FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Massage as a Career:
• Where do massage therapists work?
Private practice, group practices, chiropractic clinics, multi-disciplinary clinics, sports teams, retreat centers, nursing homes, spas, airports, hospice centers, hospitals….more and more options are created daily!
• How much money can you make?
This really depends on where you work. If you work for another organization there are a variety of splits offered. If you have your own practice you have overhead to take into consideration
Generally massage therapists in this area of the country charge anywhere from $55 to $120 per hour depending on their years in the industry and modalities practiced.
• What does “full time” mean?
On average a full time massage therapists sees 15 – 25 clients per week. It would be very difficulty to see 40 clients per week and stay healthy at the same time. So, you cannot really figure on $55 per hour at 40 clients per week. It’s a pretty number - and unrealistic.
• What are the requirements for licensure in each state?
Nationally, each state varies greatly in their requirement for program hours in order to be licensed. The range nationally is 0 – 1000 hours. In Washington DC and Virginia the minimum hours required is 500 and in Maryland because we are accredited by COMTA the requirement is a minimum of 600 hours. We urge you to investigate other states requirements if you are planning to move in the near future. Contact www.amtamassage.org or www.massagemag.com for specifics.
Professional Training Program:
• How many hours is PMTI’s program?
We offer a 600+ hours program.
• What modalities will I learn?
You will graduate from our program with a solid foundation in Swedish massage and deep tissue techniques. We also feel it is important for a skilled massage therapist to understand the three main types of massage and bodywork techniques and they are: soft-tissue modalities, movement modalities and energy modalities. Therefore, our students are also introduced to a variety of other modalities from which you can take advanced training once you graduate.
• How many hours per week are the classes?
The Academic and Practical classes are once a week for 3.5 hours each. In addition there are clinics, weekend courses and fieldwork courses that are scheduled separately by each student at the beginning of each semester. The hours required for each of those additional courses varies per semester.
• What happens if I miss a class?
Each course has its own make-up policy. Some can be made up by tutoring, some require a written assignment and others have to be made up in actual class time.
• What kind of homework can I expect?
This varies depending on the course – and – you can count on study time for the sciences, at least two hands-on practice sessions per week outside of class and occasional papers to write. Each instructor will give clear guidelines about those expectations at the beginning of their course.
Application and Enrollment Process:
• What does “rolling” admissions mean?
As soon as a complete application is received that applicant is given a number. That number ensures that if they are accepted into the program and have applied early enough they will likely get a space in the classes they have requested. We do not wait until all applications are received to “select” candidates for the program. It’s an open and fair process.
• Are all applicants interviewed?
Once we have received all of the application documents and the admissions committee reviews it for acceptability we set up a one-on-one interview with the applicant and one admissions committee member. It takes about an hour and we discuss a variety of topics including what the applicant’s motivation is for applying to the program. This ensures our students that everyone is screened and sets up the best learning environment based on that process.
• What is your acceptance rate for applicants?
Statistically we accept 85% of the applicants who apply for our program.
• What makes an application “acceptable”?
There a couple of factors that can hold up an applicant from being accepted into the program. Here are a couple of situations that arise occasionally.
No experience either giving a non-professional massage or receiving a professional or non-professional massage. In other words no direct experience with the work they are about to study.
Too many things already on their “plate”. If an applicant works full time and has children and is going for their masters’ degree we would likely recommend they wait until they have sufficient time to devote to their studies here at PMTI.
It’s important to understand that our main goal is the success of the student in completing our program.
• If I have taken some of the coursework before will you transfer credit?
The short answer is – very possibly. Although not every course has the same content depending on the focus of that institution or course, we will look very closely at what you achieved already and consider transferring credit or providing a way to test out of a subject.
• Can you review my transfer documents before I apply to the program?
Document review is a time-intensive process handled by the Director of Education. Because of this we require a student to apply to the program and be accepted before we will review their documents and set up a special program for them.