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Most people choose to become a therapist because of the flexible nature of the job and the reward from helping others. I just want to encourage you to think about your practice, what you offer, what attracts clients to you and why should they choose you and keep coming back to you. I also talk later in the article about ‘whole person health’ and about not seeing massage in isolation but as part of a holistic, whole person approach to wellbeing. Do you know what distinguishes your practice style from the one down the street or in the next town? If you don’t, it is likely your potential clients don’t know either. They probably won’t understand the different therapies that you offer and even what they are thought to do. What they will rely on is that you make a difference and help them manage their symptoms. It is commonplace on social media and websites for a therapist to list their courses and qualifications to promote and market themselves. That’s the easier and most logical option to promote your work. Therapists are often caught in the dilemma of describing everything that they do to attract potential clients, however, this can appear as a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’ approach. I often wonder how many different styles of massage there actually are and what the difference is between them, and more importantly, does that matter? Labelling our different therapies is one thing but to be able to know exactly why and how therapies differ in their mechanism of action (how they work) is an entirely different question and one I’d suggest is very difficult to answer. Like any profession, complementary and integrative health practices go through cycles with trending therapies. Therapies may be reinvented with a new name or revived due to interpretation changes or scientific evidence. However, the bottom line is that touch and movement remain the same. Therapists cannot say that changing the name of a therapy or creating a new one offers a different mechanism of action. If therapists don’t know, neither does the general public. While our profession is diverse and offers something for everyone, this diversity can also be a downfall as therapists differ in their approaches, despite having similar qualifications.For clients seeking resolution, referrals and reputation are more important than a therapist’s qualifications and training.