Healing Hands and New Horizons: Exploring Massage Therapy Education

Meet the Host: Tammy J. Cox, Director of Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc.

Ready to transform your future with your own two hands? Tammy Cox, Director of Reflections of Health School of Massage, reveals how a seven-month education program can launch you into a career earning $65-70 per hour with unmatched flexibility and independence.

After escaping her own career frustrations as a single mother of six, Tammy now guides others toward professional transformation through massage therapy education. The school's innovative scheduling—offering weekend, weekday, and weeknight programs—makes certification accessible regardless of your current life commitments. Each program delivers the 22 weekly hours of instruction needed to prepare for licensing exams while accommodating students' diverse needs.

What sets massage therapy apart is its remarkable versatility. Once licensed, therapists can specialize in sports massage, medical applications, lymphatic drainage, oncology support, geriatric care, or even infant massage. "We believe that massage therapy should begin at birth and go all the way to end of life," Tammy explains, highlighting the profession's lifelong relevance. With continuing education requirements of just 24 hours every two years in Tennessee, maintaining your credentials is manageable while continually expanding your expertise.

Visit ReflectionsOfHealth.com or call 423-804-3067 to schedule your consultation today!

To learn more about Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc. visit:
https://www.ReflectionsofHealth.com
Reflections of Health School of Massage, Inc.
1604 Lamons Ln, Ste 207a
Johnson City, TN 37604
423-804-3067

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Reflections of Health Massage
School Podcast, where healinghands become powerful careers.
Whether you're looking toescape the 9-to-5 grind, earn
extra income during college orfinally get paid for all those
family shoulder rubs, massagetherapy could be your next big
move.
Join us as we explore the powerof touch, the path to purpose,

(00:26):
and why starting your journey inmassage therapy might be the
smartest decision you'll evermake.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome everyone.
I'm Skip Monty, co-host andproducer here in the studio with
Ms Tammy Cox, Director ofReflections of Health School of
Massage.
Tammy, how's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
It's going great, skip, thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, we're thrilled to have you here and I'm very
curious to learn all about whatyou do.
So over the years, Tammy,you've grown quite a business.
Quite a few of our listenersmay not be familiar with your
full journey, so let's take itfrom the top.
Could you share a littlebackground about your company
and about what you do?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Absolutely so.
Reflections of Health Schooland Massage has been in Johnson
City since 2004.
I actually attended in 2010.
We are here to educate people,to let them know what they need
to know to pass the MBLEX andthat is the National State Board

(01:32):
test, and then from there yougo to apply for your licensure
and start working.
But we're here to educatepeople in the massage therapy
field and get the backgroundthat they need to know.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Absolutely Great.
How long does it take tocomplete certification?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
We have three separate programs.
Actually.
We have a weekend, a weekdayand a weeknight, and that gives
everybody a variety of what theycan choose from, depending upon
what's going on in their lifeand their schedule.
The programs are approximately30 weeks or seven months.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Seven months, and so I assume that if you do the
weekend program that it's moreintense.
I guess it's condensed.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
It's a little more condensed.
You've got three days versusfour days.
The weekday and the weeknightprograms are Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, and thenthe weekend is Friday, Saturday,
Sunday.
So there's still 22 hours inthe weekday or weeknight.
So it's 22 hours a week orweekend.
Oh, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, it does, and that's super convenient for
because you know, people I'msure have day jobs that they're
trying to get out of to be ableto you know, and a lot of people
are coming to school for thatvery reason.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
They're tired of the nine to five working for someone
else.
You can become an independentcontractor as a massage
therapist.
It's helped a lot of people outof places that they just didn't
want to be anymore.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, are there different types?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
of massage that you train for?
Well, there is.
There's different avenues thatyou can go down in this field.
After you graduate, of course,you take CEs and get your
license.
That continuing education willbe whatever you choose.
It could be sports massage,medical massage.
You could study lymphaticmassage, oncology massage,

(03:31):
geriatric massage.
We even have infant massagebecause we believe that the
massage therapy should begin atbirth and go all the way to end
of life.
At birth and go all the way toend of life.
So it has so many benefits frombirth to end of life with the

(03:52):
body that we'll go into inanother podcast, maybe talking
about the benefits.
Okay, Awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
So the continuing education.
What are the requirements?
You have to do so many of thosea year, or every five years.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, it's different in the different states.
Here in Tennessee, we have tohave 24 hours of continuing
education every two years.
Four of them consist of twohours of law and two hours of
ethics for massage therapy.
The rest of it you can choosewhatever you want.
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
So that's, not bad.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, it's not bad.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Wow, very cool.
Well, tammy, when you're notbusy running a school, what do
you like to do for fun?
Do you have any hobbies?

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Well, I do have hobbies, but I'm usually here at
school With the programs goingon.
It seems like it's seven days aweek.
But that's okay because I lovewhat I do and I have a passion
of helping people and I had theopportunity to get out of a spot
.
You know, I had six childrenand a single mom.

(04:58):
I needed a job.
I didn't know what I wanted todo other than you know, I was
interested in massage.
I have been all my life.
So I found the school here inJohnson City and at that time
John and Karen Kessner owned it.
They're the founders.
It was an investment in myselfbecause when I came in to talk

(05:19):
to John I thought, wow, that's alot of money.
But you've got to look at itthis way it may be a lot of
money, but if you put that moneytoward yourself and you say,
hey, I'm worth this and I can dothis and it's not going to take
that long.
You know, seven months is ashort span when you're going for

(05:41):
an education, to get a license.
But I made that choice and I'mso glad that I did because I did
my own schedule.
You know, I could work aroundthe kids and when I needed to
have that job there made theincome that I needed to make to
support the family.

(06:01):
So it's something that if you'vegot a job, you can do on the
side, or you can let this beyour main job.
Or you can let this be yourmain job.
Let's say you're in high schooland you're getting ready to
graduate and you don't know whatyou wanna do.
You just don't know if youwanna go to college, what field

(06:23):
that you want to work in.
If you've ever consideredmassage therapy, within seven
months you could graduate here,get you a job, start having the
income and then if you decidethat you want to go to college,
then you've got that income andon average you're making $65 to

(06:44):
$70 an hour as an independentcontractor.
So you could take those fundsand pay for your college.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, and you know I'm sure another option too is
eventually, if you enjoy massageas much as you do, that maybe
opening your own studio or youknow that's correct.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
You have those options.
Someone else, because there'sso many people as a school.
People call in and say, tammy,do you have any graduates?
Because we're in desperate needof a massage therapist.
We have so many people callinghere looking for therapists and

(07:27):
the demand is there.
We just need more therapistsout there working.
So I was saying is that a lotof people call here asking if we
have a therapist and as aschool we can't actually place
people.
We can put it on our website,which we do.
We have job listings on ourwebsite and right now there's
about 20 different people,whether it's a chiropractor, a

(07:49):
spa, you know, just someone withtheir own business needing help
because they're overworked andthey can't fulfill the demand
that's coming in.
They need somebody to help themout with their own business.
The jobs are there.
We just want to help people getthe education to become
licensed.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
There you go.
Well, you kind of answered thisalready, but you're extremely
busy.
It's like you said, seems likeit's seven days a week.
I'm sure it is, but veryrewarding as based on what
you're saying.
So you're incredibly busy, but,in your own words, why are you
doing this?

Speaker 3 (08:24):
because I want to help people, because it helped
me out of a spot and I enjoyedbeing a massage therapist.
So many people would come to meand after the massage it's like
wow, I feel so much better andthat really helped me to enjoy

(08:48):
that portion of the job.
But then, once I became anowner and director of the school
, I see that I can help peoplethat were in spots financially
or just wanted somethingdifferent with their life.
So I'm here to help othersbecome what they want to be.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Very cool and even better.
I mean, you're not only helpingpeople, but you're helping
people to help people.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes.
That's very cool and that's thejoy of it.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Absolutely.
Well, tammy, can't tell you howmuch I've enjoyed talking with
you today, and we'll catch youin the next episode where we'll
dive into some frequently askedquestions about massage.
That sounds great, all right?
Well, tammy, thanks so much andhope you have a great rest of
the day.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Thank you Think you've got the touch, let's make
it official.
Call or text 423-804-3067 toschedule your tour and
consultation or visit.
Reflections of healthcom.
Your future could be just onemassage away and, let's be

(10:00):
honest, being everyone'sfavorite stress reliever isn't a
bad gig.