Thai Massage Career Pros and Cons

Thai massage is very popular nowadays. It is being offered in spas around the world. Here in Thailand massage schools are popping up everywhere, and students come from all over the world.  Many books and DVDs are available for home study. However little is written about the challenges  that therapists can encounter.

The positive side of a Thai massage business

There are two sides to being a Thai massage therapist. New practitioners see mostly one side: Meaningful work with decent income, holistic, positive, and beneficial healing work, interaction with many interesting and wonderful people (clients and fellow therapists), the ability to have one’s own business, set one’s own working hours, and contribute something of value to the world.

The challenges of a Thai massage career (physical)

Why would therapists burn out or lose interest in their work? This is the subject of this article. Let’s begin with physical reasons. Thai massage therapists are taught how to use their thumbs to apply pressure on feet, arms, back and legs. This is a potentially dangerous work habit since overuse of thumbs can stress the joints and cause damage to the point of developing long term inflammation. This can lead to a painful and chronic condition. Often it is already too late when the condition becomes so obvious that the practitioner finally decides to do something about it.

I am speaking from first hand experience. When I first started to learn and practice Thai massage I had lots of enthusiasm,  but burned out my thumbs in the process. It took me over a year to reverse the condition and led me to develop many techniques that do not use the thumbs so much.  The benefit of my painful learning process was that I developed my “Heavenly Head Massage” and “Hypnotic Rocking Massage”. Both use elements of Thai massage but are more gentle and make much less use of the thumbs.

Similar caution needs to be used with the wrist. Thai massage uses a number of positions where pressure is applied with the hands bent at a 90 degree angle. This can cause similar problems. Again the solution lies in modifying the techniques. Another area of physical problems is incorrect body posture. Thai massage is very physical, using lots of moving, lifting and stretching. I have seen many practitioners who suffered from back pain, mostly as a result of incorrect techniques and  bad body posture.

All those potential problems can be prevented by having a good understanding of correct ergonomics and by adjusting  techniques to different body types, especially for big, heavy or stiff people who are much harder to work on.

The challenges of a Thai massage career (non-physical)

Now let’s talk about psychological or energetic challenges. Some massage clients use the therapist as a sounding board for their life’s story,  marital issues, or physical and mental problems. Then the therapist is thrust into the involuntary role of counseler or psychotherapist which he or she has not been trained for. Some people have a natural ability to handle this role, but others can feel drained by it. Some clients are trying to fill their energetic deficiencies with the therapist’s energy. It is a form of energy “theft” and can be draining.

There are ways to protect oneself from such energy “thieves”. The therapist has to maintain a high energy level through practices like clear intentions, positive affirmations, meditation or visualization exercises. The other way to be unaffected is to shut down energetically, but this comes at the expense of an attitude of loving kindness and empathy. Not all therapists are affected in this way - some are naturally full of strong energy - but some need to really work at protecting themselves. 

Healers and business

Another challenge  is that someone might be a great therapist but a lousy business person and promoter. Independent massage therapists have to find clients, especially when they are starting out. That takes skills that have nothing to do with massage like advertising, building a social media presence,  collecting email addresses for follow up, collecting testimonials, creating a website, and understanding therapist-client psychology. Studying massage technique is only a first step. Especially in Thailand absolutely nothing is taught about any of those additional skills and a new Thai massage therapist finds out that there is more to a successful massage business than the actual massage skills.

Spa work can be the solution for some, but a limitation for others

One way to avoid all that is to work in a spa environment where the therapist does not have to find or cultivate clients. But there you trade the creative freedom of an independent massage practice for a real job with fixed hours, a boss, spa politics, and a lower hourly pay. In a spa the therapist cannot cultivate clients and build relationships like in a home business. There is less creativity and more structure, but no business skills are needed.

Thai massage can be a great hobby or a rewarding career. My intention is to help budding therapists to make informed choices by highlighting rewards and challenges. For me the rewards have always outweighed the challenges, but then again I know how to handle them, and I hope I helped broaden some horizons.

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