minimum requirements for professional aromatherapy massage?

[ksr]

I have just finished my ITEC A&P & Massage course and am interested to know what it would take to be able to offer Aromatherapy Massage professionally?

There seems to be various posts on here some saying that a VTCT (or whatever it is?) certificate will be enough to be able to get insured (though it was being discussed whether you would only be able to use limited number of oils?)

I've also seen a discussion about it being possible to be insured to use pre-blended oils with only the massage qualification. Obviously there are the questions about whether this is safe/ethical if you have not learnt sufficently about the properties of each oil in the blends you are using?

Any advice anyone could give me on either a shorter/cheaper course than the ITEC Aromatherapy Diploma that would allow you to be able to practise aromatherapy massage (or even a non-certified course that would give you some education about the oils to only use professionally in pre-blends). I am based in Central Scotland, but able to travel. And any info about insurance options/restrictions with different companies with/without different qualifications would be very much appreciated.

Don't get me wrong, in an ideal world, I would love to be able to do huge long expensive courses in all of this stuff, but I kind of need to be able to get to a stage where I can start offering massage professionally, so that i can see if i like it/can make money doing it etc. before continuing with more extensive learning.

If I don't need to use the money/study time to do an aromatherapy qualification, and can just get insured to use pre-blends, it means I can do courses in Indian Head Massage, Hot Stone Therapy etc. which I have more of a personal interest in.

Thanks!
Lesley

 

[oupnzuxz]

Hi Lesley,
I can't answer all your questions unfortunately, as I don't know the answers! But the VTCT, or VCTC, can never remember which way round it is! I did, so with regards to being limited in which oils you can use, you're not. You study about 25 (think it may be 30 now) oils in depth, but can still use any others as well, but the setones have to be used several times within your case studies. Think it's possibly a bit cheaper than the ITEC, but still quite long. I'm sure there are short intensive courses, but think they are probably likely to be expensive. Things like Hot Stone are normally just a day or two, so you can add that onto your list of treatments fairly quickly. Perhaps you could do a few one and two day courses so you can get going a bit more, and study the aromatherapy alongside?

Keep us posted as to how you get on.

Dragonfly16

 

[RaeRae]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
I have actually just done a hot stones course, and it was only a one day workshop but I really enjoyed it and feel it is what I need to feel confident about what i can offer clients as a therapist.
I think I'm going to do some more short ones - probably Indian Head Massage and Facials and leave aromatherapy out of the mix for the time being.
Especially since I found out that there are insurance companies that are happy to let you use pre-blends without any aromatherapy qualifications.
Thanks for the info though!
Lesley