| Swedish Massage Education in the U.S. |
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In the U.S. Swedish massage is the foundational style taught. As a result, seminars and workshops are not usually found for professionals. For the layman not interested in a year's worth of full-time training, check your local adult education outlet, as couple's massage classes are offered in many localities that are a few hours long. As Swedish is the "classic" or baseline style in the U.S., this type of course will typically be introducing Swedish massage. For those interested in possibly obtaining professional level training, there is a good article by Sue Painter at Massage Magazine about choosing a massage school: http://www.massagemag.com/Magazine/2006/issue120/Schools.php Be aware, as you find listings on websites, that the right school for you might not have paid for a listing on that website! There are different kinds of schools out there. It used to be that most massage schools were independently owned, but these have been economically challenged in recent years. Some have gone out of business, some have been bought by national chains. Many community colleges have added massage programs. This can be both good and bad. I went to a community college for my initial training. It was much cheaper than a private massage school would have been, so I did not need to go into debt to get training. Although I realized that I would not have a "name" school on my resume (which can impact whether some group practices will be interested in interviewing you), and would not get the same quality of exposure to other modalities, I rationalized that with the money I saved, I could attend a number of good workshops after I was licensed and working. This has turned out to be true. Another advantage I found was that the community college I attended had programs for nursing and several other allied health professions. This meant that the costs of providing basic anatomy training were spread over several programs, and I was able to study on cadavers in my anatomy class. This is often not available to students at schools that only teach massage. |

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