Hello,
I have my A&P qualification and now I am deciding between training in Reflexology or in massage. While I am naturally more drawn to Reflexology, after spending some time on line, I can see that there are far more jobs for massage therapists than for Reflexologists. I would of course want to set up on my own eventually, however, to start with I thought it might be 'financially safer' to work for an organisation P/T while I build up my own client list.
Does anyone have any advice as to which therapy might be best to start with?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Financial safety and being a self employed anything do not go together! Thats not to say it is is not possible to make a living as a self employed therapist ....but it is hard work . Building up a client list is harder than you might think. And it really needs you to be passionate about the services you are offering.
If you really want to do reflexology, you need to consider how you would feel if 2 years or 5 years down the line you have not managed to get your client list built up. You could be stuck doing a therapy you don't really want to do, in the interests of financial security. If that is not a problem then the answer is obvious.
That said I agree massage is easier to market than some other therapies because everyone knows what a massage is. When you have to explain what your therapy is it can make marketing harder. I trained in IHM simply becasue if all I offered was reiki, I had to explain what it was and THEN try to get them interested in giving it a go.
But I freely admit I am not the worlds best marketer. My comments are made more with my life coaches head on. Reality is that no-one can really advise you on the best thing to do. You are the only one who can decide what is best for you, because you are the only one who knows and understands your situation.
Hello Sally,
Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, I understand that self employed and financial safety do not go easily together! I guess this is why I thought that once qualified, I would try and work for an organisation at first, but when I do searches online there are far more opportunities to do this as a massage therapist than as a Reflexologist.
I totally agree with your comment about massage being much easier to market, I guess it's more 'mainstream'. I have Reiki Level 1 and would love to one day continue with my training in it but trying to sell it to others...someone suggested to me that massage is a far easier way to 'get people in' and then you can introduce them to the slightly less mainstream therapies such as Reflexology or/and Reiki which many do not understand.
My passion is for Reflexology but I worry that, once qualified, I would struggle to find clients, more so than if I offered massage - which more people seem to go for as it's less 'weird' 🙂
Tricia
Passion will always find a way. And at least you DO have a passion and a clear idea of what you want to do. Too many people just know they want to do something different...but have no idea what......and have no passions for anything really.
As a life coach I ask questions and help people work out what is the best solution for THEM. This may well be different to the best solution for someone else. I think you DO know what your best solution is.
I am passionate about reiki and qigong. I do lots of qigong and not enough reiki. But my reall passion (and I suspect you share this) is helping people directly. If massage therapy is your most secure route to having the chance to do that, then the answer is obvious. It isn't as if doing massage means you can never do reflexology.
Good luck and feel free to contact me if you would like some more formal life coaching as your career develops
Thank you very much Sally, your reply was very helpful and yes I think you are right, I do know..
I am sure you are a fantastic life coach :), I may well take you up on the offer later on in my career.
Take care and thanks again