Monica Igoe looks at the increasing opportunities for a healthier career in alternative medicine

Living the perfect antidote to wear and tear of modern living

TIRED of the same old job? Sick of the rat race and anxious to pursue a totally different career?

Perhaps you should consider a career as a holistic therapist. Whether it's reflexology, physical therapy, osteopathy, the Alexander Technique, aromatherapy, or massage, you name it, there's a course somewhere promising to teach you the arts and mysteries of the complementary therapist.

These days, it's not just ageing hippies who seek an alternative to conventional medicine. Many ordinary people are finding in the likes of reflexology or a massage the perfect antidote to the wear and tear of modern living, particularly for problems such as recurring neck and shoulder pains or common backache brought on by hours spent slumped over a desk.

For some people a visit to a holistic therapist can literally transform their health. While others are so impressed that they opt to jack in their steady jobs in order to qualify as a complementary therapist themselves. Over 90% of the students, for example, at The Institute of Physical Therapy and Applied Science, a privately run holistic college in Dublin, are mature students, according to director and founder Anne Mangan. Among them, solicitors, teachers, bankers, nurses and engineers.

For the privilege of going back to college, those attending the three-year physical therapist course cough up some £2,500 a year, while those studying for the Institute's new five-year BSc (Hons.) in osteopathy will pay nearly £5,000 a year. These are no Mickey-mouse night classes either. Serious study is required, which usually means that sooner or later students have to quit the day job to complete their studies on a full-time basis.

So what is it that prompts people who've reached a stage in their lives where you'd reasonably assume they'd be settling into enjoying the fruits of their established career, to go back to the books and at such great personal expense?

According to Mangan, many have always had an interest in working in the health care sector. She herself is an ex-nurse, but frustrated at the stresses and endless administration involved, left for the States where she trained as a medical masseuse and later in the UK as an osteopath.

That was the late eighties and early nineties when alternative medicines were in their infancy in Ireland. Times have moved on. And considering the rewards that a good holistic practitioner can reap today, opting for a career in complementary medicine is no longer quite the brave decision it once was.

Osteopath Anne Mangan explains the structure of the human spine to a patient. Back pain disorders are common but the role of osteopathy in treating such disorders is far less recognised here than in Britain or the USA. [Picture: Fennells]

According to Mangan, while osteopaths and physical therapists work hard, most will only work four days a week, during which time she says they can make an adequate living. "Pupils tend to become very aware of the effects of too much stress and stain, so they don't want to abuse their own bodies." There's nothing new, of course, about holistic medicine. Osteopathy has been in existence since 1894 and is considered by many conventional doctors as a very cost-effective way of treating musculoskeletal problems, such as recurring backache. Meanwhile, other treatments such as massage and aromatherapy have been used down through the centuries.

The difference now, is that they are moving into the mainstream as is evident from the fact that even the public colleges are running courses. One of the pioneers is the Cork College of Commerce, which introduced a two-year course in holistic therapies three years ago. Some 40% of those enrolled are mature students.

"They include nurses who have taken time off or left the profession, women coming back to the workforce after rearing a family, accountants, etc.," - says course co-ordinator Geraldine Kingston. The course teaches reflexology, massage, yoga, sports injury among others modules, and is certified by the International Therapy Educational Council (ITEC). It has pass rate of 60% and there are no fees.

Such is the demand for places that within the space of three years, it has grown from 18 students to 50.

"Almost every gym, hotel, swimming pool, beauty salon has a complementary therapist, while graduates can also start up their own business working from home with very little equipment," Kingston points out. "Graduates can charge £20-25 for an hour-long body massage," she adds.

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