What Qualifications Do I Need To Become A Massage Therapist?

There's something particularly satisfying about working on someone's injury and hearing them tell you how relieved their body feels immediately after.

As a Massage Therapist, you'll contribute to improving your clients' lives every day, and this is one of the main reasons professional Massage Therapists love this career.

Of course, there are other perks like working in a high-demand industry with projected job growth of over 15% and various work opportunities. 

So, how do you get there?

Here's a rundown of what Massage Therapists do and what qualifications you'll need to become a Massage Therapist in Australia.

What Does A Massage Therapist Do?

Massage Therapists are trained to use touch and pressure in order to manipulate the soft tissue of the body and treat stress, discomfort, pain, or injuries. 

More specifically, here are some of the main responsibilities of a Massage Therapist:

• Assessing soft tissue dysfunction. 
• Listening to customers' issues and designing a treatment plan accordingly. 
• Using massage techniques to improve their client's condition, improve physical function and enhance wellbeing.
• Conferring with other health professionals to design an effective treatment plan when appropriate.
• Educating clients on adequate stretching and relaxing techniques.
• Ensuring a safe and clean facility.
• Complying with applicable standards, rules, and regulations.

Note that Massage Therapists often specialise in a specific form of massages, such as pregnancy or sports massage. 

What Qualifications Do I Need To Become A Massage Therapist?

If you want to become a Massage Therapist in Australia, you'll need to hold a Certificate IV in Massage Therapy as a minimum certification. This certificate will allow you to learn the massage techniques you'll need to help promote better sleep, relieve stress, enhance certain body functions and improve wellbeing. Then, if you want to specialise in certain areas, you can enrol in specific courses such as the Statement of Attainment In Aromatic Massage And Blends or the Statement of Attainment In Reflexology And Hot Stone Massage.

If you want to take your career one step further, you can enrol for a Diploma of Remedial Massage, which will teach you how to provide remedial massage treatments and perform remedial massage musculoskeletal assessments. 

Additional Requirements

Some employers might require you to hold a First Aid Certificate and provide them with a Police Check.

Also, as a Massage Therapist, you should consider holding Public Liability Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance to protect you in the event that one of your clients is injured due to your negligent activity. What’s more, Professional Indemnity will protect you if you inadvertently provide misleading advice and are facing a claim of negligence.

To help you find the best insurance policy for your business activity, we've created a free instant quote generator, where you can get an estimate on market-leading insurance in seconds. 

Simply enter your occupation and expected revenue to get started.

And as a last tip, joining a professional association such as The Association of Massage Therapists can be a great way to keep up to date with the latest industry trends and massage techniques as well as develop your skills and if you own your massage therapy business, promote it.