Clinical Massage Therapy

The programme is 600 clock hours and can be completed in as little as nine months. Soma runs a day schedule and an evening schedule, and the tuition is identical on both. Enrolment takes place by appointment throughout the year, so there is no single intake date.

Teaching is split between classroom and laboratory work and supervised clinical practice. The clinical sequence runs through Clinical Integration 1–4, then Clinical Education 1–3: a competency clinic, preparation for working with the public, and finally the on-campus Teaching Clinic and an externship. The catalog notes that students cover their own travel to externship sites.

The passing grade for each course and for the complete course of study is 70 per cent. Students must complete the programme within 125 per cent of its published length, measured in weeks.

Soma publishes a single figure: the total tuition for students on either the day or the evening schedule is $14,315, and there is no registration fee. Deposits and down payments become part of the tuition rather than sitting on top of it.

Unusually, that price already covers your route to practising: lotions, student professional liability insurance, the graduation ceremony, and initial massage therapy licensure in Illinois — one sitting of the MBLEx, one fingerprinting, and the Illinois State licensing fee.

Outside the tuition, Soma says students can expect to spend about $359 on scrubs, books, linens and supplies the School does not provide. A massage table is not required. That $359 is an estimate of what you buy elsewhere, not a charge from the School, which is why it sits outside the published total here.

Financial aid is available to those who qualify. Soma maintains a Financial Aid Office that tailors financing to the applicant, participates in federal student aid, and offers non-interest-bearing TuitionFlex payment plans through Education Loan Services. The School may also award up to $2,100 under the Soma Admissions Tuition Grant to eligible diploma candidates who meet its published conditions. Veterans’ educational benefits are accepted, and Soma publishes a Net Price Calculator on its site.

Total tuition $14,315 on either schedule, with no registration fee; about $359 more for supplies bought elsewhere.

The catalog states that a Clinical Massage Therapy diploma from Soma prepares students to be employed as massage therapists providing treatments in spas, salons, health and fitness clubs, resorts, medical and chiropractic offices, hospitals, and in sports massage for amateur and professional teams and athletes. It adds that many graduates choose self-employment and establish private practices.

Graduates are qualified to apply for municipal and most state licensing, and are eligible for certification by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. Because one sitting of the MBLEx and the Illinois licensing fee are inside the tuition, the licensure step is funded before you graduate rather than becoming a cost you meet afterwards.

Soma is a school member of the American Massage Therapy Association, runs career development support, and gives graduates lifetime course-auditing privileges so they can refresh technique as their practice changes. Students and graduate volunteers provided over 160 free sports massage treatments to runners at the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Expect a science-led programme. Anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and pathology are taught as named courses in their own right, and the clinical massage sequence builds on them rather than running in parallel. Expect a 70 per cent passing grade on every course and on the programme as a whole.

Expect to treat real clients before you finish. The Teaching Clinic puts students in front of the public under faculty supervision, and the externship is arranged through a clinical affiliation agreement — you cover your own travel to the site.

Expect a downtown campus rather than a suburban one: Soma is on South Michigan Avenue in the middle of Chicago’s academic and cultural corridor, a short walk from Grant Park and the Art Institute, and reachable on every CTA rapid transit line. Expect to buy your own scrubs, books and linens — about $359 — but not a massage table.