Here is my summary of the things that I have found to be of importance from Keith Eric Grants “A Review of Issues in Massage Governance”

• Most states have licensed massage therapists under practice acts which limit many different types of massage and bodywork especially the ones involving energy work and movement based therapies. This makes people who practice different types of massage be required to study and learn Swedish Massage (and take basic massage school classes) and take a test that may not be related to what they do. A title act can will make it possible for all to practice the type of massage/bodywork that they want.
• There are no clear measurable standards of practice. (I think This also has to do with the fact that the massage and bodywork profession are so diverse it is near impossible to create categories for all.)
• Stress is the number one health issue and massage therapists with 100-150 hours of training are well equiped to treat stress.
• It isn’t necessary to have more hours of training and it has been shown that “practical experience is a prerequisite to effective use of later instruction and to moving knowledge from an academic setting to use in clinical practice”. ( I have always thought that people learn better after they see and work with various conditions and clients.)
• There is no proof of harm being done by massage therapists. Harm is usually used as one of the reasons for needing to license massage.
• There will always be massage therapists who cross the lines and exploit the professional therapeutic relationship. “Consumer protection is not a matter of training but of following the complaints and enforcing disciplinary actions” which most state boards are not equipped to handle.
• There is a direct corelation in the increasing number of hours of training that massage schools offer and the ability for students to get federal funding for massage school. Massage schools are wanting to get more students who can get funding for school and the State boards are responding to the schools lobbying efforts and increasing the requirements of number of hours of education.
• States are just increasing the number of hours needed and not increasing the standards of practice.
• Classroom learning only leads to the students ability to answer test questions adequately and does not show if they can actually apply it to clients/patients.
• “Research indicates that the environment that seems to best able to foster understanding leading to usability has much in common with traditional apprenticeships.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Licensing and Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.