Whitney Lowe has written an insightful piece in the Jan/Feb issue of Massage and Bodywork magazine. You can read it all here (full text):

http://www.massageandbodywork.com/Articles/2008/JanFeb2008/TheFutureofMassage.html

I heartily recommend you read the entire article. Whitney has done an excellent job of researching and analyzing the profession of massage therapy. His writing is clear and concise. He begins with an observation about where the massage therapy profession is now:

"In the last few decades, a division developed in the profession between massage as a healthcare modality and massage as a personal care service. The boundaries between these styles are sometimes blurry and practitioners often practice both. However, an increasing number of therapists are choosing to identify with one aspect of the practice over the other. Each style has different professional and educational interests that can either merge or be quite disparate."

Another tidbit that will catch your eye:

"... close to 1,530 massage training programs are currently in operation in the United States. That number is up 7.8 percent over the figures from 2004. It is also notable that while the school numbers were going up, total enrollment went down. The number of students enrolled in or graduating from massage programs declined from 2004 to 2006. Thus today we have a greater number of training programs competing for a declining number of students."

Oh, and in case you thought the massage school community was immune from corporatism, he astutely explains:

"Another influential trend that is likely to continue is corporate ownership of schools, which often entails the purchase of established schools. As a rule, corporations are primarily concerned with efficiency, growth, and financial viability."

So, what do you think? What parts of the future look good to you and what parts concern you? And, how do you like distinguishing massage as a healthcare modality vs. massage as a personal service?