What are good reasons to learn Thai Massage?
There are many reasons why people are interested in Thai Massage training. They are often quite different from other professions.
In many professions, the considerations might include some of the following:
- How much money can I make?
- Is there room for advancement?
- What are the benefits?
- What about job security in this profession?
- How is the job market in this area?
Learning Thai Massage is most likely based on different considerations. Often there is a sense of calling, an inspiration, a desire to do something holistic, something truly useful.
In many professions, even if there is a beneficial result somewhere down the line, you often don’t see these results directly.
But in Thai Massage, you see the results immediately while you are working with a client:
7 Reasons why Thai Massage will inspire you
Thai Massage will always be in demand
In many professions, there is an unstoppable path toward automation, artificial intelligence, and robotic work.
Robots are building cars and cleaning homes. Articles are written by chatGPT. Bots are talking to you on customer service calls, and some cars are driving themselves. Many job functions can and will be gradually replaced by automation and AI.
But none of these developments can ever replace the human touch, the empathy and intuition of a good therapist, and the healing energy of a wonderful Thai Massage session.
Thai Massage is a totally holistic work, it is creative, and based on human interaction. It provides inspiration to the therapist and healing and bliss to the client.
It can never be replaced by automation or AI, and the demand has been steadily growing for years.
The flexibility of Thai Massage
Oil massage styles like Swedish massage are mostly used in one way. The therapist provides sessions in a professional setting.
Thai Massage, however, is much more flexible. Let’s look at the ways it can be used:
The bottom line is that you can learn Thai Massage and use it in many different ways. This gives you more options and flexibility.
Western thinking about massage therapy
In the Western world, therapists tend to look at the scientific basis of massage therapy. They sometimes refer to massage as a pain-management system or as a medical massage.
This reflects the attitude in Western countries that everything has to be scientifically proven and accepted by the medical establishment in order to be valid.
The eastern approach to Thai Massage
Science-based massage is not much of a topic in Thailand. Instead, the emphasis is more on therapists enjoying what they are doing and clients loving what they are receiving.
There, the social and cultural aspects of Thai Massage are more important than the science, the rules, and the laws. Thais love to have fun. They value human interaction, and therapists will often chat with you and ask about your life.
In Thailand, massage is part of the culture, it is part of social interaction, a way to enjoy yourself and even to meet people.
Scientific and human elements of Thai Massage
In spite of the Western tendency to look for scientific evidence and explanations, it is quite obvious that no healing method is purely scientific. There are many other components:
This even includes medical doctors. It is a well-known fact that many people go to a doctor, and they feel better even if all they get is a sugar pill. This is known as the placebo effect.
There are scientific elements in Thai Massage like anatomical knowledge, but they are in a supporting role. They are not the core of this healing art.
The art in Thai Massage and the pleasure of helping others
There are human and energetic elements that are essential for healing work. Without them, Thai Massage would just be a mechanical process of moving body parts around which doesn’t feel good and will definitely not land clients in ‘Thai Massage heaven.’
Thai Massage is more art than science.
It doesn’t just come from the technical skills of the therapists, but also from their hearts, their energy, and their desire to help others.
Sure, you make money with this work. But there is a satisfaction that comes from helping others that cannot be expressed in financial terms. It gives your life purpose and meaning.
Making others happy, helping them to relax deeply and improve all kinds of conditions is a reward in itself.
The fun and enjoyment of learning Thai Massage
Learning Thai Massage is not just learning how to do a job and making money with it. That’s of course part of it, but it is not all. What else is there?
It is a process of discovery. It is exciting and rewarding. You learn to interact with your client’s body in a way that pain disappears, energy harmonizes, and well-being manifests.
Every new technique that you learn produces new and sometimes amazing results.
You don’t just help your clients, but your own body becomes healthier and more flexible.
After a session, you have the satisfaction to see that you truly helped another person. You feel that you are part of something bigger, something holistic, something with a purpose. Your client is happy and you are happy.
Scientific versus creative and inspired vocations
Some professions are scientifically oriented, like math, physics, accounting, engineering, or the aerospace industry.
Then there is a different kind of professions – like yoga teachers, dancers, poets, singers, writers, musicians, and massage therapists, for example. They rely more on creative or artistic expression, feeling, energetic awareness, and inspiration.
Naturally, Thai Massage therapists need to be very skilled with their techniques, but that alone will not make them good therapists without the human, holistic and creative elements.
How Thai Massage therapists use their intuition
Over time and with lots of practice, your intuition will naturally develop and become more fine-tuned. You will feel and know things about your clients that you had no rational way of knowing. It is like developing a sixth sense.
When working with many clients, you will learn to not just do something with your hands, but to sense something with them, to receive information through them from your client’s body.
You could call intuition the ‘unconscious language of the soul’. In some cases, you can get better answers from your intuition than from a scientific analysis.
It’s a matter of trusting your feelings and your intuition without trying to analyze everything only with your mind.
By combining excellent technical skills with well-honed intuitive skills and the desire to help others, you have a guaranteed success recipe for your Thai Massage career, and also a source of inspiration, enthusiasm, and satisfaction in your life.
The process for learning Thai Massage
There are several aspects to learning Thai Massage.
- Naturally, technique is an important element.
- An understanding of what is happening in the client’s body is a second element.
- The third aspect consists of developing good communication skills, intuition, sensitivity, a good sense of touch, and energy awareness.
- The fourth element is to see the value of helping others, to develop a passion for healing arts, and to enjoy the process.
Thai Massage is a holistic system. It addresses all aspects of being by seeing the body and its energy as a whole integrated system. It helps the client to feel and get better, and it helps therapists to be healthy in body and mind, enthusiastic about their work, and inspired by it.
At Thai Healing Massage Academy, we train our students as holistic therapists and we make the learning process interesting, enjoyable, and fun. Here is where you can learn more:
The author, Shama Kern, is the founder of Thai Healing Massage Academy. He has been practicing and teaching Thai Massage for over two decades, and he is the creator of 20 Thai Massage online training courses.