Massage Therapy Certification

The demand for massage therapists has increased over the past decade. As a result, many countries now regulate the massage therapists practicing in their respective territories.

However, these regulations are not comprehensive enough to address the real purpose of requiring massage therapy certification (that is, to raise the level of professionalism in this field). In addition, the massage therapy certification standards vary from country to country, state to state and province to province.

Still, having a massage therapy certification card is a good asset to have, since it indicates that you are qualified to do perform the tasks required in your kind of job.

How is Massage Therapy Certification Issued?

In a typical setting, massage therapy certification is issued after taking and passing a government certified examination. The purpose of the exam is both to test your practical and theoretical knowledge of massage therapy. So, exams may consist of both a theoretical written test and clinical scenarios where you are made to apply in a practical setting what you have learned from a massage therapy school.

There may be several requirements needed before you can take a massage therapy certification exam. Plus, these requirements may again vary depending on which state you belong to or which locality. Try to find out in advance what the requirements are in the location in which you want to practice as a massage therapist.

Most massage therapy certification exams do not require that you finish a massage therapy course or program. But for practical purposes, you may still want to attend one or enroll in an online course since there are techniques and skills that you can only learn from such massage therapy schools.

What are the requirements?

Students who recently graduated from massage therapy schools typically take the massage therapy certification exam right after graduation. This means that they have yet to gain any practical experience in the field before taking the exam. This is acceptable for most state massage therapy certification exam boards since practical experience is not a requirement. Besides, most massage therapy schools actually provide their students with interactive hands-on experience in order to learn more about this chosen career field of theirs.

Your Options

While it is not a requirement that you finish or complete some type of massage therapy course, whether online or offline, it is still highly recommended if you want to increase your chances of passing the massage therapy certification exam.

Alternatively, you may also opt to enroll under a cram course for massage therapy. There are many massage therapy schools that provide this type of short but comprehensive course and many of the programs under the “cram course” are actually specifically designed to help you pass the massage therapy certification exam.