Policy of allowing clients of the student clinic to select the gender

by Adam
(Wheeling, IL)

I am the program director for the The School of Massage Therapy at SOLEX Medical Academy in Wheeling Illinois. When I first took over the program, the school had previously followed a policy of allowing clients of the student teaching clinic to select the gender of the therapists.

I ended this practice immediately. I can empathize with specific reasons a client might have for requesting a therapist but enabling this policy would have thrown fuel to the fire of ostracizing male therapists from the opportunities to work on a variety of clinic participants.

One male client who came in was more than uncomfortable when his male therapist greeted him before the treatment. The client's treatments at other massage schools allowed him the choice of selecting his therapist. Our clinic supervisor informed him of the policy and he reluctantly accepted. By the end of the session he was so impressed that he requested the same therapist for his next session (which we did not honor because of the policy... he had no problem with his next therapist who happened to be a woman).

While stereotypes and stigmas will remain in our field, the tolerance and acceptance of male therapists improves on a daily basis.

The School of Massage Therapy at SOLEX Medical Academy, Wheeling, IL
- http://massage.solex.edu/