Massage Schools in Nevada: Education is the Foundation
Las Vegas and Henderson rank in the top 10 metropolitan areas for the most Massage Therapists employed. Massage Schools in Las Vegas and Henderson that fill your education requirement can be found easily. Affordable housing markets, amazing restaurants and entertainment venues add to the allure of this bustling city.
Reno offers several massage school options and ample employers. Reno also offers access to some of the best outdoor recreation in the country, Lake Tahoe. Skiing, hiking, mountain biking, hunting, off roading, kayaking, boating, camping and so much more. All of this and an affordable cost of living index has made Reno a sought after destination for many.
Completing a Massage Therapy program in Nevada is a step required by the Nevada State Board of Massage Therapy. The programs must be 500 hours and recognized by the Board. To be recognized by the Board a program will be approved by the Nevada Commission on Postsecondary Education or housed in a public or private college in any state. The Nevada Board of Massage Therapy keeps a list of non-approved Massage Therapy schools. Check the list before enrolling (http://massagetherapy.nv.gov/massagetherapy.nv.gov/Schools_CE_NotApprovedNevada(1).pdf)
There are additional steps toward attaining a Massage Therapist license in Nevada. Education is your foundation.
More on the Massage Therapy Schools in Nevada
Nevada has basic standards in place for massage therapy schools but allows room for innovation. One will find in-state programs as short as 500 hours. It is not uncommon, though, for programs to offer 600, 750 — even upwards of 1,000 — hours of initial coursework. The program may simultaneously be preparing students for licensure in other states or for national board certification.
Nevada has a tradition of accepting different types of bodywork program, but in 2017, there are proposed regulations to create new license categories. A person could still enter the bodywork profession on the strength of his or her structural integration training, but might do so under a different title.
Program Approvals and Minimum Standards
Sponsoring institutions span the gamut, from stand-alone massage therapy schools to programs that are offered under the auspices of the community college system. The Nevada Board can accept education on the basis of approval at the institutional level by accepted governmental agencies. The school may be 1) accredited as a college in Nevada or any other state or 2) approved by the Commission on Post-Secondary Education; the latter is a Nevada agency charged with regulating private post-secondary schools such as vocational schools. The Board also has provisions in place to consider directly approving education from a school that has not previously been accepted.
Nevada statute identifies minimum standards for private institutions that are seeking licensure as massage therapy schools. They must admit only adults 18 years of age or older. They must conduct coursework in-person as opposed to online. They must ensure that practice by students is appropriately supervised. If the school includes a student clinic or any other fieldwork experiences where students practice on members of the general public (as opposed to practicing only on fellow students or staff members) the experience shall not begin until such time as the student has completed coursework in anatomy and physiology, hygiene and first aid, law and ethics, and massage. The student will have completed a minimum of 25 hours of practice on fellow students or staff members before beginning clinic practice. Massage therapy schools may offer advanced programs as well as basic ones, but must limit enrollment to individuals who have completed basic programs or who have accrued at least two years of consecutive experience. Additionally, massage schools must meet other more general requirements for quality and transparency that are required of any state-licensed private post-secondary school.
Nevada Program Options
Nevada offers varied options. The curriculum may include electives. One Nevada massage therapy school, for example, boasts oncology massage, pregnancy and infancy massage, lomi lomi, cupping, shamanic massage, quantum light energy healing, and beginning through advanced reflexolgy coursework among the options.
Schools do indeed offer advanced programs, as allowable under state code. One Nevada school, for instance, allows successful students to continue on for an additional 10 weeks beyond the basics, accruing 200+ hours in areas such as myokinetic technique and rehabilitative protocols. A state-licensed school may boast a track that is designated as master level, but students will need to successfully complete the more basic portion of the course before formally enrolling in the advanced program.
In some cases, a student will come away with a degree as opposed to a certificate. A student who opts for an associate’s degree will of course spend longer in school but may have the opportunity to pursue valuable career-building coursework such as a block of classes in business and entrepreneurship.
Students can find programs that qualify them for licensure in bordering states. One Nevada school, for example, notes that it is license-qualifying in Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Prospective students may want to consider institutional or programmatic accreditations. The Post-Secondary Commission notes that accreditation by organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education is crucial for degree-granting institutions but is not always so for vocational schools. Nonetheless accreditation can confer advantages. Nevada schools may hold programmatic accreditation through the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) or hold accreditation through other regulatory bodies such as the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET).
Students who wish to pursue adjunct national board certification would do well to pursue programs that have been reviewed and assigned examination codes by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, or NCBTMB. Nevada boasts six assigned schools; four of them are located in Las Vegas. Massage therapists who seek board certification will eventually need 750 hours of education, but it does not need to all come from the same school.
Massage Therapist Career Outlook and Average Salary
The Nevada massage therapy occupation has been projected to see 20.5% growth over the course of the 2014 to 2024 decade.
Nevada massage therapists make a mean wage of $13.44 an hour. The median is $10.10, but actual wages are highly variable. Those at the 10th percentile make $7.99 an hour while those at the 90th percentile make fully $22.48. Location within Nevada accounts for only a small portion of the range. The highest median earnings are in a nonmetropolitan part of the state — this is not unusual in the world of massages therapy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported the following medians:
- Las Vegas/ Henderson/ Paradise area: $10.41
- Reno $8.66
- South Nevada nonmetropolitan area: $13.60
The big city offers opportunity for those who have proved themselves, or are well prepared to do so. Those at the high end of the wage scale (75th and 90th percentiles) make more in the Las Vegas area than in the southern nonmetropolitan area. Here the 75th percentile wage is $17.14; the 90th percentile wage, $22.90.
Find a Massage Therapy School in Nevada
*The majority of Massage Schools in Nevada will be found in Las Vegas, Reno and Carson City