June 23rd, 2007 Julie Onofrio
By Carl Nelson
Ralph Stephens in the Massage Today, March-July 2002, series of articles entitled Massage Education Failing stated, “Seventeen years ago (in 1985), there were about 50 massage schools in the entire country.
From Martin Ashley, Massage: A Career at Your Fingertips (Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1992; Carmel, NY: Enterprise Publishing, 2nd Edition, 1995; 3rd Edition, 1999; 4th Edition, 2003), the number of massage schools in the USA is listed as 190 in
May 1991, as 316 in January 1995, as 572 in December 1998, and as 875 in June 2002.
From the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals website — www.massagetherapy.com/careers/training.php (the most comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date state-by-state Internet listing) In November 2004 I counted a total 1346 massage schools in the entire 50 states ranging from one in Wyoming to 232 in California. In September 2006 I counted 262 in California. From the Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals press release of April 4, 2007 “ The ABMP massage school database peaked at 1582 schools in 2006, but early 2007 survey results showed….to finish reading this article and see the charts with the numbers of massage schools.
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June 23rd, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the confusing things in the massage profession is the definintion of medical massage. Since there isn’t any clear defininiton of what it is or who can do it, the insurance companies are starting to define it for us. Here in WA State Group Health who’s credentialing process is managed by Axia or American Whole Health is one such company who is starting that process.
The isssue is - is medical massage a technique or just the ability to bill insurance companies? Since stress is one of the biggest causes of health issues and a beginning practitioner with 100 hours of massage training can safely do massage for stress reduction, setting educational requirement that are more than this will eliminate those therapists from being able to do medical massage.
Others who work with specific diseases such as cancer and other pathologies most likely need more training to work with these people effectively but there are no set requirements for doing so because we really don’t know how much is needed.
Some groups and associations are calling medical massage a specific technique and a specific method when all one really needs is the ability to do chart notes and fill out a bill correctly and write a report for a doctor or lawyer. I have been billing insurance companies here in Seattle since 1989 when I became a massage therapist after 250 hours of training. I have always been paid and never been questioned as to my credentials. Now we are even able to become providers with HMO’s and PPO’s but for the most part they don’t even pay my cash hourly wage.
So what exactly is medial massage? Who can do it? How do we define medical massage?
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June 20th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
I have been doing massage therapy for 18 years and have been reading the state boards website and everything I can on licensing and legilation issues and I am still not understanding the whole picture.
The thing is that there are two sides to the issue - those who think licensing is necessary to protect the public from harm, end prostitiution and create professional standards.
On the other hand are people who disagree with licensing and what it is doing to the profession. I am in that camp. My resoning for doing so has to do with the way the National Certification Board was created which you can read my version of it from what I saw happening and from what I read in the national magazines at the time about what was happening (I still have the magazines!) Keith Grant sums up most of what I had already suspected in his article on “A review of issues in massage governance”. In summary - there is no proof of harm, there is no proof that massage will reduce prostitution, there is no need for more than 500 hours of education or even 100 for that matter.
The reason why this debate is important is that it is what is and will be affecting every massage therapist at some time in their career. Politics is just about relationships. No one wants to get involved until their toes are being stepped on and then it it usually to late. Politicians, other health care professionals, INSURANCE companies and a small group of AMTA members are defining the profession.
I recently emailed the government regulations committees of all AMTA chapters to ask them about licensing issues in their state and I only got a few replies. I also asked members of my discussion group to let me know what is going on in their state and still only got a few replies. Most do not know what the laws are in their state and don’t really care. They just want to go about their business doing massage. I can’t blame them for wanting to stay out of it because it is soooo confusing and difficult to get two parties with opposing views to agree on anything.
I sometimes think that the two different sides -for and against licensing people - should get together and have a group meeting faciliatated by someone like Marshall Rosenberg (who wrote a book called ‘Non -violent Communication’. The thing we are not doing that he advocates is to talk about what we are needing. Politics tend to bring up the feelings. We get to caught up in the feelings and being heard and needing to be right that we forget or don’t even recognize what the underlying need is. I would surmise that we both have the same underlying needs- the need to be able to build and run a successful massage business.
I don’t know the answers to all of this but I do agree with Keith Grant in that apprenticeship programs are a big part of the answer, That is why I started my first site actually -www.thebodyworker.com was me starting to collect all of the information to create an apprenticeship program. And now that I have seen the results of peer supervision and clinical supervision, I would add that. There are already studies in other professions that show how successful that is in creating practitioners with integrity. I will be doing more writing and research on this very thing.
I am now working on collecting all of the different variations of state licensing scope of practice definintions and it is really scary to see the differences in what a massage therpist can do in one state and not in another.
I also will be looking into what is happening in the unlicensed states - are people having problems practicing and building practices or finding jobs? and what about Minnesota with their Health Freedom Act - is there more prostituition and less quailified massage therapists there?
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June 19th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the questions I got today from someone who was wanting to learn about building a website for their massge practice was “just what does Sitebuildit! offer you” and what is it exactly.
I know it is confusing. It took me a few years to really get it before ordering. It is a webhost that will help take you through the process of building a website - whether it is for your massage practice or you are wanting to develop another informational website or a website to promote other products you are involved with or whatever you might need a website for!
For a massage therapist, it is one of the best deals around. For about $25 per month, you can get hosting for your site, help in brainstorming the best domain name for your site with the brainstorming software, help developing your keyword list that will be used to create your website, an easy to use website builder that teaches you how to make pages that are optimized for the web, teaches you how to submit the sitemaps that SBI automatically create to the search engines, tracks the words that are used by people who find your site, helps you figure out other ways to make money, tracks your traffic results, teaches you to build links to other sites to build traffic, teaches you how to write to build trust with your reader (potential client), has a newsletter function that you can use to collect people’s email addresses and send newsletters as often as you want…. All this and all of the standard website stuff - email boxes, domain name…You can take a look at this chart that compares it to other webhosts or take a look at more of the components on the ordering page.
The thing that I really like about Sitebuildit! is not what it has done for my massage website, but how it has really connected me with my passion- writing- and making money - Google Adsense. If you are wanting to develop other sources of income so that you can work at home, work less, or just want to find something different to do, Sitebuildit! can help you every step of the way. If you don’t know what to do a site on, Sitebuildit! will help you figure that out. It is a matter of finding something that you love to do, love to talk about, love to write about - something that really lights up your face and brings you alive and make it into an infopreneur site or make money with it in one way or another. The possiblities are unlimited. And Sitebuildit! is there to support you all the way with its amazing software, support forums and regular support. With all of the above mentioned tools and manuals - if you are serious about making a living online or working at home - what are you waiting for?
If you order a site through one of the links on this site I will give you one month of my personal email support for free - something I am now charging for ($100 a month). Just email me when you order and let me know what help you need.
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June 19th, 2007 Julie Onofrio
One of the challenges we are faced with as massage therapists is overcoming the idea that the public needs to be protected from massage therapists due to the harm that they can inflict on clients.
I am sure there have been a few cases of peoples conditions being made worse by certain massage therapists, but after reading Keith Grants well researched piece on just this issue it isn’t something that should be influencing licensing. Harm is all in the eyes of the receiver. I personally know 3 highly skilled massage therapists who are licensed and have had claims made against them for doing so-called harm to clients. Licensing does not solve the problem of people doing harm or do anything to protect the public.
I think what some people are afraid of is that massage therapists can just start a business after having 100 hours of training and they are afraid that they have just spent too much time and money on 1000 hour programs and are afraid of the other therapist getting clients.
Hearing about massage therapists who just learned massage out of a book or set up a business without any training brings up some deep emotions of fear and anger and resentment that usually have nothing to do with the fact that anyone can do massage. When we react so strongly to situations or statements it is usually a case of our shadow side acting up. It is usually something about the person making the judgement more than the actual fact that someone with no or little education can be successful in this field.
As Keith points out -Stress is the number one thing that causes disease and that can easily be treated by a massage therapist with 100 hours of training.
I do agree that anyone attempting to treat the conditions or diseases that are caused by stress may need extra training and education but how much really? But that should not be the responsiblity of licensing to determine - it should be the profession that sets up definitions and scope of practice rules so that we can control our own destiny rather than be have it slapped on us by politicians who know nothing about massage other than the 15 minute chair massage they just got from someone outside the capital!
If there were a great need to worry about how much harm massage therapist do, I do not think we would have such cheap liability insurance.
If you haven’t read Keith Grants “A review of Issues in Massage Governance” I highly recommend it! He actually does propose some solutions such as apprenticeship programs as an alternative to licensing issues. (If you don’t know who Keith Grant is he is a noted author at massagetoday.com and a teacher at McKinnon Institute and a leader in licensing and legislation issues in massage)
One of the reasons why I am so passionate about this issue is that I sometimes think wer are creating this issue ourselves. I for one went to massage school in 1987 and had only 250 hours of training. I immediately was able to bill insurance companies and do treatment massage without any problem. I did learn more as I went. As Keith points out there seems to be a direct corelation between the number of hours that schools are offering and the ability to get Federal Grants. I sometimes think the profession is creating all of this just to add hours of training to their schools (more money to their pockets). There are also other disiplines of touch that are being required to go to massage school and learn swedish massage when their work has nothing to do with Swedish massage. Why are they being lumped in with massage regulations when they probably will never effleurage someone.
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