Shiatsu Survey

Shiatsu, paid hobby or profession?  

Shiatsu survey 2012/13

Motivation for undertaking survey;

Having graduated from the British School of Shiatsu-Do in 2012 I had what I think may be a very common question pop into my head. ‘How am I doing’, meaning how was my practice doing. I soon realised that I could not really answer this question as I had nothing to base it against. Of course I knew how I was doing against what I wished for, but I had no idea if my wishes were realistic. Like I imagine lots of other graduates do, I talked to my fellow ex-students to get a sense of how they were doing, but this was unsatisfactory.

I asked the Shiatsu Society, they were really helpful, but bid not really have the information I needed. So I decided to ask the questions myself.

Method;

Using the public facing part of the Shiatsu Society website, I contacted nearly every Shiatsu person who has their e-mail contact on their profile a total of 249 individuals. Asking them to fill in a short online survey. 95 individuals successfully completed the survey, 38.1% of those contacted.

I decided to ask a few simple questions; I wanted to limit the scope of my questions, to not make it an onerous task  and I did not want to pay for a ‘gold’ Survey Monkey account.

The questions were;

1. When did you graduate?
2. On graduation what were your plans/dreams regarding practising? (To treat family and friends only with no charge. To treat part time as an additional income. To (eventually) treat full time as my main income. Wasn't sure)
3. How would you describe your Shiatsu treatment situation at the moment? (I don't treat using Shiatsu at all. I treat family and friends for no charge. I treat part time as an additional income. I treat full time as my only income. A mixture of the above (please say more below))
4. If you describe Shiatsu treatments as an additional income, please say what % of your income it represents in an average month.
5. If you indicated that Shiatsu treatments are part of your income please indicate briefly your other sources of income.
6. If you describe Shiatsu treatments as your full time income please indicate what % of your household income the Shiatsu treatments represents (does someone's financial support make it possible for you to practice).
7. Please say how much you charge for a Shiatsu treatment (if you have a sliding scale please indicate the scale)
8. On average how many paid Shiatsu treatments do you do per month?

I hoped that when taken together the survey questions would offer a quite broad range of answers about the ‘state of play’ in Shiatsu

Results;

On graduation what were your plans/dreams regarding practising?

43.1% answered; To (eventually) treat full time as my main income

45.2% answered; To treat part time as an additional income

2.1% answered;  To treat family and friends only with no charge

2.1% answered; Not sure

How would you describe your Shiatsu treatment situation at the moment?

13% answered; I treat full time as my only income

76% answered: I treat part time as an additional income

3.1% answered; I treat family and friends for no charge

2.1% answered; A mixture of the above

1.1% answered; I don't treat using Shiatsu at all

If you describe Shiatsu treatments as an additional income, please say what % of your income it represents in an average month.

The average for this question over the 95 respondents was 28% of income

If you indicated that Shiatsu treatments are part of your income please indicate briefly your other sources of income.

63 people filled in this question of which 33.3% indicated that they earn the rest of their income from activities which could be described as related to Shiatsu. From teaching Shiatsu, Qi gong, Yoga etc to acupuncture. The rest varied greatly.

If you describe Shiatsu treatments as your full time income please indicate what % of your household income the Shiatsu treatments represents (does someone's financial support make it possible for you to practice)

Of the 11 people who filled in this question the average was 55% of household income.

Please say how much you charge for a Shiatsu treatment (if you have a sliding scale please indicate the scale)

The average lower amount was £35, the higher was £41.

On average how many paid Shiatsu treatments do you do per month?

The average number was 19 per month, however if one takes away the few outliers who have high numbers this drops to 16.

  

Outliers;

Of the 95 respondents there were 16 individuals (16.9%) who stood out and therefore could be considered outliers to the main body of the group. These individuals see a far higher number of clients per month than the main group and therefore had a much higher income. Below I have shown the gross average income from Shiatsu, both with and without the outliers included.

Average gross pay lower level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers included 

£603 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers included 

£759 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale with the 16 high earning outliers excluded

£347 per month

Average gross pay higher level of sliding scale of the 16 outliers

£1,806 per month

Conclusions

This survey was of practitioners who have remained registered with the Shiatsu Society, and as such may be seen to be picking up the most active shiatsu graduates. It is not a survey of all graduates of Shiatsu schools, of which there are many, many more.

I wanted to ask questions to allow myself and others to measure how we are doing, to have a guide to what’s happening within the Shiatsu world. I wanted to know the average number of treatments, average charge per treatment for the average Shiatsu person.

It’s a sometimes difficult emotional process, coming close to graduation and after to manage expectations. My hope is that this will help.

It seems clear that Shiatsu can offer an OK part time income (£347) to most practitioners and to a few a reasonable full time income (£1,806). It’s interesting to note that of the 16 higher earners 50% identified themselves as being Shiatsu teachers. This may have implications for teachers within schools managing students’ expectations. It’s clear that their Shiatsu experience is not the norm.

So paid hobby or profession? I don’t think it’s for me to say, but I think it’s an interesting question.