Three of us did last year's remedial massage course.

At Barnfield, Swedish, Sports and Remedial massage, incuding A & P are run in the Sport and Fitness faculty and are taught by an HE tutor. Indian Head Massage is run in Hair, Beauty and Holistics faculty and taught by FE tutors.

While I understand there are many on these pages have reservations about the standard of teaching in local colleges, I have found taking 3 years to train to a modest level 3 appropriate for what I do. The training is well rounded with a heavy emphasis on both practice and anatomy.

I hope that carifies any confusion. 😉

Myarka

Great if you'd like to expose your insurer to an indefensible claim but it's not for me.

I'm insured as a remedial massage therapist through the CThA. They've seen my qualification and insured me without question.

Interesting when I first started practicing as a remedial massage therapist, I carried out a survey of RMT's in my area and their qualifications and was surprised to find how few had actually had specific RM training.

Perhaps MakesSense you can tell us a bit about your background and training so we can understand you axe a little better.

Myarka.

I didn't see this thread before posting my own similar question.

Very helpful is everyone EXCEPT Ectomorph who was incredibly rude and failed to read my thread properly before trying to reply.

My first experience in a forum all I can say is SHAME ON YOU Ectomorph with your negative energy and nasty attempt to ridicule me.

The title of my question was simply 'Please Help'... Next time please read the question thoroughly before replying.

All I asked was for some friendly advice and not an unwelcoming attack.

Everyone else I would like to thank for posting this information.

Drew

reminds me of a saing?

POT ? KETTLE ?

Drew, you have used your first experiences on this forum to be RUDE and display a negative energy your self

This frum is so good because it allows us all an opinion,
wedont howeverf launch into personal attacks, I hope you receive the "moderators warning" as so many of us have

please enjoy the forum but within its guidelines

regards
BGFL

If you want to see what is involved in remedial massage therapy training, then this should give you an idea of the traditional way of learning it.

If you want to see what is involved in remedial massage therapy training, then this should give you an idea of the traditional way of learning it.

Hi Paul,

I find the term "traditional way" interesting, now I know I'm inexperienced as a remedial massage therapist, but I find it amazing that there is something new to learn everyday. Yes I agree RM uses many traditional techniques, but it's strength comes from incorporating modern thought and development from the bodyworking world.

My training included many hours learning to practice METs which to my understanding is not traditional remedial massage. For that reason I've always understood RM to be progressive that includes new techniques from other disciplines.

Myarka

Hi Myarka

I was outlining the way that remedial massage has been taught since its conception, you can always add new things once the foundations have been laid, most of us do this all the time, but you need the foundations and basic infrastructure in place to build upon.

I didn't see this thread before posting my own similar question.

Very helpful is everyone EXCEPT Ectomorph who was incredibly rude and failed to read my thread properly before trying to reply.

My first experience in a forum all I can say is SHAME ON YOU Ectomorph with your negative energy and nasty attempt to ridicule me.

The title of my question was simply 'Please Help'... Next time please read the question thoroughly before replying.

All I asked was for some friendly advice and not an unwelcoming attack.

Everyone else I would like to thank for posting this information.

Drew

Many thanks for a good laugh Drew! I've just shown my husband this post he's in stitches. :005:

If you want to see what is involved in remedial massage therapy training, then this should give you an idea of the traditional way of learning it.

ah, this is where the remedial king mel cash did his training, and the one he called c**p in his talk at the sports therapy conference last year. Having had a massage from a therapist that trained there, I can see why he said it!

Hello!

Who knows any good massage school for beginners in London? I was looking for this in the Internet but most of the schools have courses for people who already have some certificates / experience...

Thanks,
Katia

Hi Katia,

Have you looked in the course directory called "Floodlight"? It is normally on sale in bookshops like WH Smith from September. It lists all the part time courses taking place in local colleges and will include massage. The website is

A colleague did her inital massage training with Essentials for Health, the school was in London but I don't know where. It was an intensive course and she has since gone on to do further advanced training at some other places.

Good luck with your search.

ah, this is where the remedial king mel cash did his training, and the one he called c**p in his talk at the sports therapy conference last year. Having had a massage from a therapist that trained there, I can see why he said it!

I dont think that's particularly indicative of the course though - I trained with Essentials for Health, and although I and many other of my fellow massage students have come out with good massage skills, there were a few students on the course I would habitually avoid because they were rubbish - it's more about how much work, effort and commitment you put into your own training I think, and not everyone does.

Essentials for Health are based at the etc. training/conference centre between Borough and Elephant and Castle. I did the part/time weekend mode, and have gone on to do Sports Massage with them, but I do know someone who did the intensive Holistic course and now works very successfully at a treatment centre in SW London. Essentials run open days for people to come along to, to find out more about training with them, which might be a good idea.

I dont think that's particularly indicative of the course though - I trained with Essentials for Health, and although I and many other of my fellow massage students have come out with good massage skills, there were a few students on the course I would habitually avoid because they were rubbish - it's more about how much work, effort and commitment you put into your own training I think, and not everyone does.

Essentials for Health are based at the etc. training/conference centre between Borough and Elephant and Castle. I did the part/time weekend mode, and have gone on to do Sports Massage with them, but I do know someone who did the intensive Holistic course and now works very successfully at a treatment centre in SW London. Essentials run open days for people to come along to, to find out more about training with them, which might be a good idea.

Hi Mike,
I wasnt talking about essentials for health, I was talking about the school that Paul Crick linked on his posting. I agree that you are probably going to get at least one person on a course that isnt as good as the others, I have actually had a couple of massages from therapists that have trained at the school im talking about, probably because they used to be based near where I live, and I havent had a good one yet, they have ranged from poor to mediocre, so maybe Mel Cash was right.

My post was in response to an earlier post which intimated that there was no stand alone 'remedial massage' qualification. The usage is a 'non-sequitur'.

Remedial massage actually has a long standing tradition and has been used successfully throughout the world to sort out people's muscular/skeletal dysfunctions for many years.

The full training at the institute takes many years to complete and I am sure that if you encountered someone who had undertaken the full training that is available, then they should be quite proficient at sorting things out.

Mike quite correctly said it is down to the individual student to embrace and perfect what is being taught, not everyone is cut out to be a massage therapist and even fewer are cut out to embrace the more specialised massage skills (some people could undertake a 20 year course and still not be any good at massage).

This is the same with anything that people choose to learn, anyone can learn to play an instrument but few are good enough to become a top performer.

Hi uclanguy, I was (and still am) talking generally about massage schools and the people who graduate from them, not thinking you were talking about Essentials for Health - I mentioned EfH in reply to Essence99 who posted after you, and because it is my own training experience. And as Paul goes on to say, there's a lot more to massage (and massage training!) than many people who sign up for it realise, hence it doesn't really surprise me that some people approach it half-heartedly, and their massage skills reflect this (although they've done enough to scrape through the assessment requirements of the course). So even though I cannot argue with your own experience of therapists from this particular school (which I don't know at all, by the way), I still would struggle to say that it's inferior as a training institution. Despite what Mel Cash said! 😀 Although I am finding his text book on Sports and Remedial Massage invaluable.

Reviewing this thread, I find it somewhat surprising that what started as a request for information about beginners’ training in London was sidetracked into a discussion of the validity of remedial massage. For the benefit of relative newcomers to massage, it might be worth mentioning that, as far as the UK is concerned, sports massage has been developed from remedial massage, rather than vice versa. Much of the growth in sports massage over the last 20 years was sparked by the formation of the LSSM in 1989, preceded by the publication of Mel Cash’s first book on Sports Massage in 1988. Mel’s background and qualification was in remedial massage and the back cover of that book describes him as a ‘remedial masseur’. If anyone wants more information about remedial massage in a non-sporting context, I would strongly recommend the American textbook ‘Basic Clinical Massage Therapy’ by Clay & Pounds (Americans seem to use the term ‘clinical massage’ for what we describe as ‘remedial massage’.)

I appreciate that Ectomorph has been banned from HP since she posted on this thread, but I have reservations about some of her comments. Her first post on the thread could be construed as an attack on the London College of Massage. If so, I think that it is misjudged: the London College of Massage is a long-established institution which still seems to have a good reputation. The founder of the LCM, Fiona Harrold, wrote a book called ‘The Massage Manual’ which is very well-illustrated and which is probably the best basic guide to massage for beginners that I have read. It is many years since I trained at LCM, but in my experience the training I received there was far superior to the training which I received on my first ITEC course. Long-standing readers of this forum may remember Fozzyo, who used to be a regular contributor to this forum but seems to have disappeared from HP. He trained at LCM shortly after me and was very impressed by the tuition: anyone interested can probably find some of his comments by using the ‘search’ feature to browse through the archives. I appreciate that I was at LCM over eleven years ago and it appears that neither of my tutors still teaches there. However I think it is worth mentioning that I began my massage career with an ITEC course. I was very disappointed with the quality of the tuition: we had much less practical massage than the 50 hours which ITEC recommend, and we weren’t taught the importance of basic body mechanics and of having the couch low enough to ensure that the massage is effective. And although I passed the course, I was so frustrated with the poor training that I felt the need to go on a short course at the LCM as a ‘top-up’ before proceeding to a sports massage course. It may also be worth noting that even the introductory LCM course included both abdominal and gluteal massage, whereas it is clear from this forum that some ITEC tutors don't include either of these on their courses. So, from my personal experience, I definitely agree with BGFL’s comment

unfortunately ITEC/ VTCT should not be taken as a measure of standards of training, there are vast differences in the delivery and standard of tutor

Of the other London training providers mentioned on this thread, I have done two short CPD courses with Essentials for Health and was favourably impressed: however the tutor on those courses, Jane Johnson, now seems to have changed her allegiance to the London Massage Company.

Alan

A well considered and approriate post Alan, long time no hear as they say?

Regards
BGFL

Thanks Gary

yes I am still around but there are times when I am too busy with clients to keep up to date with HP !

Regards

Alan