Finding Continuing Education in a Sea of Possibilities
Tips to Help You Find the CEs You Need to Succeed
When I was in massage school learning about our state requirements for licensing, licensing renewal and continuing education requirements, we asked our instructor how to find continuing education. Her response was, “They’ll send you information in the mail.” Granted, this was way before everyone had a computer in their pocket, so we trusted what she said was true and went on about our day.
Nowadays, there seem to be continuing education providers around every corner. But as a newbie, it might still be a little hard to find them, much less know what you’re looking for. That’s okay, I’m here with some tips and an opportunity.
Remember when you were in school, probably sometime close to graduation someone said something to the effect of massage school only gives you the bare minimum of massage education and once you get into the workforce you’ll have to specialize (niche) and that’s how you’ll decide where to focus your continuing education? Well, it’s true, there’s so much more to massage therapy and bodywork than what we learned in school and the only way to access that more is to commit to continuing education.
I know there’s a lot of noise from certain camps right now insinuating continuing education isn’t necessary. That’s a whole other thing for another day, but in my estimation, if you’re not learning, you’re dying. And if you want to be an excellent massage therapist who can make a living doing what you love, you need high-quality, strategic continuing education.
So how do we find that high-quality continuing education in a world so full of noise? Here are my thoughts on the matter.
Professional Organizations
You can start with your professional organizations. Depending on what company you purchased liability insurance with, you may have access to continuing education. American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) is one of the largest professional massage therapy organizations and has state chapters that host in-person continuing education throughout the year as well as a national convention each year. Even if you’re not a member, you will want to follow your state AMTA chapter as all massage therapists are welcome to their events. Other professional organizations may coordinate and host in-person CEs, but none more consistently than AMTA. Some also offer online classes, which are great in a pinch, but learning a hands-on skill is much better done in person than online. Also, there’s nothing like meeting new people while you’re learning something new.
To Do: Check with your professional organization to see what’s available.
NCBTMB
The National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (NCBTMB) is currently the only national approving authority of massage continuing education. They maintain a searchable database of continuing education providers and classes those providers offer. Many people find their database hard to use and there’s no scheduling associated with the approved classes offered. It can be valuable to find providers that teach the types of classes you want to take though.
To Do: Use the NCBTMB search function to find local providers as well as providers that cater to your niche.
Search Engines
Search engines are going to give you a very long list of continuing education opportunities. You could spend years sifting through search engine results. I typically find it overwhelming for general search terms like “massage classes” (184M results) or “massage continuing education” (26M results). But it can be helpful to narrow down the types of classes you’d like to take. For example, “myofascial continuing education” with 1.4M nets more coherent search results than the previous two listed.
To Do: Use your preferred search engine to search for your city/state and “massage continuing education”
Social Media
There’s so much information available on social media right now. Join any Facebook group that’s focused on massage therapy and you’re apt to be in a rolling feed of continuing education offerings. Some people find them helpful, but I think a better way to leverage social media is to follow the providers you’re interested in learning from. I tend to follow providers who teach different barefoot massage modalities because I specialize in and teach barefoot massage. I also follow instructors I have met or learned from in the past. It’s a good way to get to know what kind of education is available.
To Do: Pick a social media platform you already know how to use and find an instructor or continuing education company to follow. Algorithms will help you find other accounts that are similar.
Local Schools
Check out your local massage school to see if they host continuing education. Some do, some don’t. If they have a mailing list, get on it so you get the latest news on their CE offerings.
To Do: Contact a local massage therapy school (you don’t have to be an alumna or alumnus from that school) and ask how to get information about their CE opportunities.
Continuing Education Providers
The best way to find local, high-quality continuing education is to go straight for the continuing education provider. Most of us have multiple avenues of online communication. For example, you’re reading my Substack newsletter, I have a website, you can sign up for my CE mailing list to receive a monthly newsletter with all the classes I have scheduled, and you can follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram.
Different CE providers will have different ways of communicating. For my continuing education business, I want everyone on my mailing list because I find social media exhausting and oftentimes out of control. Other providers might be solely based on a social media platform. Find out the best way to stay up to date with the instructors you want to learn from and follow them within the platform they have set up to disseminate their CE information.
To Do: Find a CE provider near you, then find them online and follow them.
TL;DR
Finding continuing education can be easy with the plethora of options we have at our fingertips. Depending on your needs it can sometimes be a little more difficult. But just like anything worth having, you have to work for it. And thank goodness we can now be proactive and not just depend on random CE providers sending you a postcard in the mail or advertising in the back of a periodical provided by your professional organization.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful. I know there’s a lot to consider when deciding on continuing education.
Sharon
P.S. - Hey! If you’re new here and looking for information on how to get your Massage Therapist License, click here to get a link to the eBook I wrote, So, You Want to Get a Massage Therapist License: A Guidebook to Getting Your Professional Massage License in Alabama. This guidebook will give you a head start on getting ready to apply for your license in Alabama.
Thank you for reading!
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About the Author: Sharon L Bryant has been a massage therapist since 2008 and a massage therapy educator since 2014. You can read more about the TISHLIMS project, its history, and what brought Sharon to Substack.
It did used to be easier when the CE providers all had just a few places to list their classes. Now listing with major associations is rarely available, not everyone even has a website for themselves anymore, and many providers rely on social media as their main source of getting the word out (which is sketchy due to the algorithms). It's easy to get lost and not find what you want out there.
I wish the major associations like NCBTMB, AMTA, ABMP & AFMTE would bring back their live CE class calendar listings to help LMTs find more opportunities to learn and grow.