What is CPD and Why is it Important?

In many industries, it’s common for professionals such as ourselves to have to undertake a CPD course, also known as Continued Professional Development. 

 

A CPD course is additional studying and/or training that further aids your skills and knowledge in the field that you work in, in this case, massage therapy. 

 

Crucial to developing your skills, learning new techniques, and expanding your knowledge, CPD courses can greatly benefit both of us as therapists and clients in several ways and there’s usually a basic amount of CPD training to undertake depending on the profession you work in. 

The choice of CPD course that you enrol on to is entirely up to you. It’s important that you choose a course that benefits your preferred learning techniques, specialist skills, or chosen goal. It’s a common misconception that employers send their employees on specific courses, which isn’t usually the case at all. If, however, several employees are interested in one subject, then they may all enrol on the same course if it brings benefit to the workplace. 

One of the many fantastic things that CPD courses offer is the flexibility and full freedom to create your own path when it comes to learning and progression. If you work within the massage therapy industry you will understand that new techniques are always being developed. It’s so important to keep up to date with your learning in order to expand your knowledge on the subject. 

 

CPD is a great opportunity to explore the areas of the job that really fascinate us the most and in turn, learn a new skill that we can then use to make our treatments even more effective. 

At Fire & Earth Hinckley, myself and a handful of other therapists recently completed a course in Myofascial Cupping, which we’re now able to offer as a treatment option for some of our clients. 

 

The course was great, and we enjoyed being around other therapists that didn’t necessarily do strictly the same job as myself and colleagues. It gave us all a chance to swap knowledge and methods of treatment that we maybe wouldn’t consider day to day in clinic. 

 

In our next blog we’ll be talking about the different ways that the course has helped us as therapists and what Myofascial Cupping involves for those interested in the technique.