Massage & Bodywork

January | February 2014

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HOW TO WORK WITH A CHIROPRACTOR Chiropractic adjustment also extends the benefits of the massage. I often see patients who have only had massage without adjustment return sooner with similar complaints because the massage relieved the symptoms only temporarily. Indeed, together, massage and chiropractic make a lot of sense. 11% 16% of all adults aged 21 and over visited a chiropractor in 2013. of all adults aged 21 and over visited a massage therapist in 2013. A WIN FOR THE PRACTITIONER NOT A WIN The best-case scenario for the massage therapist is when she rents The worst-case scenario for a room within the chiropractor's office at a reasonable rate. The the therapist is when he works office is clean and professional with a steady flow of massage for an hourly wage, usually clients, both from the therapist's already-established clientele insultingly low, where the and from the chiropractor's patient referrals. The therapist chiropractor sends patients in an sets her own hours, performs her specialty modalities, and endless assembly line for 15-minute sets her own prices and massage session length. It benefits warm-up massages before their the therapist to get referrals from the chiropractor's chiropractic session. In this instance, advertising campaigns and existing patient load. It benefits all the patients try to extend their brief the chiropractor to have the massage therapist move her massage to a half hour or more of deepexisting clientele to the chiropractic office, too. tissue massage, because they feel cheated This is a business-within-a-business scenario, of time. The therapist never gets more where the therapist is an independent contractor. than a couple of minutes between clients The therapist maintains her own records and and he also winds up doing physical therapy liability insurance policies, and provides her modalities because the chiropractor doesn't own equipment and supplies. She does limited want to hire an extra chiropractic assistant. deep tissue and has plenty of time between This scenario usually quickly burns out clients to change sheets, clean the room, set the therapist, who is at risk of overuse injuries up, and reenergize for the next session. due to the constant physical demand, so the Chiropractic patients who receive massage chiropractor is continually hiring fresh graduates pay the massage therapist directly, and from the local massage school (some chiropractors insurance collection or overhead is not a have even opened up their own massage schools). factor. The therapist then pays a percentage As a result, loyal patients never get comfortable of the income to the chiropractor for the with a therapist and therapists never have a chance to room rental and overhead costs. If the become familiar with individual patients' needs. The therapist sees 4–5 massage clients per day, therapist is hired as a part-time employee and gets no that's somewhere around 1,200 hours of unemployment or workers' compensation benefits, and massage per year. At $75 per hour or so, still gets hit with a tax bill at the end of the year. The US that's a good income. The office split Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly wage in would be 60/40 with the office taking this scenario at $18.34. Unfortunately, too many therapists the 40 percent. The US Bureau face these tough challenges. of Labor Statistics puts the mean It doesn't make sense for a chiropractor to cover the annual wage in this scenario for overhead and also pay the therapist at a high rate, but many massage therapists at $39,920. new therapists have unrealistic expectations about making $75 per hour with no overhead just after graduating from massage The average school. It also makes no sense for the chiropractor to allow the number of times therapist to recruit massage clients from the practice and perform adults aged 21 and over visited massage off clinic premises—this can cause the chiropractor to a chiropractor lose income and patient compliance, and build distrust between in 2013. chiropractor and therapist. The average number of times adults aged 21 and over visited a massage Statistics courtesy of ABMP's 2013 National Consumer therapist in 2013. Survey, conducted by Harstad Research. 6.1 4.8 70 massage & bodywork january/february 2014

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