The surprising, rewarding path many career changers are following

Trust in ever-resourceful and adaptable Americans to create opportunities to improve their own lives, and the lives of others, from the shambles of the economy. With unemployment rates still making news, many Americans are finding new ways to make a living, turning layoffs into launch pads for new careers.

That drive to find something new, secure and rewarding is drawing many to the health care industry, where career opportunities are expected to continue growing at double-digit percentages through 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Within the industry, many careers offer a fast track into lucrative, secure jobs with less than four years of education, making them especially appealing to people who are changing careers.

For many, massage therapy tops the list for realizing monetary and spiritual rewards within a manageable time frame. The profession seems a natural fit for career changers. In fact, the average massage therapist is in his or her 40s, and has entered the profession as a second career, according to the American Massage Therapy Association.

Given that profile, a switch from handling baggage in the airline industry to handling humans in massage seemed a natural progression for Birgitta Salomonsson of Streamwood, Ill. Salomonsson, 47, is attending the Cortiva Institute Massage Therapy School in Crystal Lake, Ill.

She actually began massage classes before being laid off from her 15-year job with an international airline. "Both my daughters are in college and independent," Salomonsson says. "I felt it was time for me to look into one of my old dreams. I started evening classes in October and in August I was notified that my office was closing and I was being laid off. The timing was perfect. I was able to change to the 12 months program going daytime instead."

When a reduction in her hours at a retail management job left her with more time on her hands, 28-year-old Beth Mitchell of Lowell, Mass. saw an opportunity to explore something she'd always wanted to do, and break an unhealthy emotional cycle she found she'd fallen into. "I was working, but only part-time," recalls Mitchell, a student at Cortiva's Boston school. "There was one day where I didn't even have the mental, physical or emotional strength to get up and go to that job, nor could I afford financially not to go. I knew I was in the vicious cycle of severe depression. I knew I just didn't want to have that be what the rest of my life was like and I knew I wanted to help people."