On February 24, 2017  The Healing Arts Center will sponsor a "town hall" meeting bringing together experienced players in the massage therapy industry from across the St. Louis region for the first time ever.  All massage professionals, students, spa and clinic owners and managers are invited to attend this unique event.  A "shameless networking event" will be held immediately afterward with food and beverages being served.  All attendees are welcome to pass out business cards, work the room or just have fun as they are so inclined.  

Because space is limited, we are requiring pre-registration and registered participants will receive an on-line pass through the HAC website.  (See the registration button below). 

I have been saying it for nearly two years now: given the extreme labor shortage of massage therapists in Missouri and elsewhere right now, we cannot afford to lose another massage school in this region. Today, we lost the most important sister school in St. Louis, second only to The Healing Arts Center in terms of student body size, value and quality.  Missouri College suddenly and without notice closed its doors this afternoon.  The past five years has seen a massacre of trade schools.  Some deserved to die, but not one of the students attending any of those schools deserved to have what came next for them.  Furthermore, with companies like Massage Envy reporting an immediate need for 150 or more massage therapists in St. Louis, right this minute, the Missouri College closure is going to put the squeeze on an already choking labor market.  Clients will go without treatment and, eventually, stop trying to book appointments.  It is even possible that massage therapy as a modality could fall out of favor in the region as it becomes increasingly hard to be seen at a clinic or spa.  People will simply turn to other sources of stress and pain relief.  We could be facing a cascading effect that takes down many businesses that rely on this education to train a highly specialized work-force.  The point is we all live in a very large ocean of abundance.  There are no real competitors here.  The real threat is making the massage therapy profession so unappealing that no wants to join it regardless of the name on the school sweatshirt.  The Missouri College collapse illustrates how fragile the entire industry is and how current market conditions have everyone's pants around their ankles in preparation for one hell of spanking.