Open letter to new Reflexologists and Massage Therapists everywhere

Dear Newly Qualified Therapist.

I just wanted to say to you that you may be feeling a bit nervous right now. You’ve got your certificate saying you’ve passed your course, but now what? Now you have to convert your qualification into a sustainable therapy business. You need clients, fast. You need to set up a way for people to find you, book you and pay you. You suddenly need to know how to write copy for your website, become some kind of marketing guru, become the master of speedy towel folding and be a branding expert. More or less overnight!

After the initial elation of getting your wings, you might have a crisis of confidence. I know I sat on my sofa for about 3 weeks and watched endless episodes of Endeavour ( the prequel to Inspector Morse) whilst quietly quaking under a blanket. I wasn’t quite sure HOW to turn my qualification into a business. I worried that people might not like my treatments, that I shouldn’t charge as much as experienced therapists, that it might not work out. Or worse, someone would come to me and ask me a question that I didn’t know how to answer. Or they’d present with something that was on the contraindications list and how would I be brave enough to turn them away?

Amongst all this ‘what-if’ing I started doubting my own abilities. I thought my treatments wouldn’t be enough. I thought that I needed to provide a distinction standard treatment, every time or else people wouldn’t rebook! Looking back, I now realise that my treatments absolutely were enough. In the same way, your treatments are enough. You are good enough. You know what you’re doing. You have a piece of paper to prove that. You don’t have to provide a world-class, distinction standard treatment every time.

What you do need to do is to make your client feel safe, secure, comfortable. Comforted. Nurtured. You need them to feel that they’re in safe hands. That you can hold space for them as they step away from the stresses of everyday life. They’re more than likely not going to know whether you’ve done your moves in the right order. As long as you remember to massage both legs or do reflexology on both feet they will be happy. They need to feel that they can trust you implicitly. They need your warmth, your humanity, not some robotic, one size fits all treatment.

So relax a little. Listen to what the clients need. Give them that. Charge what you’re worth (it’s more than you think!) and believe in yourself. You can do this!