complete beginner

[irene funez]

hi folks

i live in birmingham and have been very interested in body massage since me and my wife got married in cyprus, as part of the package we got a full body massaage.

my wife has since started to have reflexology and now i would like to start a course in body massage but i`m not sure on how to go about it.

i would feel quite uncomfatable if it was only women in the class,i gather there are more women that do the course than men,should i feel uncomfatble or not?

i have enquired at my local college which do a swedish massage course im still waiting for a reply from them about the date they start ect

are there any other recommendations i should have a look at before i take the plunge??

thankyou
Nifty

 

[BMWbuyerGoGo]

Hi Nifty[/align][/align]Welcome to the forums.[/align][/align]I should really be irrelevant what sex your fellow students are, but yes you are correct in your assumption that there are more females training for massage than males, this is generally true for most forms of therapy.[/align][/align]If you just want to learn general body massage then that is what you will learn that at your local night class, but if you wish to specialise in one of the more advanced forms of massagethen you will be looking at one of the traditional teaching institutes, but you will be into 4 or 5 figures if you go down that road.[/align][/align]You might find it helpful to go for some treatments from the therapists in your area, see what you think to the end product and ask them where they trained and what they thought to their training.[/align]

 

[Sean :)]

Hi Paul
Thx for replying,
Yes it is just basic body massage i want to learn for the time being, The course i seen is £220 thats for a 35 week night class course 1 class a week,,Im not sure if thats expensive or not. ?

Could some1 recommend a massage therapist in the rubery/birmingham area,
Ive seen advertisements but they are charging £80 per hour, To me thats sounds very expensive,but as a novice to the massage world i might be wrong?

Thankyou

Nifty

 

[Greg S]

I think that £220 for a 35-week course seems reasonable. But £80 for an hour's massage sounds extraordinarily high. Depending on the area and type of clinic, I would have thought that £30 to £40 was more usual.
There are details of qualified massage practitioners on the following websites:

[link=http://www.lcsp.uk.com/therapist.php]http://www.lcsp.uk.com/therapist.php[/link]
[link=http://www.massagetraining.co.uk/searchpage.php]http://www.massagetraining.co.uk/searchpage.php[/link]
[link=http://www.sportsmassageassociation.org/SMA/Common/practitionerSearch.asp]http://www.sportsmassageassociation.org/SMA/Common/practitionerSearch.asp[/link]

Regards

Alan

 

[Alex ?]

hi nifty,[/align][/align]as suggested, it totally depends on your reasons for wanting to learn massage. IF you want to practise massage on people other than friends and family, and maybe charge, then you would need to do a professional accredited course. the 35 week one you mention sounds like it is. £220 is cheap too.[/align][/align]if you just want to learn body massage for friends and family, see if a local college offers an intro course. i currently teach intro courses (surrey) (erks i see alan D is in my neck of the woods... [sm=wave.gif]) my course is 20 learning hours, with basic A & P and i teach my learners a full routine... lol a darned good one too ![/align][/align]as it happens, one of my present classes has 11 on the register, 7 are men! last week, 10 learners came and it was 50/50. i'd say thats an unusually high % but its working well and great experience for everyone... pull those barriers down, i say![/align][/align]i also agree, 80 quid an hour!!! crikey... i must be selling myself short! [/align]

 

[raepvutsiyeibnezh]

Thx to both for replying

The only reason i want to learn is so i can give my wife and friends massage,not for money.

im very interested in learning massage,i want to make some1 feel as good as i did when i had my first massage in cyprus

im still waiting on my local college (bournville) to get back to me with times and dates

Regards
Nifty

 

[Jessica Tena]

Good luck with the course. It might be worth checking that you aren't the only male student before you pay your course fee. Unfortunately, some women aren't keen on working with male students : see the earlier thread

[link=http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=168486]http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=168486[/link]

Regards

Alan

 

[Pompal 09.]

At the risk of re-opening this whole debate, Alan, my advice would be DON'T ask if there are other men on the course. If there aren't, presumably that would mean turning down a place , which would be a shame. And, as has been said by several people before, if anyone on the course has a problem, it's THEIR problem, not his!

 

[bvefuuvzihoidnecy]

I certainly don’t want to deter ‘Nifty’ from studying massage, but he did state in his opening post that he would be uncomfortable if he were the only man on the course. And I think that he would be even more uncomfortable if he had to face a tutor as unreasonable and unsympathetic as ‘guru’ had to face in the earlier thread.
I agree that it would be quite wrong to deter male students from learning massage. But personally I don’t see the point in putting oneself through the type of trauma that ‘guru’ had to endure, when it would be possible to get a much more sympathetic reception on a different course.
Incidentally when I began my massage career with an ITEC course (in 1998), the female tutor made it clear that she didn’t like having men on the course. But unlike ‘guru’, I had a positive reception from the female students on that course. And I have subsequently been on a sports massage course, and quite a number of CPD courses, without ever coming across another ‘sexist’ tutor.

Regards

Alan

 

[YO! Eighth Account]

Hi Nifty

If you go for a massage yourself as recomended somewhere above, I would be very wary of the £80 an hour ones, I suspect other "services" may be on sale with not too much in the way of massage.

Check out directories such as on this site, and make sure when you book that you know what you are going for !

 

[Dbl E]

Hiya Alan

ive registered my interest with the college local to me,,now im just waiting on a course date

i will be asking if there are other male students as i would feel pretty uncomfortable if it was me and 20 female students..... i think it would be if it was vise verse,dont u?

ALRL
yes i been reading a lot on the subject and realize now that £80 is too expensive and im pretty sure it would invole more than just a massage.

thx for the reply`s ,,i will let you all know when my course starts and what i think of it

regards
Nifty

 

[ftexlatina]

I hope that ‘nifty’ is making good progress – and I think this thread is worth reviewing because ‘oaktree’ has recently raised a very similar query in a different thread.

btw I would agree with Alrl’s comment about being quoted a price of £80 for a massage:




Alan

 

[aBluetteSpease44]

Been in this situation myself some 4 years ago -only other male was the tutor!

I overcome my reservations just after Christmas and have never looked back since - there was nothing to worry about and the course and interaction with interested persons was excellent - a brilliant learning experience

Now I have qualifications in A+P, Swedish and Aromatherapy Massage, Reflexology, and Non-medical nutrition and i'm actively pursuing p/t evening opps, having established a regular set of clients, amongst friends.

Anxious! (as I was then!)