LMT, Lead Therapist

by Jackie Hyatt, LMT
(Denver, CO)

It's not a matter of being afraid of them taking my business. My clients love the work I do and those who have been to places like ME and then experienced one of my massages realize the difference and will never go back to ME or the like. The problem is in the low cost chains working on people who have never had a massage before. Most of the people I've spoken with that have done this say that they will never get another massage again. ME and the like are giving the industry a bad rap and they chase as many people (if not more) away from massage as they bring in. How is this helping the industry?

Most of the therapists are fresh out of school and should be headed back to class instead of in the workforce. Those that are good are booked back-to-back, without a real break for 6 hours straight. 10 minutes in between clients when you have to clean the room, set up for the next client, stock the room and your lotions, does not constitute a break.

Then the therapist gets paid $12-$16 per hour of actual massage with the possibility of a tip, no guarantee on that one, get real. People who go in strictly because they can get a quick, cheap massage don't tip, or if they do, it's maybe $5. Can you say "Sweat Shop"? The good Therapists move on as quickly as possible, and those that are so-so to bad, burn out quickly. I watched my son go through this and he almost quit. It caused him to question why he spent so much on his education when he couldn't support himself, more or less a family working at a Massage chain.

Many feel that massage franchises are the way of the future. Just like physicians going to work for Kaiser to get rid of their overhead, some Massage Therapists will turn to franchises to cut their over head. They go to work at a place where they think they don't have to do their own advertising, where they have ready made clients, which is the real reason massage therapists go to work for them.

Me personally, I'd rather quit doing massage than work for a place that does not value my expertise and quality of work enough to pay me what I am worth.