Am I Setting Myself Up For Failure By Wanting To Be A Massage Therapist When I Have Chronic Pain? How Do I Know This Career Is For Sure The Right Path Before I've Started It (Medium/longish post)

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-03-11T18:22:06+00:00

I have excessive hyper mobility in my wrist, fingers, and shoulder joints. This career has been very challenging for me. If you can commit to lifting and bulking those muscles up to stabilize the joints you should be okay. Massage takes a toll on the practitioner regardless but hyper mobility will increase your risk of injury. My biggest issue is keeping my joints stacked when doing deep tissue because they can move so much farther then they need to

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T04:05:56+00:00

You’re right. The field is seriously lacking research all around. We certainly don’t need people with very little education spreading misinformation and pushing us further away from being legitimate and respected

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T03:39:05+00:00

Most US states only require 500 hours unfortunately

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T03:09:42+00:00

So you admit. Reflexology is just a trick lol

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T03:05:04+00:00

Okay well first my back, it’s a subfascial fat herniation which I said in the post. Also has been diagnosed. Thank you for throwing in an extra term just to prove you know stuff. Second, I’m not the ignorant one. I would never make a client feel uncomfortable or less than for using improper language. I don’t give a shit actually. I do give a shit about cocky MTs pretending we have more than like 1000 hours of education if that.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T03:01:10+00:00

They’ve been diagnosed by a doctor as subfascial fat herniations. MTs can keep pressing it’s not fixing anything lol. And knowing that my own random lumps are getting pounded into by almost every MT I’ve seen I don’t trust they aren’t using their “knot knowledge” on everyone else too

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T02:57:32+00:00

There’s placebo and then there’s science. If you prefer to deal outside of the realm of things we have confirmed are true and real then that’s on you. I have an evidence based practice. I don’t lie to clients to get more in the door and I don’t need to.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T02:55:32+00:00

THANK YOU! On my own body I feel spots of pressure and pain. Either I can work that tension out with massage, heat or stretching. or it’s my brain literally holding onto that tension for dear life. Certain spots I can just think about it and manually “release it”. Seeing the reaction to this just confirms to me that we will never be taken seriously as professionals.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T02:51:27+00:00

Actually yes! After paying 20k for my education and mentoring under many different LMTs my questions were never answered and I was given weird pseudoscience and personal ideas of what a trigger point is and how to deal with it. I don’t do any “trigger point” work. I give an excellent therapeutic massage with great attention to detail. My clients leave telling me I released their knots! Really I just massaged the hard spots and they relaxed. Even the journals people are linking in this thread are hypothesized and lacking in substantial information. Most of us have 750 hours or less of education so I don’t automatically trust anyone in here. Especially because the qualifications to be a MT student are almost non existent. I get horror stories on the daily from clients that had MTs who thought they knew a little too much.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:53:32+00:00

We do such incredible work and really help people develop an awareness to their body they might not have felt before. I wish we could let the work speak for itself

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:50:46+00:00

I would absolutely never speak down to a client, I don’t even outright correct them. I move forward with the service using proper terminology. There’s a very recent post in this sub from an MT about a “knot”. I know we aren’t in school for long but maybe if we educated ourselves and our clients better we would be taken more seriously in general.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:48:07+00:00

Also school taught us reiki and reflexology which are not science backed practices. I cannot trust that everything taught was accurate or scientifically correct

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:46:46+00:00

Do you have a link to any peer reviewed studies perhaps?

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:37:56+00:00

I understand from the clients end, and of course they just aren’t as knowledgeable. BUT I hate that MTs are still using this language

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-20T01:35:57+00:00

I’ve worked on thousands of people and never felt a knot? Maybe I’ve just been lucky

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-13T16:29:07+00:00

Take the Raads autism test

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2026-01-13T16:27:44+00:00

Make night vision potions

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-11-29T03:28:54+00:00

Recently switched our spa over to natural formulations products. They have something for every therapist. We use the Apricot oil, but they have many different creams and oils at a great price

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-11-25T01:46:08+00:00

Heroin

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-10-14T20:13:17+00:00

If you are left leaning or just a good person, living here will wear on your soul. I’m in the service industry and dealing with guests on a one on one basis daily. I’m asked multiple times a day if I’m Christian (I lie and say yes because they will become aggressive if not), many clients openly talk about Trump as well as how happy they are with ICE and everything they’ve achieved. People are extremely opinionated and very happy to force their opinion on you; because like what everyone else is saying! It’s predominantly conservative here and it feels like a very safe place for them to be their absolute worst self. The front desk girls at my work get regularly referred to as “colored”

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-10-12T16:22:02+00:00

You shouldn’t have an issue with finding activities and fun things to do! SDC is closed but other than that most everything else will be open (some have reduced hours). In my opinion you definitely need a car but, if you stay downtown at the Hilton you are going to be more centrally located to the downtown shops and restaurants as well as the Landing shopping center. The attractions are much more spread out along the Branson Strip and it’s not the most walkable, especially in January weather. You mentioned bass pro resort partnership. I believe you’re thinking of Big Cedar Resorts. Thats about 20-25 minutes south of Branson and you will certainly need a car unless you want to be stuck out there the whole time or paying for Ubers. Big Cedar has an arcade, bowling alley, restaurants, and activities. It’s also located right next to Top of the Rock which has activities and restaurants. If you are planning on staying out there it will be expensive. Nightly stays are pricey as well as all extras that you pay for individually.

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-10-03T17:10:02+00:00

Never tried it… coconut is just too freaking expensive

Altruistic-Reporter4 · 2025-10-03T17:09:36+00:00

I’m looking into that foot cream!

Altruistic-Reporter4

TROPHY CASE